Opera 7 for Windows

Setup and interface of Opera 7 for Windows

There are two downloadable versions of Opera 7, one with Java and one without. Think of these as regular vs. supersize: the non-Java version is a relatively trim 3.25MB download, while the version with Java is over 9MB more--about 12.6MB, all told. Thankfully, if you already Java installed on your PC--likely, if you've already installed an earlier Netscape or Opera browser with Java support--there's no need to download the Java-included version of Opera 7.

To begin our Opera evaluation, we installed the smaller, non-Java browser. The program managed to detect the already-installed Java engine on our PC, so we had no problem playing those all-important games at Yahoo and MSN.com.

Unlike Netscape's installation, Opera 7's does not pepper your computer with advertising links and icons. In fact, through March 1, Opera's free download won't display any ads at all for the first two weeks that it's installed on your PC. After that, you'll have to decide whether to put up with ads or pay the $39 to buy the ad-free, licensed version. Our view is that the Opera user interface is cluttered anyway, so the built-in banner ads (no pop-ups yet, thankfully) will probably blend right in.



We're not OK, however, with Opera 7's rather cluttered user interface. Buttons and icons mess up the screen, leaving a lot of wasted space--so much wasted space, in fact, that we'd not recommend you try using Opera 7 on any resolution lower than XGA (1,024x768). At lower resolutions, there just won't be enough room to see much of the actual Web pages. If you have a small monitor or an older laptop that doesn't support XGA, we recommend staying away from Opera 7.

For example, even on the highest-resolution monitors, you'll notice a strip of white space below the large toolbar icons. When you hover your mouse over one of those icons, the name of the icon appears in the white space below. It's a cool visual effect--very Windows XP-like--but the extra white space leaves just that much less room to show Web pages in the browser window. We prefer the little floating text boxes that IE and Netscape use when you hover over the toolbar icons, rather than wasting precious screen real estate.