Which Second Browser

LevelBest said:

I only have Chrome at the moment and would like a second browser that is good with privacy and not being tracked etc, I've downloaded Fire fox this morning and just unstalled it as I find it slow (even slower than Chrome) and slows my computer down. Any suggestions for a quick browser that is good with privacy etc?

I'm currently running Waterfox Classic, Comodo Dragon, IceDragon, and Epic Privacy Browser. None have given me any grief so far. I have Advanced Chrome downloaded, but still cannot do anything with zip files, so it awaits my tech guy to install it. Aside from these, there is Ungoogled Chromium....I'll likely have it installed on MX Linux at the next housecall. So long as you avoid Firefox and Chrome your privacy is way better off, but it's questionable just how privacy oriented the others are. It seems to be a question of degree more than anything.

There's a lot to choose from, I downloaded installer for : ( 108.05359.125 12/28 3:32 !) but before I go 'crazy' is there a 'best ' stable version for Win 7? And, when does one update to the next Stable version. How does the average Joe know? Thanks, and Happy NEW Year.

I've downloaded Firefox this morning and am just setting it up. It is a little faster than Chrome which is welcome. It has downloaded with the latest version and so far so good. I notice that it offers a Mozilla VPN. Anyone using this?

Don't trust some free VPN no matter who owns it. The price is your data...

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Well, don't trust ANY VPN actually.

I use one myself, but I know the limitations and I tried to chose the best provider I could which really doesn't mean much since I don't know how they run their servers and whatnot.

There are lots of things you can do to Firefox to help make it a little bit more "privacy" friendly. And I hate to say it, but don't trust those alternative search engine providers either. SwissCows, StartPage, DuckDuckGo, etc. What I would do is learn how to deploy your own SearX server. You can read about that here, or use someone else's server here. Just pick an instance and add it to your search engines if you show the search engines alongside the address bar. Make sure you click the cog (gear) to change the settings...Note though, don't trust it since it's someone else's server.


For Apache, you can run this locally (yes, on your computer) with everyone's favorite LAMP stack XAMPP or Wampserver. You could also spin up a LMAP stack in VMware. What the hell is LAMP? Linux Apache, MySQL, PHP.

Install with apache — Searx Documentation (Searx-1.1.0.tex)

XAMPP Installers and Downloads for Apache Friends

Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting.

This is more applicable for Windows 10 with WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux).

I like XAMPP myself. Love that software. I actually created my website in that sucker on my laptop in the Summer of 2015 or thereabouts and then deployed it live. Had to edit the database though for it to work live.

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Firefox Profilemaker


All these settings are in the file called prefs.js found in the Mozilla folder under the hidden AppData folder in Windows. Prefs.js is a readable text document. You could use Notepad++ to open it... I do.


BrowserLeaks - Web Browser Fingerprinting - Browsing Privacy


No idea what the Explorer issue is about. Have any add-ons installed? Maybe create a new thread on the matter.

LevelBest said:

I only have Chrome at the moment and would like a second browser that is good with privacy and not being tracked etc, I've downloaded Fire fox this morning and just unstalled it as I find it slow (even slower than Chrome) and slows my computer down. Any suggestions for a quick browser that is good with privacy etc?

Epic Privacy Browser, a secure chromium-based web browser with Encrypted Proxy and AdBlock | a free, unlimited VPN private browser for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android

This browser changes your IP address according to What's My IP Address? Networking Tools & More

Not too sure just what that means concerning your ISP, but it appears to fake the address when you go to other sites. It works well on Win 7 (never had a problem other than my banks block it).

I am using Firefox 113.0.2 (64-bit), and it works fine. I did make some changes that noticably improve performance. Using the advanced level of the Configuration Editor; i.e. about:config, I was able to get close to what I consider the maximum download performance for my system. Note: I use FDM and almost all I download are mp3, pdf and txt files. I don't use social networks or watch videos. Here's the link to the Mozilla help page:

Configuration Editor for Firefox | Firefox Help

I THINK these are the changes I made to the JScript Script File (prefs.js) to improve download performance:

user_pref("network.dns.disableIPv6", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.referer.disallowCrossSiteRelaxingDefault.top_navigation", true);
user_pref("network.proxy.type", 0);
user_pref("network.trr.mode", 5);
user_pref("network.trr.uri", "https://mozilla.cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query");
user_pref("new Boolean", true);
user_pref("new", true);

PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL MESSING WITH THESE SETTINGS... but I guess you could always remove Firefox with Programs in the Control Panel, then reinstall it.

Phredtx said:

PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL MESSING WITH THESE SETTINGS... but I guess you could always remove Firefox with Programs in the Control Panel, then reinstall it.

No, just delete the prefs.js file and Firefox will automatically rebuild it.


BTW - The prefs.js file is human readable. Use any text editor to view its contents. I prefer Notepad++. I simply right click the file and open with Notepad++.

For me, Notepad++ has been indispensable. I use it and its abilities and plugins everyday.