K-Meleon
Last Updated September 10, 2003
K-Meleon is an open-source browser based on Gecko, the rendering engine for Mozilla. It is intended to be a light, fast, and customizable browser.
What platforms does it run on?
K-Meleon has been designed specifically to run on Win32 platforms. There are no plans to port K-Meleon to other operating systems. If you are looking for a Mozilla-based browser for Linux, visit the Galeon? project. Chimera? is a Mozilla-based browser for Mac OS X.
What is new and improved in version 0.7 of K-Meleon?
Why doesn't K-Meleon include feature "X" (e-mail client, etc.)?
K-Meleon is designed with a minimal interface that emphasizes speed and utility. It does not include features like e-mail client and web page editor that bloat Mozilla and other browsers, making them slow and cumbersome. The K-Meleon developers will consider enhancements that improve the performance and usefulness of the browser.
Currently, K-Meleon programmers are very few in number (unlike Mozilla's horde of programmers), and they are people who have other "real-world" jobs that take much of their time. Often, improvements cannot even occur weekly (nightly builds are out of the question). That's why we are always open to new developers.
Anyway, if you want to see whether a project is dead or not, never trust the News section. While waiting for version 0.8, we were treated some new unofficial builds which were not announced in the News. Read the Forum?!
With the availability of KMeleonWiki, it is hoped that there will be active development even when there is no active programming.
What are the system requirements?
Download K-Meleon to your computer. Double-click the EXE file to start the installation process. If you have previously installed an earlier version of K-Meleon in the same location, it will uninstall the old version before installing the new version. If you have existing profiles, K-Meleon will ask if you want to save those profiles. If you wish to use your old configuration and preference files with K-Meleon 0.7, please review the details on Migrating Profiles? about changes necessary to make these files compatible with K-Meleon 0.7.
What level of support for standards does K-Melon provide?
K-Meleon uses the Gecko rendering engine developed for Mozilla which provides excellent support for current HTML, CSS (level 1 and some level 2), and DOM standards.
Does K-Meleon include Internet Explorer-style features like Favorites and Fullscreen mode?
K-Meleon provides several features that will be familiar to users of Internet Explorer including:
Does K-Meleon include Netscape/Mozilla-style features like Bookmarks and Tabs?
K-Meleon provides several features that will be familiar to users of Netscape and Mozilla including:
K-Meleon supports Java. If you want to use Java in K-Meleon, see the section on How do I enable Java in K-Meleon?
Note: Java support only works when the Browser Identification in the Privacy option section is set to Default.
What is the Loader? How does it provide faster start-ups?
The Loader automatically loads portions of K-Meleon at start-up to allow K-Meleon to launch more quickly from the Desktop. The Loader is an optional component and can be enabled during the installation. Be aware that if you use the loader, K-Meleon never "exits" so changes in various components will not take affect until you close the Loader and restart K-Meleon.
How do I use my existing Netscape/Mozilla Bookmarks?
The first time K-Meleon is run with the bookmarks plugin installed, you will be prompted whether to locate your existing Netscape or Mozilla bookmarks. If you choose to do so, your bookmarks will be shared between K-Meleon and Netscape/Mozilla. You can also choose to have a new bookmarks file created for K-Meleon only. In Mozilla, your bookmarks file is stored in your profiles directory, which is different depending on your operating system:
How do I use my existing Internet Explorer Favorites?
K-Meleon automatically locates your Internet Explorer Favorites when it is run with the Favorites plugin enabled. Your Favorites are shared between K-Meleon and Internet Explorer.
How do I use my existing Opera Hotlist?
The first time K-Meleon is run with the hotlist plugin installed, you will be prompted whether to create a new Hotlist for K-Meleon only. You can also choose to locate your existing Opera Hotlist and share that list between the two programs.
How do I customize my Bookmarks?
You can add and edit Bookmarks through the Bookmarks menu. If you choose to share Bookmarks between K-Meleon and Netscape/Mozilla the changes will be available in your other browser as well.
How do I customize my Favorites?
You can add and edit Favorites through the Favorites menu.
How do I customize my Hotlist?
