Recommended Web Browser Configuration

You should optimize your fonts, ensure the URL is always displayed, set your favorite home page, and reload pages only once a session, all basic web browser configurations recommended for most surfers:

  • Fonts. Set the fonts large enough to be seen easily, generally at least point size 12. There are often two settings, one for normal text, and one for old-fashioned typewriter type text that needs each character to take the same amount of space. Set the normal text — perhaps called “Web page font”, “Proportional”, or “Variable width font” — to a modern font like “Arial” or “Times New Roman”. Set the typewriter style text — perhaps called “Plain text font”, “Fixed width font”, or “Monospace” — to “Courier New” or if not available then plain “Courier”.

    • Explorer: Tools / Internet Options / General / Fonts

    Firefox: Tools / Options / General / Fonts & Colors.

  • URL display. Set the browser to display the site’s URL in the top border, so that you can always see the full address of any page you visit.

    • Explorer: View / Toolbars / Address Bar

    Firefox: Right-click on File / Edit bar at the top of window, select “Navigation Toolbar”.

  • Set home page. Set your home page to the Internet site you wish displayed when your browser starts. You can set your home page to your own home page, a search engine site, or a favorite subject page like a sports or gardening site. If you want your first page to start quickly, you should specify a simple page with fewer graphics, or no page at all.

    • Explorer: Tools / Internet Options / General / Home page

    Firefox: Tools / Options / General / Home page

  • Page reloading. Set your browser to use a copy of a web page in your computer’s cache if it is not older than the maximum age specified by the server. Typically a browser will use a cached page throughout one browser session, unless the page is marked with HTML that specifies it be reloaded with some other frequency, such as every time, after one hour, after 24 hours, etc. This can speed up your surfing since it saves the time of reloading the page when it hasn’t changed.

Explorer: Tools / Internet Options / General / Temporary Internet Files / Settings / Every time you start Internet Explorer

Firefox: Automatic setting.

Also see optional browser configurations.