Avant Browser 2020 Build 3

Avant Browser 2020 Build 3 is a freeware web browser for Windows created by Anderson Che. The current build in our data was released on March 17, 2020, so the browser has not received updates for several years. You can still download Avant Browser for Windows from its official website, but read the notes on security below first.

Specifications

System requirements

The Avant Browser FAQ still lists requirements from an older era: a processor of 300 MHz or higher, 128MB RAM or more, Windows 2000/2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, and Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0 or 8.0 installed. Any PC sold in the last decade exceeds these numbers many times over. These figures show how long the project has existed; they do not describe what a safe browser needs today.

What Avant Browser is

Avant Browser started as a tabbed shell around the Internet Explorer engine at a time when Internet Explorer itself had no tabs. Its appeal was features that mainstream browsers lacked then: tabs, a pop-up blocker, mouse gestures, saved sessions and a lean interface. Today every major browser offers all of this and much more, and the key difference is maintenance. Modern browsers receive security updates every few weeks because attackers keep finding new holes in rendering engines. A browser whose last release is from 2020 does not get those fixes, and some websites may no longer display properly.

A safer way to try old browsers

If you are curious about Avant Browser or need it for a test, run it inside a virtual machine or Windows Sandbox rather than on your main system, and do not sign in to real accounts there. When you are done, close the sandbox and everything it touched disappears.

Should you install it?

For everyday browsing, banking, email and shopping, use a maintained browser. Avant Browser can still be of interest for nostalgia, for testing how old software behaves or on an isolated machine that never handles sensitive data. If you try it, download it from the official download page and not from repackaging portals. Release notes and announcements are on the project's news page.

Pros and cons

• Pro: freeware with a classic tabbed interface.
• Pro: light by the standards of its time.
• Con: no updates for years, so no current security fixes.
• Con: modern websites may not work correctly.

Alternatives

Actively maintained browsers in our listings include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave Browser, Vivaldi and Opera. Privacy-focused choices are LibreWolf, Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser.