I've heard it's good practice to use a secondary browser, but I never got the logic behind that Why is that?
Yes, IE10. As for why . . . IE download manager is a LOT better than Chrome IMO. Well, to be honest it was better a few years ago and after all these years i got used to download things with IE but im not sure if its still better than Chrome though.
I've heard using a secondary browser for security reasons is a good idea (Banking Only, etc), would you have to agree?
Not often...but on occasion...there might be a "problem" with one browser that doesn't affect any other browsers. I haven't had this happen in a while...but at one point, I remember I couldn't open and use Internet Explorer, but I *COULD* open and use Firefox to access the web. Just from those one or two experiences, I've always been of the belief that it is best to have more than browser on hand...just in case you have to rely on one as a "backup" of sorts. Also - and I'm not sure how relevant this is these days either - but I remember at one point some web pages were only available in a shortened from, but could be viewed in full form in a different browser. I believe I'm thinking of a time a decade ago or longer during the days of dial-up and in particular IE and Netscape Navigator. I doubt that this would be the case these days....but since browsers are free, and there's no harm...I say "why NOT have more than one?"
I use Chrome almost exclusively, I have no other browser installed. Very rarely I use IE for websites that still don't open properly with Chrome or in the rare event of a bad Chrome update (it happened twice). If I had to abandon Chrome, IE would be my choice anyway.
I have Chrome as my default browser, and Cyberfox as my secondary. If I should be experiencing a problem using Chrome, like slow web site access, I will switch to Cyberfox to see if the problem is with Chrome or some other possibility. Occasionally I have switched browsers as default just for the change.
I like back-ups. As I never use IE I am either in Maxthon or SeaMonkey. I have Firefox as a back-up back-up. just in case. It's so totally logical Mr Spock would agree.
Secondary browser! – hell, this poll is somewhat restrictive for me as I use 5 browsers! My multiple browser usage developed naturally over a period of time – as I use Sandboxie - I got sick of enabling\disabling Javascript\Cookies, reconfiguring Noscript, etc, and ended up separating browser usage into the function each browser was used for: Eg; Firefox Default browser - used for general 'roaming' – no sites configured. Palemoon Used to access my pre-set information type sites (forums, PC mags, info sites, etc – some 50 or so) Seamonkey Used specifically to download software from pre-set sites such as Softpedia, Major Geeks, Filehippo, Filecluster, Freeware files, etc. Firefox Portable Specifically setup to access less sensitive login sites. Icedragon Used only to access my online banking site. Probably over the top for most – but it suits me just fine.
Internet Explorer 10 for compatibility. It's also there by default, and a pain to completely remove (virtually everything else w/o their own rendering engine that browses the Internet uses its components). So I just keep it hardened.
Two Firefox - Locked down and for 90% of browsing. Chrome - For flash or when pages don't render properly in firfox do to security add-ons (ala noscript). Only used on trusted websites and vetted links.
I'll use IE as a backup for: 1. The occasional site that gets broken by an extension or something and I don't want to bother figuring out what's blocking it. 2. Flashing my router's firmware. I often have a bunch of tabs open in my main browser and I don't want them trying to connect at the same time.
IE10 and Opera. Always handy to be able to check in another browser if it is ''indeed'' a site render issue.
I find that sometimes I have to use IE to view certain sites with Flash videos that don't work properly with Firefox.
My second browser is Internet explorer: I " hate " it, but I must use it - and only for this - to update manually windows.
Interesting approach. At some point in time I used that same approach, but in the opposite order. Chromium - Locked down and for 99% of browsing. Firefox for the remaining 1%. Nowadays, I just use two Chromium profiles. Wouldn't, from a security point of view, make more sense to use Chromium/Chrome for most of the browsing (and locked down as much as possible), and then use Firefox for the rest? P.S: I hope no one will come after me with a bat...
That's just false sense of security, IMHO. I suppose the idea would be to have both open, and not compromise the one used for banking that fast? lol Otherwise, could a person just use one web browser, but with two different profiles? You could even copy and past the browser's main executable, rename it, and use that one for on-line banking and restrict communications to the bank's domains and IPs. Wouldn't that be as efficient? lol
My second browser for online banking has defined in Firewall several rules so I can connect only with IP addresses which provides selected bank website. Also DW Browser has built-in several security features which helps too.
On Win I use Safari for everything, and IE8 while banking or buying stuff online. And if a site looks weird or fails to load then I might try it in IE8 as well.