Zen is a new and interesting browser. This is a full guide to it.
To install it, just go to zen-browser.app and install for your platform. After that, open it and complete the onboarding process.
Right after you install Zen Browser, you should probably log into a Firefox account. If you already have one, then your data should be imported, and if you don't, you'll still get syncing for bookmarks and tabs.
Zen comes with a pretty good user.js file, so you shouldn't have to edit that, but in the settings, there are things you should change for privacy.
If you don't have this already, get it! This is the most important for your privacy. It blocks malware, trackers, and ads.
Head to the Privacy settings and turn on Tracker Protection to Max.
A password manager is essential for your security. If you already are using a good one, turn off all the password management stuff in the settings. If you are using Firefox's built-in password manager, at least set a master password.
In the settings I recommend you turn on Secure DNS. Most people will be fine with Cloudflare's as it won't break anything.
Zen Mods are basically stackable themes for Zen. All of them are open-source. You should check out these for starting out:
https://zen-browser.app/mods/d8b79d4a-6cba-4495-9ff6-d6d30b0e94fe
https://zen-browser.app/mods/cb15abdb-0514-4e09-8ce5-722cf1f4a20f
https://zen-browser.app/mods/ad97bb70-0066-4e42-9b5f-173a5e42c6fc
To change the theme of your space, you can right-click the sidebar and click Change Theme Colors. After that you can pick a solid color or a gradient. The limits are very flexible, and unlike Arc, you can choose any color(s) you want!
Workspaces are basically profiles but in the same window. You can easily switch between them without separate windows. By default, you are already in the Default workspace.
To change and create them, click the space title and you can press Plus to create a new workspace. You can also bind keys in the settings for easy switching.
Zen has a feature where you can easily preview a link without creating a new tab. To use it, Alt+Click on a link.
It might be disabled for you. Check the settings to see if it's enabled.
Zen offers different toolbar options to choose from. You can have the URL on the sidebar with your tabs or the URL bar at the top.
You can see them all in the Zen settings.
Unlike Arc, Zen actually lets you see your New Tab instead of removing it entirely. Because of this, there are options to make it look a lot better and add new features to it. I can recommend:
Tabliss - open-source highly customizable New Tab with widgets Bonjourr - beautiful, light-weight New Tab page Flowtide - beautiful, customizable New Tab page that happens to be created by me :)
Like Arc, Zen offers an expansive split view option for seeing multiple tabs in one window. To use it, control or command click the tabs you wanna split and press "Split tabs". After that, an icon in the URL bar will appear which lets you customize it.
It is very limitless. I was able to successfully split 19 tabs in one window. That's the beauty of open-source.
An underrated Zen feature, you can put your tabs on the right side of the screen. To do so, just right click the sidebar and click "Tabs on the right".
One terrible thing Firefox ships with is a prompt asking if you want to download a file every time. To fix this awful behavior, you can go to Settings and say Zen should always just download the file and shut up.
At the bottom of the Settings page, you can configure a proxy just for the browser.
By default, Zen unloads unused tabs to save resources. If you have a tab that needs to run in the background, you can right-click the tab and select "Tab unloader actions" and prevent the tab from being unloaded.
Most Zen Browser toolbar icons can be moved or deleted. Just right click it and remove from toolbar.
Zen is a very customizable browser with lots of features and is rapidly improving. Since it is still in beta, things might be broken and have bugs. If you find one, please report it so Zen can be improved for everyone. Remember, this is an open-source project.
Suggest improvements to this guide by commenting and mentioning me. I'll try to keep this updated.