Can I use Maxthon to make IE7 safer?

[acr45]

I really like Maxthon, however it uses Internet Explorer's engine. Although Maxthon contains features that make it safer such as disabling ActiveX and blocking ads, I'm still wondering does this REALLY make it safer. IE is just too insecure. Does using Maxthon make a difference security wise? Will it be on the same security level as Firefox or Opera?

[Hairy Coo]

Would have to assume its the same except for any difference which can be enabled by Maxthon addons-plus the few unique security updates.

Also think M is great and it would have been good if MS had bought them out,instead of the design hotch-potch which is IE7.

[ankupan]

I used MaXTHON for almost one year, but Firefox is better than it.

{QUOTE-> I really like Maxthon, however it uses Internet Explorer's engine. Although Maxthon contains features that make it safer such as disabling ActiveX and blocking ads, I'm still wondering does this REALLY make it safer. IE is just too insecure. Does using Maxthon make a difference security wise? Will it be on the same security level as Firefox or Opera? <-QUOTE}

[Hairy Coo]

Why exactly?

[R8y]

Newer versions for Maxthon2 Comes with a security feature, enable it will alert user when webpage want to run exe files on your PC. This will provide certain degree of safety againt some IE exploits.....

[acr45]

{QUOTE-> I used MaXTHON for almost one year, but Firefox is better than it. <-QUOTE}

The only reason why I want to use maxthon is the reason of change. I'm just sick of using firefox all the time. But at the same time I don't want to risk my security for boredom.

[masqueofhastur]

{QUOTE-> Would have to assume its the same except for any difference which can be enabled by Maxthon addons-plus the few unique security updates.

Also think M is great and it would have been good if MS had bought them out,instead of the design hotch-potch which is IE7. <-QUOTE}

Don't think that would have ever happened. One of the "selling" points of Maxthon is the built in proxy support to get around China's internet restrictions. MS wouldn't be able to get into the Chinese market as easily if they continued supporting that feature.

[masqueofhastur]

For making IE safer, if you're running Vista, it might not as IE7 runs in a restricted mode but Maxthon will run at the default mode for whatever security level you're running at. However, it does handle some things differently, so I would say you are safer than just IE to some degree. Maxthon has a fairly small marketshare so it's less likely to be targeted.

Really though, I think the best thing would be to run K-Meleon using DropMyRights and inside Sandboxie. K-Meleon has limited add-on functionality, plus it has a much smaller market share. Market share plus feature support is what had IE being insecure. It was stuff like ActiveX that did it. FF also supports a number of features, and I think as a general rule, more features = less secure, so having the limited features of K-Meleon, plus the small market share, plus running it with reduced rights plus running it inside a sandbox will give you several layers of security.

(Incidentally, I do use M2, because of the features and customisation, but if I were really concerned about security I would go with the K-Meleon setup I mentioned).