I often get asked why I advise that you use Internet Explorer rather than any of the other available browsers, especially for online banking or shopping – hopefully these results will show why!
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
|
Internet Explorer |
Google Chrome |
Firefox |
Opera
|
Apple Safari |
|
Version tested |
10 |
25.0.1364.172 |
19.0.2 |
12.14 |
5.1.7 |
Compatibility with banking security - Trusteer Rapport http://www.trusteer.com/support/supported-platforms
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
Bank supported browsers
(Banks checked = Barclays, Natwest, RBS, Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Santander, Sainsburys, Tesco, Nationwide and HSBC) |
All banks checked support this browser |
Santander doesn’t support this browser |
All banks checked support this browser |
Santander, Sainsburys, Nationwide, HSBC and Tesco don’t support this browser |
Santander and Nationwide don’t support this browser |
Adobe Flash Player support - used on various websites for interactive content and videos |
YES |
YES - Built In |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Java support - used on various websites for interactive content, games, 3D images and much more |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Silverlight support - used on lots of websites to show rich multimedia content such as streaming media and animation |
YES |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
Adobe Reader support - used on websites to allow you to view PDF content online |
YES |
YES - Built In |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Block phishing links - these are links often sent in emails pretending to be your bank or other companies you deal with, trying to obtain your personal details by making you think it is the real website - I tested phishing emails that pretended to come from Santander and Littlewoods which I had received in my email |
2/2 blocked |
2/2 blocked |
0/2 blocked |
0/2 blocked |
0/2 blocked |
Blocking download of dangerous files – tried to download a file containing a virus |
Blocked it running and warned (as per screenshot) |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
AVG - compatibility with security features they offer |
YES |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
Norton - compatibility with security features they offer |
YES |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
McAfee - compatibility with security features they offer |
YES |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
HTML5 - compatibility with the latest standards used for designing websites - tests run from http://html5test.com/ |
326 / 500 = 65% |
476 / 500 = 95% |
403 / 500 = 81% |
413 / 500 = 83% |
328 / 500 = 66% |
