WARNING: This project is vibe-coded. While I do my best to keep everything working, bugs and unexpected behavior may still occur.
Internet Explorative is a lightweight, privacy-focused web browser designed to recreate the familiar look and feel of Internet Explorer while bringing it into the modern web.
Built with Python and PyQt6.11, Internet Explorative uses Qt WebEngine and Chromium 140.0.7339.225 to provide a modern browsing experience while maintaining an Internet Explorer-inspired interface.
- Internet Explorer-inspired user interface
- Chromium-based web rendering
- Built-in ad blocker
- Lightweight application
- Multiple search engine options
- No account required
- No sign-up required
- No intentional browsing-history tracking
- Supports macOS and Windows
- Simple and familiar browsing experience
The application itself is very small, at less than 200 KB before its bundled dependencies. Typical memory usage is under 500 MB depending on the number and complexity of open pages.
Extension support: Browser extensions are not currently supported. Extensions cannot be installed from the Chrome Web Store or imported from extension files. Extension support may be introduced in a future release.
Internet Explorative is currently taking a Mac-first development approach.
Windows versions are still planned, but the next major release will focus primarily on macOS.
If you are a Windows user who wants to try an alternative browser immediately, you can check out rinFox:
https://github.com/travy-patty/rinfox/releases/tag/Release
You may also experiment with running the macOS version through WSL 2, although this is not officially supported and may not work reliably.
Internet Explorative is designed to be simple.
After installing a release, there is no account creation or complicated setup process. A welcome screen is planned for a future release, but currently you can simply launch the browser and start browsing.
Internet Explorative does not require:
- An account
- A login
- A subscription
- A sign-up process
- Personal information
- A browsing profile
The project is independently developed and does not have the infrastructure or intention to store users' browsing history.
The default search engine is now DuckDuckGo for security, though you can still change it back to Google.
- macOS 10.14 Mojave or later, Catalina recommended
- Windows 10 or later
Intel
Any Intel processor supported by the required version of macOS.
Older Intel processors may work if the operating system itself supports them.
Apple Silicon
M1 or later
Windows
Any processor capable of running Windows 10 or later and meet the minimum requirements should generally be sufficient.
- 4 GB, 8 GB recommended for smooth experience
- 700 MB: Minimum free space, though 1 GB is recommended.
If Internet Explorative does not open correctly, or you want to troubleshoot a problem yourself, this section walks you through running it from source and rebuilding the app.
You only need this section if the pre-built app is not working or you want to diagnose a problem yourself.
You will need:
- Python 3.10 or later
- PyQt6
- PyQt6-WebEngine
- Git (recommended)
- PyInstaller (optional)
- The Internet Explorative source code
The main application file is:
InternetExplorative.py
The project icon is:
ie_icon.png
Download Python from:
https://www.python.org/downloads/
After installing Python, verify that it is available from your terminal.
python --version
On some systems, you may need to use:
python3 --version
You should see a Python version number such as:
Python 3.12.x
Using Git, clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/DanDevProjects/Internet_Explorative.git
Then enter the project directory:
cd Internet_Explorative
Alternatively, you can download the repository as a ZIP file directly from GitHub and extract it.
Creating a virtual environment is recommended because it keeps the project's Python dependencies separate from the rest of your system.
python3 -m venv .venv
Activate it:
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m venv .venv
Activate it:
.venv\Scripts\activate
Once activated, your terminal should indicate that the .venv environment is being used.
Upgrade pip first:
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
Then install the required packages:
python -m pip install PyQt6 PyQt6-WebEngine
If your system uses python3, use:
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install PyQt6 PyQt6-WebEngine
Important:
PyQt6-WebEngineis required. Internet Explorative uses Qt WebEngine to provide its Chromium-based browser engine.
Once the dependencies have been installed, you can launch the browser directly from Python.
Run:
python InternetExplorative.py
Or:
python3 InternetExplorative.py
If the browser launches successfully, your Python and PyQt6 environment is configured correctly.
Running the browser directly from Python is useful for development and troubleshooting because any errors will normally be visible in the terminal.
PyInstaller is optional.
You only need PyInstaller if you want to package Internet Explorative into a standalone application that can be launched without manually running the Python file.
Install PyInstaller with:
python -m pip install pyinstaller
Verify the installation:
pyinstaller --version
You can create a standalone application with:
pyinstaller --windowed --name "Internet Explorative" InternetExplorative.py
After the build finishes, PyInstaller will normally create:
build/
and:
dist/
The final application will be inside the dist directory.
Internet Explorative uses:
ie_icon.png
PNG is useful for the project's source files and documentation.