You can add URLs to the Hotlist through the Hotlist menu. If you chose to share Hotlist between K-Meleon and Opera,your additions will be available also from within Opera.
What do each of the default K-Meleon plugins do?
How do I enable or disable a K-Meleon plugin?
To enable a plugin, click on the Edit menu and then select Preferences - Plugins. In the Plugins window, select the plugin from the list and click the Enable/Disable button. Its icon will change to a checkmark on a green background. The next time K-Meleon runs, the plugin will be loaded. To disable a plugin, select the plugin from the list and click the Enable/Disable button the plugin. When the icon is unchecked, the plugin will be disabled the next time K-Meleon runs.
How do I enable a 3rd party/Mozilla plugin?
K-Meleon automatically detects these 3rd party plugins: Acrobat, Sun JRE, Quicktime, Windows Media Player 7.
Any Mozilla plugins (Shockwave, Adobe, etc.) should work by being copied into the plugins directory under K-Meleon. For an example of setting up 3rd party/Mozilla plugins, see the guide on installing Flash Player 6? for K-Meleon. You can check the status of any plugin by entering about:plugins in the K-Meleon location bar. A page will be displayed that shows all of your currently installed plugins. A comprehensive list? of plugins and instructions on how to enable them for Mozilla-based browsers is available.
How do I enable Java in K-Meleon?
You must first install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run Java applets in K-Meleon. You can download JRE 1.4 from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html. After you install JRE, K-Meleon automatically detects your JRE installation and no other configuration is necessary. To see if JRE is properly installed, type about:plugins in the URL bar. If you see Java Plug-in listed, K-Meleon properly recognizes the JRE.
Note: If you change the Browser Identification in Preferences - Privacy, Java will not work.
Does K-Meleon support command-line options?
K-Meleon currently supports a command-line option for starting that browser with a specific URL. Example: "C:\Program Files\K-Meleon\k-meleon.exe" www.yahoo.com This loads Yahoo! instead of the browser specified home page when K-Meleon is started.
K-Meleon also supports command-line options for Profiles. You can start with a specific profile by using -P <profile> where <profile> is the name of any existing profile that you have: Example: "C:\Program Files\K-Meleon\k-meleon.exe" -P Fred This launches K-Meleon with the profile for Fred.
K-Meleon also offers you the option of starting with the most recently used Profile by using -P mostrecent. Example: "C:\Program Files\K-Meleon\k-meleon.exe" -P mostrecent
If you have a profile stored in your Application Data directory, you can reference that location using -profilesDir $appdata Example: "C:\Program Files\K-Meleon\k-meleon.exe" -profilesDir $appdata If you do not have a directory, it will create one for you.
How do I set the home page and other browser preferences?
The home page and other browser preferences can be set in the preferences panel. The preferences panel can be accessed by selecting the Edit menu and the Preferences option. For developers and advanced users, a complete list of the K-Meleon specific preferences is available.
How do I customize key commands?
Key commands can be enabled, disabled, and modified by clicking on the Edit menu, selecting Preferences - Configs, and then selecting the Accelerators tab. A step-by-step guide to modify the key commands is available.
Macros can be enabled, disabled, and modified by clicking on the Edit menu and then selecting Preferences - Plugins. Select Macro Extension Plugin and then click on the Configure button. Follow the instructions provided in the macros.cfg file. See the Documentation section for more examples.
Profiles can be added, deleted, and renamed by going to the Edit menu and selecting Manage Profiles.
Click on the Edit menu, select Preferences, and then Proxies to configure your proxy settings. K-Meleon can also be configured to work properly with proxies such as Junkbuster that do not support the most recent HTTP specification. By default, K-Meleon tries to use HTTP 1.1. To use K-Meleon with a proxy that only supports HTTP 1.0, change the HTTP version under Edit - Preferences - General.
K-Meleon only accepts hostnames for manual proxies.
How do I change the toolbar background image?
You can change the image used for the background image or even turn it off by clicking on the Edit menu and then selecting Preferences - Display. A help guide? for using this feature is available.
Does K-Meleon provide Internationalization/Multi-Language support?
