I've been using normal Internet Explorer for quite a while now and the interface gets pretty boring to look at day after day. For the past couple of weeks I've seen a commercial for the new "MSN Explorer" web browser, it looked easy to use and at least something different then IE.

One thing Microsoft should make more clear is that you don't have to have MSN as your internet service provider to use the MSN Explorer program for free. I understood the program was free, but I figured it would be like AOL when I tried to run it and ask me to sign up for the service or pay a lower rate and "bring my own" ISP like you can with AOL.

Setup was very easy; Just download the MSN Explorer setup program that which will take about 20 minutes on a 56k (dial up) connection. It told me to pick "Run this program from it's current location" when I download which actually puts the set up file in my temporary internet files folder and will run setup right after downloading it.

If you have a free Hotmail e-mail address, MSN Passport, or MSN as your ISP you can enter that password and username when you set up the program for the first time. If not then it will ask you a few questions and give you your own free MSN.com e-mail address. You can have up to 9 different accounts for the program that let you customize each account differently with e-mail address's, kids only accounts, layout of your homepage and the look and feel of the program itself.

MSN Explorer is laid out very basic and straight forward with nice light to dark blue colors and big icons which are easy to see and click on. Across the top there is icons for Home, E-mail, Favorites, Online Buddies, People & Chat, Money, Shopping and Music. Along the side there is the "My Stuff" bar. It has your local city’s weather forecast for the day listed at the top and links that you can customize going down the side with things like My Calendar, My Stocks, My Websites, My Photos etc... You can add or take away these by going into Settings then the setup area for the My Stuff bar.

Pretty much all the buttons are self-explanatory. Home takes you to the MSN Home webpage, E-Mail takes you to the MSN or Hotmail area, Online Buddies is actually MSN Messenger which is integrated into the browser so you don't have to have it running at the same time. The side bar things such as My Websites or My Photos let you make websites or store pictures online, there is also a My Files button that you can add which will let you store files other then pictures to backup or transfer things to people online.

Pros:
• Easy to use interface and looks good.

• Nice change from Internet Explorer.

• I like some of the little features like the envelope that spins and fly’s off when you send e-mail, and having all the e-mail folders setup 'in' the program without having to go to a different website to check if you have messages.

• Always stays 'on' in the system tray after you close the main program window.

• A little square box pops up with a sound and stays there for a few seconds to let you know if you have new e-mail, a stock price change, calendar date appointment coming up, or one of your online buddies though MSN Messenger signs on.

• MSN Explorer will not "take over" your system and won't make itself the default web browser or e-mail program. I think that's nice because I've have a lot of problems with Netscape, Internet Explorer and AOL 'fighting' with each other over what program does what.

Cons:
• Because of all the features and big buttons it makes the main actual web browser window pretty small and not easy to use.

• You probably won't like this program if your a "power" or "expert" computer user since it is a lot more basic, but hey at least it's not AOL :)

• Unfortunately while you can customize and change a lot of things, you can't change the homepage to go somewhere different then www.msn.com

• Not as many buttons for web browsing such as reload, history or the file and edit menus. You can however go to the More Choices menu or press F5 to reload pages and right click for copy or paste commands.

• A lot of ads for Microsoft type things or "MSN Shopping".
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Just a few tips about MSN Explorer that I've figured out that aren't right 'up front' when I first used the program are...

-Hold down the Control key and press the letter N to open a new browser window that will not have the huge side and top bars, just the basic website address and forward & back buttons. You can also do this by going to "More Choices" and picking New Window.

-Be sure to go to the More Choices drop down and into the Settings area because there are many things you can do and change about how the program looks or runs that people forget about.

-Hold down the Control and Shift key and then press the letter S to get a "status bar" at the bottom of the web browser window, which will show you what links you're going to and how much of the page is downloaded. You can also press those keys to get the status bar to go away.

MSN Explorer will only work on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, or 2000 based computers.

Ease of use is what Microsoft really focused on for this program. I think it's great if you are trying to get away from AOL but not ready for a full change all the way to Internet Explorer and Outlook (or other web and e-mail programs), or if you just want to try something new that's easy to use and looks good. However, if you've been on the internet for a while and don't like big flashy features which aren't really that useful then I would stay away from MSN Explorer.

As I said before MSN Explorer is free, and will not take over your system by default so you can try it out and still use Internet Explorer or any web browser or e-mail program at the same time without problems. That way if you don't like you can always delete it easily. It was fun at first, but I think it's time to hit the delete key on MSN Explorer.

-Wes
Wesley815



Recommended: No