However, PyInstaller generally works best with platform-specific application icon formats.
macOS applications normally use:
.icns
You may therefore want to convert:
ie_icon.png
into:
ie_icon.icns
Then build using:
pyinstaller --windowed --name "Internet Explorative" --icon=ie_icon.icns InternetExplorative.py
The resulting application should appear as:
dist/Internet Explorative.app
Windows normally uses:
.ico
Convert:
ie_icon.png
into:
ie_icon.ico
Then build using:
pyinstaller --windowed --name "Internet Explorative" --icon=ie_icon.ico InternetExplorative.py
The resulting executable should appear as:
dist\Internet Explorative.exe
Note: You can keep
ie_icon.pngin the repository even if you create.icnsor.icoversions for application packaging.
For macOS, the recommended PyInstaller command is:
pyinstaller --windowed --name "Internet Explorative" --icon=ie_icon.icns InternetExplorative.py
The resulting application should be located at:
dist/Internet Explorative.app
If macOS prevents the application from opening, this may be related to application signing, notarization, or Gatekeeper.
You may need to manually allow the application in:
System Settings → Privacy & Security
For Windows, use:
pyinstaller --windowed --name "Internet Explorative" --icon=ie_icon.ico InternetExplorative.py
The executable should appear at:
dist\Internet Explorative.exe
Windows Defender or SmartScreen may display a warning when running a self-built executable.
This can happen when an application is not digitally signed.
If Internet Explorative does not launch, first make sure the required packages are installed:
python -m pip install --upgrade PyQt6 PyQt6-WebEngine
You can check the installed PyQt6 version with:
python -m pip show PyQt6
Check PyQt6-WebEngine with:
python -m pip show PyQt6-WebEngine
Then try launching the source version directly:
python InternetExplorative.py
If the source version works but the packaged application does not, the problem may be related to PyInstaller, Qt WebEngine resources, application paths, or other bundled files.
If your terminal reports that Python cannot be found, make sure Python is installed and available in your system PATH.
You can also try:
python3 InternetExplorative.py
instead of:
python InternetExplorative.py
If you receive an error related to WebEngine, reinstall the package:
python -m pip install --upgrade PyQt6-WebEngine
Try running the source version from a terminal:
python InternetExplorative.py
Running it this way may display an error message that is hidden when launching a packaged application.
If you have already built the application and want to perform a clean build, remove the previous build files.
rm -rf build dist
rm -f *.spec
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force build, dist
Remove-Item *.spec
Then build the application again:
pyinstaller --windowed --name "Internet Explorative" InternetExplorative.py
If you encounter a problem while building Internet Explorative, please include as much of the following information as possible:
- Operating system
- Operating system version
- Python version
- PyQt6 version
- PyQt6-WebEngine version
- PyInstaller version
- The command you used
- The complete error message
- Whether
python InternetExplorative.pyworks before packaging
This information makes it much easier to determine whether the issue is related to Internet Explorative, Python, PyQt6, Qt WebEngine, Chromium, or PyInstaller.
You are welcome to fork this project.
However, there is one important rule:
You may NOT use my username as part of your fork or project identity.
If you do not want to create a fork but would like to improve Internet Explorative, you are welcome to contribute changes and add features to the project.
Please see:
CONTRIBUTING.md
for more information.
If you discover a bug, please report it through the GitHub Discussions page or the project's bug report system.
When reporting a bug, please provide:
- What happened
- What you expected to happen
- Your operating system
- Your Internet Explorative version
- Steps to reproduce the problem
- Screenshots or error messages if available
I will do my best to investigate and fix reported issues.
When opening the 11.0 versions or the 1.0 versions, macOS or Windows may display security warnings.
Windows may display a Windows SmartScreen warning, while macOS may warn that the application cannot be verified.
To proceed, you may need to manually allow the application through your operating system's security settings.
The share option is currently unavailable in the newer version.
This is planned to be fixed in a future release. For now, you may need to manually copy the link.
If you have trouble opening the older releases, go to:
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway
This may be necessary because the release is a pre-release build.
For a more stable experience, use 11.1 Build 1102.
If Chromium 140 is already unsupported by Google, why does Internet Explorative say it is supported?
The Chromium 140 mentioned here refers to the Chromium version included with the available PyQt6-WebEngine package.
This is the latest Chromium version currently available to this project through PyQt6-WebEngine.
Internet Explorative is not intentionally distributed as malware.
Security warnings can occur because self-built or independently distributed applications may not have the same code-signing and notarization credentials as applications distributed through official app stores.
If you downloaded a release, make sure it came from the official Internet Explorative GitHub repository or another trusted source.
No.
PyInstaller is only required if you want to package the Python source code into a standalone application.
You can run Internet Explorative directly with:
python InternetExplorative.py
No.
Python is only required when running Internet Explorative from source or building the application yourself.
No. Browser extensions are currently not supported.
Extensions cannot be installed from the Chrome Web Store or imported from extension files.
Extension support may be considered for a future release.
Thank you for checking out Internet Explorative!
This project is independently developed and continuously evolving.
I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoy building it.
Thank you, and I hope you like it!