By default your browser history is kept for way too long, which takes up system resources and slows down the browser.  Limiting history size is an excellent way to quickly speed up your browser.

Firefox users:

1. Go to Tools - Options
2. Click on Privacy
3. Then select any number under Keep my history for at least … days. I have it on 7.
4. 
5. Click OK

By the way, if you don’t want to keep any private data at all, simply check Always clear my private data when I close Firefox. To specify what you want cleared, click on the Settings button and check relevant checkboxes.

Internet Explorer 8 users:

1. Go to Tools - Internet Options
2. Under Browsing History click on the Settings button
3. Select a number to keep you browsing history
4. 
5. Before you click OK I would recommend forbidding the browser to check for newer version of stored pages (select Never) and allowing 50MB of disk space to store Temporary Internet Files (the default number is ridiculous).

Enjoy a faster browser!

A week ago I posted some Firefox browsing tips. So now I’ll give you some advice on how to speed up Internet Explorer, because let’s face it – it’s still the most used browser in the world.

First of all, the main trick is to clear IE cache. The bigger it gets, the slower your browser becomes. All you have to do is go to Tools - Internet options - go to the General tab and delete browsing history, clear the cache, and remove cookies. That’s it. Alternatively you can just use Disk Cleaner – one of BoostSpeed tools -  to get rid of all the junk in just two clicks.

Internet Explorer can take too long to launch and then load your homepage. So my advice is to set homepage to blank. This will make your browser open faster, because it won’t be loading anything yet. So, if you don’t really need to open the same page every time you start IE, just go to Tools and set your homepage to about:blank.

Sometimes a page loads for ages and you are going bonkers, because you want to view other pages as well. This is not an Internet Explorer problem, nor an Internet speed problem – most likely it’s the page you are trying to load. The solution is easy – just open multiple tabs or multiple windows, whichever you like best, and don’t sit there waiting.

There is one other things that will not only make Internet Explorer fast, but will also make Windows faster.

By default your Temporary Internet Files take up 10% of the hard drive. While this was fine for older PCs with less hard disk space, it doesn’t make sense for new larger hard drives.

To resize your cache:

1. Close all IE and Outlook Express windows
2. Go to Control Panel - Internet options - General tab
3. Click Settings and move the slider to any number you like and click OK. 50MB would be enough.
4. Then click Delete Files and don’t forget to select Delete all offline files. Click OK.
5. After that clear history

Yes, I know, these are really simple tips, but they do make a difference and speed up your Internet Explorer.