Each browser has its virtues and, heaven knows, its foibles. You may prefer Internet Explorer for viewing graphics-intensive sites because of its smart image handling, but you may like Netscape Communicator more for web searching because it seems to load text faster. Either way, some of your favourite sites will definitely work better with one or the other. If you tend to shuffle between Internet Explorer and Communicator, here are some tips for helping them coexist.

Choose your default browser. Would you like to choose which browser loads when you click on a URL in an e-mail message or on a URL Shortcut on your desktop? You can easily designate Explorer or Communicator as your default browser.

To make Explorer your default browser, select ViewûInternet Options. Click the Programs tab, and check the box next to Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser. Click Apply. Exit Explorer and reload it. When asked if you'd like to make Explorer your default browser, click Yes.

To make Communicator your default browser, head to its preference file by selecting StartûFindûFiles or Folders and typing prefs.js. Once Windows locates it, right-click the file and select Edit. Then add the line user_pref("browser.wfe.ignore_def_check", false);.

This line will force Communicator to check whether it's the default browser. (A "true" value at the end of the line would set it not to check.) Save the file, and then reload Communicator.

Caption: To reinstate Communicator as your default browser, add a line (highlighted) to your prefs.js file and then launch the browser

Unfortunately, you can't arrange for one browser to pop up every time you click on an e-mail address and the other one to appear when you click on a desktop Shortcut. Nor can you specify different browsers to show different desktop URL Shortcuts. Readers sometimes ask if it's possible to configure the latter, but the answer seems to be no. (But if you know of a way, please write!)

Use another mail program. Both Communicator and Explorer baulk at firing up the other browser's mail program when you click on a web page's mail link. But you can configure both browsers to load a third-party mail program like Eudora.

In Communicator 4.x, select EditûPreferences. Under the Navigator category, click Applications. In the Description box, scroll down the list and look for an entry called URL:MailTo Protocol.

If there is such an entry, highlight it and click the Edit button. Make sure that the Application button is selected, and in the Application edit box, replace the current path with the path to your mail program's executable file ù c:\eudora\eudora.exe, for instance. Click OK.

If there's no URL:MailTo Protocol entry, create one by clicking the New Type button. In the dialogue box, type URL:MailTo Protocol in the MIME Type box, and type the path to your mail program's executable file ù for example, c:\eudora\eudora.exe ù in the Application to use box. Click OK. When the program asks you for the file extension, type URL:MAILTO PROTOCOL.

In Explorer 4.x, select ViewûInternet Options, click the Programs tab, select your mail program from the Mail drop-down list, and click OK.