We have a number of translations for the menu and tool bars in our Resources section. K-Meleon also automatically attempts to recognize character sets and display them properly.
What privacy features does K-Meleon include?
K-Meleon allows you to control cookies the browser accepts. It also allows you to control the browser identity?. You also have the ability to control and disable popup? and popunder windows. Advanced users can setup additional site-policy privacy features by editing the prefs.js file. See http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/components/ConfigPolicy.html for more details on advanced privacy features.
How does K-Meleon allow you to control cookies?
You can control which cookies K-Meleon accepts in the Preferences panel under the Privacy option. You can allow all cookies, only allow cookies from the site you are visiting or block all cookies.
How can you control the browser identity?
K-Meleon allows you to set the UserAgent string that identifies the browser to the sites that it visits. You can access this feature in the Preferences panel under the Privacy option
How do you block popup and popunder windows in K-Meleon?
The settings for blocking popup and popunder windows is located in the Preferences panel under the Privacy option. You have two options for blocking popup and popunder windows:
K-Meleon 0.7 provides SSL support.
What other security options does K-Meleon include?
K-Meleon allows you to disable Java and Javascript. You also have the ability to control and disable? pop-up windows.
This is solved by downloading a new MFC42.dll from Microsoft. Download and install the Windows Libraries Update:
The text menus don't display when K-Meleon starts.
Users with Windows95 and versions of Internet Explorer older than 5.0 need to download and install the "50comupd" Common Control Library from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/ie/comctrlx86.asp .
Before you start complaining; No, K-Meleon does not use IE's components. This libary, as the name suggests, is only a set of controls which are used commonly by Windows applications.
Why does the Favorites menu take so long to display?
Windows 2000 and XP users with the "Menu Fading" effect enabled may notice a significant delay in the display of Favorites menus containing many entries. To correct this, you can turn off menu fading by selecting Settings - Control Panel - Display - Appearance - Effects. Under Visual Effects, uncheck the box labeled Use transition effects for menus and tooltips and click on OK.
Why doesn't "Site X" display properly? Is it a K-Meleon bug?
A site not displaying properly is normally caused by one of two issues:
Please report these bugs and we will attempt to determine the source of the problem.
Why don't the Alt + accelerator (F, E, V, G, H) work with the menu bar menus?
You need to disable the rebar menu plugin to enable the Alt + accelerator key combinations. See How do I enable or disable a K-Meleon plugin?? for more details.
Why can't I view articles at Espn.com?
Espn.com? doesn't "support" Mozilla-based browsers. You can fool the site by changing your Browser Identification to Internet Explorer 6 under Edit - Preferences - Privacy - Browser Identification. The change takes effect once you restart K-Meleon.
The Personal Security Manager (PSM) in Mozilla, which K-Meleon is built on, uses sockets for communication between its security components. These communications are internal to the browser and do not go out the Internet. There is no danger in allowing K-Meleon this access.
Why is K-Meleon excessively slow in loading?
If you have a large number of Bookmarks or Favorites, K-Meleon may take a long time to load. You can speed up K-Meleon's loading time by disabling the respective plugins.
Note: Install K-Meleon 0.7 Service Pack 1? with improved Bookmarks and Favorites plugins which eliminate this problem.
Why doesn't K-Meleon properly display colors when the monitor resolution is set to 256 colors?
Mozilla does not provide proper support for 256 colors. See Mozilla Bug #88560?
Why don't the menus display properly when you have enabled the Silver theme in Windows XP?
This is a known issue with K-Meleon when using the Bitmapped menus plugin with the Silver theme enabled in Windows XP. The current workaround is to disable the Bitmapped menus plugin.
This type of problem is usually the result of the DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) option being set in the Windows registry for the type of URL that you are trying to open. Go to the Windows Start menu, select Settings, Folder Options, then select the File Types tab. After you find the URL type in the list, click Edit, click Edit again, uncheck the "Use DDE" box, then click "OK" until you are out of the dialog.
If you know what you are doing, you can delete the DDE flag directly in the Windows registry for the URL type.
Submit your questions to the K-Meleon Forums?. If you think you have found a bug, ask first in the Forums. Then file a bug report in our Bug Reporting System?.