Got a question about browsers?

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It’s pretty obvious that Browsers are an operating system into themselves. No matter what platform or operating system you use, all of us depend on th
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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satrow, opti1, WCHS, lmacri

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Just when I finally got it clear in my head that Thunderbird is an email client (and so is now in the Home » Forums » AskWoody support » Email clients – non Microsoft Forum), I see it listed among browsers, too.

So, which is it — an email client? a browser? Or is it both?

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Clearly I haven’t moved that post yet. Will do so now.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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WCHS

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“As a result, I recommend having several browsers on any platform so you can have a primary (secured and paranoid) browser and then one that is plain default as a fallback in case you have an issue on a site.”

I will be interested to see opinions, if any, on which browser(s) come down on the side of primary and which on the side of plain default.

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A description of your OS and hardware specs, current memory usage and browser habits might be a good start to have others base opinions on.

I have plenty of RAM and a recent i7 CPU, though my default browser does a decent job of sipping memory (currently 4GB, ~50 active of ~300 tabs). Firing up 2-6 others for specific ‘difficult’ sites, or alternate uses like shopping/banking, etc. (currently ‘just’ 950MB/3.4GB) is no problem.

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I recommend having several browsers on any platform so you can have a primary (secured and paranoid) browser and then one that is plain default as a fallback in case you have an issue on a site.

May I add the following advice?

If you find a site that’s broken when your security-conscious browser tries to access it, please think twice, then think again before choosing to push forward and access it with a less secure setup.

Some of my experience:

The Brave browser, with the uBlock Origin and uMatrix add-ons (and a fair bit of additional configuration) has proven a very secure and workable browser for me. And if I find a site that doesn’t work, after taking my own advice above, I don’t use an alternate browser, I figure out what is breaking the site and if I deem the site worthy of my visit I use the configuration capabilities of the above plug-ins to very selectively enable components it wants to run.

Quite often, especially if the site isn’t broken because of something basic (e.g., google scripts or something) I just walk away from it.

I have used Windows since 2.0 (somehow I missed 1.0). I have never gotten a malware infection.

BTW, one thing I noticed: My workstation is very stable, running 24/7 normally a month at a time (between Windows Updates) without a reboot, but… One night earlier this year I had it lock up and I had to hard reset the system in the morning. I researched why it happened in the Windows Event Log and lo and behold a Brave Browser self update was the very last thing logged. I’m not terribly happy about that, but nothing was lost and I do have multiple backups if they’re needed. I continue to use Brave but if it happens again I may change my tune. An application should not be able to crash or freeze a system.

-Noel

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Noel Carboni wrote:

…One night earlier this year I had it lock up and I had to hard reset the system in the morning. I researched why it happened in the Windows Event Log and lo and behold a Brave Browser self update was the very last thing logged. I’m not terribly happy about that…

You might want to look at the following post from @b regarding some recent questionable behavior from Brave: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/brave-appears-to-install-vpn-services-without-user-consent/

Perhaps it tried to install said service but in doing so it crashed your system due to your very tight security configuration?

Just a thought.

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Brave makes their VPN available and visible but services necessary to run it are set manual.  Not being asked whether you want it available is an annoyance but no worse than a lot of things Microsoft pushes at us via update.

BTW, you can right-click the Brave VPN icon and hide it.

 

Group A (but Telemetry disabled Tasks and Registry)
1) Dell Inspiron with Win 11 64 Home permanently in dock due to "sorry spares no longer made".
2) Dell Inspiron with Win 11 64 Home (substantial discount with Pro version available only at full price)

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Cybertooth

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SteveTree wrote:

Not being asked whether you want it available is an annoyance but no worse than a lot of things Microsoft pushes at us via update.

What subscription services does Microsoft install without asking?

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The click-to-run service for Office 365 is set to automatic and runs whether or not you use O365 (unless you disable it). However, I said annoyance”, not ‘subscription service’.

 

 

Group A (but Telemetry disabled Tasks and Registry)
1) Dell Inspiron with Win 11 64 Home permanently in dock due to "sorry spares no longer made".
2) Dell Inspiron with Win 11 64 Home (substantial discount with Pro version available only at full price)

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But the annoyance being discussed here is a separate third-party program being installed without permission which requires a $10 per month subscription to use. That is worse than anything Microsoft installs.

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I am NOT saying Brave writers did a good thing or are somehow better than any other companies in the way they resort to underhanded tactics to turn a profit, only that the VPN sits ‘parked’ until you do something to activate it. It might be labelled a Trojan advertising method.

Microsoft enables Click to Run and it wants Internet access whether or not you uninstall the O365 stub. To me a running service that accesses internet is a waste of resources and a  cause to be suspicious. I disabled it, but had to research it first.

You have your own thoughts and opinions. Further discussion probably won’t change either mind.

Group A (but Telemetry disabled Tasks and Registry)
1) Dell Inspiron with Win 11 64 Home permanently in dock due to "sorry spares no longer made".
2) Dell Inspiron with Win 11 64 Home (substantial discount with Pro version available only at full price)

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Cybertooth

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Interested readers can see a Reddit discussion of the Brave VPN issue from one of the developers here.

This was the Brave team’s newest attempt to address a DNS leak introduced by a Windows feature called “Smart Multi-Home Named Resolution.” For the background, see here and especially here:

It’s enabled by default, and if it’s enabled, OS sends queries to all known DNS servers via all available network interfaces, binding query to the interface. That’s probably done to speed up DNS resolving in case of preferred server failure or timeout (1 second by default) so the answer from the second server would be immediately returned to the application. In this case, all your queries are leaked via network interface which allows your ISP or Wi-Fi ap owner to monitor all the websites you visit. DNS Leak is only possible if your route table allows to forward DNS queries via internet interface. This is a typical situation for 99% SoHo routers as they set up their own caching DNS servers on their local IP address.

[…]

Everything changed when it comes to Windows 10. Now OS not only just sends DNS requests to all interfaces, it even uses the fastest one response to receive. This allows your ISP or a hacker to hijack your DNS really easy and reliable. Moreover, you can’t disable ‘Smart Multi-Homed Name Resolution’ in Windows 10, registry key which worked for Windows 8.1 doesn’t work now.

The Brave developers are working on a new solution that will “componentize” the binaries for the VPN services, such that they will not be installed unless the Brave user purchases the VPN.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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To be fair in order to use this site efficiently many of  you have to whitelist it.  I wouldn’t be so quick to throw out a site because you believe it’s misbehaving. Just the other day I had to walk someone through turning off the popup blocker in Safari on an iphone so they could see what their insurance company would give them for an accident they were in. It was a legit site, it was doing interaction with the user of the site, she had received a text message. Everything was legit, the site just wanted to have a popup enabled.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Hi all,

I am using this as another browser, well worth a look, and really fast.

https://thorium.rocks/

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“Other desktop and Microsoft Store software” should be moved from the browsers topic.

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windbg

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