Safari is Apple’s in-house browser engineered to deliver fast performance, low power consumption, and seamless integration with their ecosystem. Although it is mostly recognized as the browser of macOS, iPhone, and iPad, Safari was also made available on Windows for some time, and the neat, straightforward interface of this browser continues to attract followers to this day.
Here comes the important part – you need to get into the Windows context to figure out if Safari can still be useful to you.
What Safari Is Designed to Do
Safari aimed to be a fast page renderer, a low resource hog, and a tool for an uncluttered and distraction-free browsing experience. It is built on the WebKit engine, which is well recognized for compliance with international standards and great performance efficiency.
The browser shell is not overwhelmed with tons of flashy features and customizations. Instead, it bets on a straightforward layout, a generous use of typography, and ultra-low distraction UI elements.
Safari also highlights privacy as one of its core values. Built-in tracking prevention and intelligent cookie handling are among its privacy features. Safari privacy protections are designed to be seamless, silently protecting you without you having to do anything.
Safari’s Relationship With Windows
Several years back, Apple pulled the plug on Safari for Windows. The last version that ever supported Windows was, unfortunately, a pretty old one at that time, which doesn’t even get an occasional update, security fix, or compatibility enhancement anymore.
In other words, Safari is not a Windows browser that is modern and actively supported. You can still probably find the old installers available online but keep in mind that they show a Safari version that is missing a lot of today’s web standards.
The experience of browsing with Safari on Windows will therefore be limited in terms of compatibility with modern websites, despite you being able to see its interface and basic behavior.
How Safari Feels Compared to Other Browsers
Safari deliberately keeps its interface minimalistic. Tabs, address bar, and navigation tools are presented visually as one single flow, thus a peaceful, less-distracting, calm environment is achieved for the user.
The browser can thus be considered quite a stable, smooth runner especially with simple websites. Animation effects stay minimal, the browser also avoids flashy UI tricks.
Safari’s main concern is still clarity where it hardly ever bombards its users with pop-ups, permission prompts, or overloaded toolbars.
Performance and Resource Usage
Safari is well known for being extremely resourceful and thus gaining great performance. In fact, even when they are quite outdated, one browser can still pretty much suffice a user who wants to minimize his/her resource consumption and still have a quick browser launch.
Older Safari builds on Windows can still be as lightweight as they used to be and they operate without the heavy background processes that are pretty common in modern browsers nowadays.
On the other hand, performance is not a synonym for compatibility. In fact, many contemporary web applications rely on APIs, frameworks which only the latest Safari versions can fully support.
Privacy and Tracking Controls
Safari keeps privacy at its core. It is equipped with a bunch of built-in user-friendly privacy tools that essentially prevent cross-site tracking, thus, reduce the possibilities of advertisers following user behavior online.
This still holds to some extent even in older versions of the browser, where cookie handling, pop-up blocking, and basic privacy are just some of the main elements that are deeply embedded into the user experience.
On the downside, these Windows versions have ceased to evolve, hence not very updated either in terms of their privacy protection capabilities to be in line with the standards of the modern age.
Who Typically Looks for Safari on Windows
Web developers and testers who want to ensure the compatibility of a website with a WebKit-based browser look for Safari on Windows.
Minimal and bare-bones Sari interface is the reason why some people prefer it.
Apple ecosystem users who want to enjoy a consistent web surfing experience across various devices may also fall on Safari on Windows.
Limitations You Should Know
There are no more updates coming for Safari for Windows. This really puts a stain not just on security but also on website compatibility and the availability of new features.
There might be many instances when modern websites either won’t open at all or will be displayed with broken layouts.
The things like sync, extensions, and modern privacy features are either heavily restricted or completely absent, if you compare them with the latest Safari versions on macOS.
Availability on Windows
Safari is still technically there for Windows thanks to older standalone installers based on versions that people still keep sharing and downloading.
Because after these releases Apple, for a long time, has not been actively supporting them, they should basically be considered as “software relics” rather than primary browsers.
When you want to get Safari for Windows, the main thing to remain more or less sane is to have clearly defined and honest expectations about what it is capable of.
A Practical Perspective
The basic premise of Safari’s design theme is still very nice and almost most users can connect with its neatness, readability-focused nature, and silent privacy features.
Still, on Windows, one can hardly regard Safari as anything but a legacy browser.
If any user questions Apple’s web browsing philosophy, Safari gives them a peek at another design mindset behind the scene, even though it is no longer one of the Windows browsers competing on the market with regularly developed features.
Final Thoughts
Basically, Safari puts emphasis on user clarity, efficiency, and privacy. At present, Safari has no place in the active Windows ecosystem although it still continues to lure some users simply because of its lightweight aura and calm interface that they love.
One can still download and use previous versions of Safari on Windows if one’s intention is to get acquainted with the design and browsing philosophy of the browser.
What you need to remember is that it is no longer maintained, and therefore, one cannot expect it to be completely compatible with modern web.