Coowon Browser

Coowon Browser

Chrome-based Coowon Browser has features designed specifically for online gamers, including game tools, controller keyboard settings, a boss key, and the ability to adjust page running speed, individually. While it’s generally up to Chrome’s standards, it’s not as smooth or reliable as some other Chromium-based browsers we’ve tried, and it’s got a few bugs, too.

Coowon Browser installs and sets up like other Chrome-based browsers, with the option to set it as the default and import settings from other browsers. The most notable difference from Chrome is Coowon’s Game Tools switch on the left end of the toolbar and its suite of apps on the right: a keyboard simulating tool for game controllers, a button for opening new multi-login tabs, a browser window boss key, and a page speed tool with a note that it didn’t work with every online game and might cause problems. The boss key (actually a hot key combo) didn’t work, at first, but did when we relaunched Coowon Browser. The Game Tools sidebar mostly links to the Coowon AppCenter and forum.

Though Coowon Browser has some unique and intriguing features, it also proved a bit clunky and buggy in our system. Updates were particularly troublesome and our security software wouldn’t load the program’s Web page due to malware reports. A little tinkering seemed to sort out some of the issues, though we still couldn’t access updates even after disabling security (a potentially foolish act that you should never try at home!) and running updates, manually. We also dismissed malware warnings to load Coowon’s home page, which continuously attempted and failed to load Disqus. A visit to that program’s site found no known issues related to the Chromium engine. Interestingly, our security tools also blocked Coowon’s Web site in both Chrome and Firefox, yet the Disqus app loaded normally in both. Like some other Chrome-based browsers, Coowon Browser seems to prefer to be the only Chrome in town, or at least in our system. If its game-oriented features sound cool, try Coowon Browser for yourself.