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I always set my browser to reopen all tabs from the previous session, but of course I don't want the browser to also load the content of each tab, I want it to load only the content of the active tab, and load the other tabs only if and when I switch to them.

The main reason why I want that is that one or more of the tabs can contain a video or a stream, which I obviously want to start only when I switch to that tab; I don't want all the tabs containing videos to start playing their videos simultaneously at startup.

The only browser I know that implements this trivial and obviously needed (in my opinion) feature is Firefox. IE does not seem to me to support this feature. Opera does not support this feature and from my research on their forum there are several users waiting for this since years. The exact same thing goes for Chrome. I am really surprised about that.

Up until now I used Firefox, but since a while Firefox started crashing and completely freezing my Windows 8.1 computer, so I'm looking for another browser that supports saving the tabs from last session but not reloading their content at startup.

ADDED: I was able to stick to Firefox thanks to a suggestion from the comments below that allowed me to eliminate the reason why I was looking for another browser: disabling hardware acceleration under Settings>Advanced made FF stop making my video driver crash.

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    See here superuser.com/questions/811965/…
    – Matthew Lock
    Jun 9, 2015 at 12:39
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    @SantiBailors Try deleting your Firefox profile, uninstalling Firefox, rebooting, and then reinstalling Firefox. Firefox is used by hundreds of millions of people, so it is likely a temporary problem with your installation or profile.
    – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket ♦
    Jun 9, 2015 at 19:14
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    @MatthewLock Thanks, I'm still baffled that all major browsers except FF don't have this basic feature (which I'm sure would be absolutely trivial for them to implement) and that workarounds or external plugins are needed, but that's clearly the case so I will take into account the options described in your link.
    – SantiBailors
    Jun 10, 2015 at 8:19
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    @SantiBailors Make sure you also try disabling hardware acceleration under Settings>Advanced.
    – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket ♦
    Jun 10, 2015 at 18:47
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    @RockPaperLizard Your suggestion solved my problems, I no longer had any crash after I disabled HW acceleration, and that means I can keep using FF which is great news for me. Thanks again.
    – SantiBailors
    Jun 19, 2015 at 10:06

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Midori is a lightweight browser who also supports this feature by the normal settings menu.

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    Midori is an excellent browser, but it is not currently available for Windows 8.1, which is the OS for which SantiBailors requested a recommendation.
    – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket ♦
    Jun 9, 2015 at 19:18
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    @RockPaperLizard Doesn't it? This page claims that it “should work on all Windows systems”.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Aug 7, 2015 at 19:17
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    @Gilles According to the current Midori FAQ "Releases exist on various Linux distributions, for Windows versions prior to 8.1 (for now), and BSD", yet according to the page you found "Midori Portable should work on all Windows systems". Obviously, one of those statements is in error, and I do not know which one. Perhaps someone can inquire with Midori or try it on Windows 8.1.
    – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket ♦
    Aug 7, 2015 at 21:29
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    @RockPaperLizard: Looks like it functions just fine for me on 8.1 x86; clean install, nothing tweaked, no errors, loads pages and so forth.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Nov 4, 2015 at 21:09

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