Browse the web your way with Vivaldi

GIVEN HOW MUCH TIME we spend on the web, whether it’s shopping, research, or just following our favorite sports team as they head towards another crushing defeat, it’s criminal that we don’t pay much attention to our web browser. If you’re looking to maximize your web browsing experience, you need to investigate Vivaldi. With new features being added all the time, its claims of being the world’s most customizable browser are well-founded (helped by ready access to the Chrome web store, allowing you to add all manner of extensions and other plugins).

In this tutorial, we’ll investigate how Vivaldi can be set up to deliver on its promise. We’ll focus on its main tab management tools that bring order to chaos and allow you to manage dozens of tabs without losing your place, and help you tap into other features, like its mail client and quick commands feature, to speed up using the app. We’ll also reveal how you can set up the user interface how you like it, with all of Vivaldi’s controls and tools positioned where you find them easiest to access, all wrapped up in an attractive, but readable skin.

–NICK PEERS

FIRST TWEAK

1 If you’re installing Vivaldi for the first time, your first opportunity to customize arrives the moment you run the installer. By default, Vivaldi installs into your user folder under AppData\Local—this is normal for a single-user install, but if you plan to install it for multiple users, click the Advanced button to reveal more options. You’ll see an ‘Installation Type’ drop-down menu—select ‘Install for all users’ here to install to the usual Program Files folder. You’ll also see an ‘Install standalone’ option. Select this, then click Browse to install Vivaldi to your portable apps folder. You can still make Vivaldi your default browser app (just leave the appropriate box checked as shown in [Image A] ), but we suggest you leave ‘Disable automatic updates’ unchecked as recommended to ensure the portable app can update itself