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Groups > alt.comp.os.windows-10 > #186877
| From | Marion <marion@facts.com> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.comp.os.windows-11, alt.comp.microsoft.windows |
| Subject | Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser |
| Date | 2025-08-19 15:17 +0000 |
| Organization | BWH Usenet Archive (https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com) |
| Message-ID | <10824ht$26ne$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> (permalink) |
| References | (9 earlier) <107g79l$27rm$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <107trjv$9eo$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <107vl4v$1541$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <107vtqj$2s2$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <1081lgo$2nsg$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> |
Cross-posted to 3 groups.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:00:40 -0000 (UTC), Marion wrote :
> Here's the fundamental process:
> A. Start any free no-registration system-wide VPN.
> B. Start the FOSS Psiphon tools to connect to a SOCKS5 proxifier port.
> C. Set up apps to use that port using FreeCap settings set to that port.
If it takes two button clicks, that's one too many, and if a click exposes
your privacy, then we have to think about how to protect our privacy.
To both those ends, I improved the process this morning of running a
free no-registration system-wide random VPN first, and then running
Psiphon with a static SOCKS5 port of 1080 so that when I run the
privacy web browser from FreeCap, I now don't need to set the SOCKS5
port each time.
One "privacy" problem, albeit minor, with Psiphon, is that it brings
up an advertisement on your default web browser during startup.
Drat. That sucks. It's not harmful, but it exposes your privacy.
Needlessly.
So let's fix that pronto using basic Windows tricks of setting
the default web browser to a batch file that does whatever I want.
Besides, even with a random system-wide no-registration free VPN running,
it's still bad form for Psiphon to be bringing up a default browser to
an advertisement which can, for all we know, rot privacy in some way.
That browser session unilaterally launched by Psiphon isn't yet proxified.
As I said many times, privacy is like hygiene. It's a billion things.
Removing that initial privacy flaw at Psiphon startup needed to be done.
Unfortunately, the free Psiphon doesn't have switches to turn that off.
C:\> psiphon3.exe -mode=socks <== this doesn't exist... bummer
We might like to set up the Tor browser as the default because it can
open up unconnected, but it's problematic to set a Tor browser as
the default (since Tor doesn't register itself as a Windows browser).
So let's just create a dummy web browser for Psiphon to invoke.
@echo off
REM C:\path\to\dummybrowser.bat 20250819 revision 1.0
set LOGFILE=C:\path\to\dummybrowser.log
echo [%date% %time%] Attempted launch: %* >> %LOGFILE%
start "" "C:\path\to\gvim.exe" "%LOGFILE%"
exit
Since Windows won't set the default web browser to a batch
file, let's convert that dummybrowser.bat to dummybrowser.exe
using any of a number of batch-to-executable converters.
<https://github.com/l-urk/Bat-To-Exe-Converter-64-Bit/releases>
<https://github.com/l-urk/Bat-To-Exe-Converter-64-Bit/releases/download/3.2/Bat_To_Exe_Converter_x64.exe>
1. Open that "Bat To Exe Converter v3.2" executable.
2. Select your .bat file using the folder icon.
3. At the right, in Options, there is "Exe-Format" with these choices
32-bit | Console (Visible)
32-bit | Windows (Invisible)
64-bit | Console (Visible)
64-bit | Windows (Invisible) <== Use this to compile a batch file
as a 64-bit GUI-style exe that runs silently with no console window.
4. Click the "Convert" button to convert batch to exe.
5. Choose your output path in the "Save as" field.
(Optional) Add an icon or version info.
But you still can't select the dummy browser yet as it's not registered.
Win+I > Apps > Default apps > Web browser >
Choose default apps by file type
Choose default apps by protocol
Set defaults by app
Recommended browser settings
You first need to register your exe as a web browser in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet
To do that, right-click "merge" this registry file:
C:\> gvim C:\path\to\register_dummy_browser.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\DummyBrowser]
@="Dummy Browser"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\DummyBrowser\Capabilities]
"ApplicationName"="Dummy Browser"
"ApplicationDescription"="A privacy-preserving dummy browser"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\DummyBrowser\Capabilities\FileAssociations]
".htm"="DummyBrowserHTML"
".html"="DummyBrowserHTML"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\DummyBrowser\Capabilities\URLAssociations]
"http"="DummyBrowserHTML"
"https"="DummyBrowserHTML"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\DummyBrowserHTML\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\path\\to\\dummybrowser.exe\" \"%1\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications]
"Dummy Browser"="Software\\Clients\\StartMenuInternet\\DummyBrowser\\Capabilities"
Now you can select the dummy browser as your default web browser.
Win+I > Apps > Default apps > Web browser > dummybrowser.exe
Voila!
Now, when you start Psiphon, it tries to launch the advertisement
using the default browser, which happens to simply log the attempt.
As always, privacy, like hygiene, is a billion things done every day.
If you have improvements to share, please let the team know so
we all benefit from every effort at improving privacy on Windows.
In summary, two improvements were made in today's progress:
1. Psiphon & FreeCap were set to a static SOCKS5 port of 1080
2. Psiphon's advertisement web browser session was annulled
Please improve if you also need privacy in web browser sessions.
Back to alt.comp.os.windows-10 | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread
Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-07-29 02:25 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser "Allan Higdon" <allanh@vivaldi.net> - 2025-07-29 08:38 -0500
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-07-29 22:41 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-07-30 05:42 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-07-30 21:01 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-01 02:42 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-07 03:31 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-09 02:57 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-09 19:35 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-12 20:13 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-18 00:20 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-18 16:42 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-18 19:10 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-19 11:00 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-19 15:17 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-20 18:27 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-21 04:11 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-22 09:45 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-23 17:14 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-24 14:54 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-08-29 05:41 +0000
Re: Tutorial: DIY build your own lightweight chromium-based privacy web browser Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-09-02 04:06 +0000
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