K-Meleon is a free web browser that is based on the Gecko engine, the same one used by Mozilla Firefox.
The user interface of K-Meleon is pretty basic and looks less cluttered than other browsers. Options can be accessed by the gear icon which provides a tree-like list of different options that can be configured. You can also use this dialog box to enable and disable installed extensions and plugins.
The browser itself supports tabbed browsing not unlike other modern browsers but the overall layout does get some getting used to. In addition, K-Meleon can also apply different skins to the browser, giving it a unique style.
K-Meleon includes some other tools such as a page translation tool (powered by Yahoo! or Google), an error console for developers, enable or disable different menus and several import tools which support browsers like Firefox, Netscape, SeaMonkey, etc.
Since it sticks to the basic, K-Meleon may be a suitable alternative for people with older computers which have issues keeping up with Firefox or Internet Explorer. K-Meleon is also fast and uses very little in terms of system memory or CPU power.
With all that said, K-Meleon is an alternative web browser which uses the excellent Gecko engine; it's perfect as a web browser alternative to many of the current popular browsers.
Features of K-Meleon
- Block Popup Windows: Comes equipped with a Popup Blocking feature that blocks these popups and also allows you to quickly enable popups at a particular site.
- Choose Your Desired Bookmarking System: K-Meleon is the only browser that allows you to use your existing Internet Explorer Favorites or Opera Hotlist in place of or along with Netscape/Mozilla's Bookmarks system.
- Complete Toolbar, Menu, Context Menu, & Keyboard Shortcut Customization: Easily revamp your main menu and context menus by deleting or adding the items of your choice, access any function from your toolbar or assign any keyboard shortcut to any function.
- Easy Web Searching: Click on the Search button in your toolbar to enter items to search for with Google.
- Fast Load Time: The time it takes for K-Meleon to open from when you click its application icon is the fastest of any Gecko based browser.
- Mouse Gestures: Introduced and popularized by Opera, mouse gestures are now a common staple among alternative browsers.
- Tabbed Browsing: Through the layers plugin, K-Meleon offers a convenient way to manage the many sites you may visit during a browsing session. Commonly known as "tabbed" browsing, this feature allows you to keep multiple web pages open simultaneously, navigating easily between them by clicking on each page's "tab" located beside the others on a separate toolbar within the browser.
- Themes & Skins: One of the simplest browsers to skin and all of its images can be changed to your liking.
Compatibility and License
K-Meleon has been released under the open source GPL license on Windows from web browsers. The license provides the options to freely download, install, run and share this program without any restrictions. The source code for K-Meleon should be freely available and modifications are certainly permitted as well as the option to inspect the software.
What version of Windows can K-Meleon run on?
K-Meleon can be used on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit downloads.
Filed under:
- K-Meleon Download
- Free Web Browsers
- Open source and GPL software
- Web Browsing Software
