Can someone tell me if I use Opera in a stupid way?

Hi all

I wondered if anyone would mind telling me whether I am using Opera (and browsing generally) in a stupid way? And by stupid I mean inefficient, especially when it comes to system resources and ensuring mu PC and internet are running as fast as possible.

Here's what I do (and have been doing for years). There's a core of around 5 or 6 sites that I access all the time (yahoo, ebay, etc). On top of that there's usually 2 or 3 that I am accessing and checking frequently for a period of days or weeks. So I ALWAYS have these tabs open. And I have things set up so that after I close Opera or shut down the PC they are all there straight away when I re-open Opera (i.e. it saves the last session).

When searching for new things I simply open another tab... and another.... and another, but I do also close them when I'm finished (or hit the Home button and start a new search from that tab). Depending on how many things I'm doing at once, this can mean having anything up to 15 or 20 tabs open. However, I do not leave them ALL there when I'm finished - just my 5/6 regulars and sometimes a couple more.

I have this saved as my "Main" session. I also have other saved sessions. For example, I play guitar so I have a "Guitar" session for when I want to check all the guitar forums I use. I'm crap at DIY and so when I have a job to do I usually consult a few DIY Forums. So there's a DIY Session for those occasions......

Don't use bookmarks.
Don't use speed dial.

Does anyone else adopt a similar strategy? Are there any drawbacks in how I do things? Does it use more system resources?

Would be great to hear anyone's opinion as I've just done this for years without questioning it up until now.

Cheers

Max

Just don't run Opera all day and night without closing it. Minimize it if you are doing something else instead of task switching with Alt Tab.

Open Drag this link to create a button. Click and hold for your session menu for quick access to sessions.

Originally posted by Pesala:

Just don't run Opera all day and night without closing it. Minimize it if you are doing something else instead of task switching with Alt Tab.

Sorry to be thick but I do not understand..... Is there a difference between minimizing something and using alt tab? I thought alt tab was just a keyboard shortcut and in reality just did the same thing as clicking on the minimized windows with a mouse? Is it not just the keyboard equivalent of choosing which minimized tab to open? If not, would you mind explaining how they are different?

Originally posted by Pesala:

Open Drag this link to create a button. Click and hold for your session menu for quick access to sessions.

Nice one - very helpful. Thanks for that.

Alt Tab doesn't minimize the window. Its still running in a maximized or restored window behind the current application.

Open Task Manager (Ctrl Alt Delete), see how much RAM Opera is using, then minimize it.

It seems that this trick worked very well on WinXP, but it doesn't change much on Vista/Win7. Or am I wrong?

Well, I must say that I did not know that either! I thought it was as simple as this: the current "in use" window is active and the rest are inactive regardless of whether they are open behind, minimized, or whatever..... Learn something new everyday!

For the record, I'm still using WinXP....

Originally posted by Pesala:

Open Task Manager (Ctrl Alt Delete), see how much RAM Opera is using, then minimize it.

Yep - tried that and you're absolutely right. It's interesting though because after minimizing Opera, the RAM usage quickly builds up again without doing anything. Is that normal? For example, it is currently at 56,000k. Now, when I minimize it: 12,000k. But within around 5 seconds (of not doing anything), it creeps up to around 46,000 - where it then stays. Is that normal behaviour?

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I can totally see your point now about minimizing rather than tabb'ing. Minimizing kind of wipes the slat and gives a fresh start....

Any other tips for using Opera efficiently (either direct tips or pointers to good places to learn more) would be fantastic.

Oh, and so aside from the minimizing tip, is my way of doing things not too stupid then?

Cheers

Max

Another interesting thing I just noticed....... If you use the keyboard commands "windows key/D" (show desktop) or "windows key/M" (minimize all) neither reduce the RAM usage of Opera. The only way to do that is to use the minimize button itself or the equivalent shortcut "alt/space/N".

Unless you notice Opera/your computer slowing down once you reach e.g. 20 tabs I really don't think there's anything to worry about. One thing you could consider is "enable plugins only on demand" (in preferences > content), because I find that Flash is the biggest waster of memory and CPU cycles. However, for the most part it gives no trouble.

If you have a few tabs that you never close, consider pinning them. (Right click on the tab, select "Pin Tab".) They take up less space and won't close by accident.