Solved Start page broken

[Aardvarkly]

Does anyone else use Startpage.com as the home page in their browser? I have been doing so for a few years now. I use it because it is one small step toward that old concept of "privacy". For about a week now instead of showing just the Startpage search box there is a large ad for their mobile app. I never use a mobile for internet access so do not need their app. I would like to get rid of the ad but have failed. I contacted Startpage to ask how to do it and they say they can't help but are working on a solution. This morning I find that the Startpage Search simply won't load on any of my browsers, and in fact I can't find startpage anywhere to bookmark it.

Anyone else seen this?

 

[Malneb]

just block all the css you don't want to see with ublock, or you could get creative and make your own html homepage with css styling that has a search box that directs to startpage.

 

[Aardvarkly]

Firstly, I don't know what CSS is. Second, I have Ublock Origin and it does nothing about the new intrusive ad. I tried to install Ublock in Brave but it says it won't install.
I don't know anything about html at all so that is of no use. I tried right clicking on the page and clicked "inspect (Q)" and some of the gobbledygook listed there refers to "promo" etc. and by deleting that I got rid of the added crap but the next time the page loads it is back again.

 

[Malneb]

Ublock wont block that stuff by default, you will have to right click on and block it. Hover around until you are blocking ,main containers. that way you make less block rules

 

[Aardvarkly]

Thankyou for the suggestion. In Firefox there is no ublock image to click on. In Brave (my main browser I can click on the ublock origin symbol and I get the option you describe. The promo ad disappears but when I close and reopen the page it is back again. I can't get it permanently removed.

 

[Malneb]

When i go to the page i am not met with ads so i am not sure what you are referring to. If the blocked items reapear then it could be due to a few reasons, one the content could be dynamic so when the page reloads your blocked filter will not work or it could be because you are loading cached data as a page refresh will generally load data that has cached.

Try defining the block rules and then quitting the browser and then reopening it after some seconds, if it still does not work then there is nothing you can do most likely.

Also look over this info it describes why the block filters might not work.
Element picker . gorhill/uBlock Wiki . GitHub

 

[Aardvarkly]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have now decided I can't crack this one so I have ditched Startpage on all my browsers. New problem. I have managed to find an alternative on Opera, Firefox, and Chrome but my favourite (default) browser is/was Brave. I removed Startpage and tried to use DuckduckGo. It didn't work at all as a search engine on Brave. No problem. I can always fall back on plain old Google but no. Although I have chosen Google as my default search engine in the settings to open when I start it up I still get no big search box, just the small one at the top of the Brave page and that one has duckduckgo in it. I can't remove that and it just can't be permanently removed, and there is no way to search in Brave at the moment.

I figure something has broken in Brave. I don't mind reinstalling it but Brave won't download because it insists I install Windows latest OS first. I would rather be boiled in oil than do that. Before I got rid of Startpage I had no problems at all with Brave.

Any ideas?

 

[Malneb]

Brave is chromium so it wont work well on window 7 unless you use a really old version.

- Edge
- Firefox ESR
- Seamonkey

These three are the best for windows 7 imo as its EOL, i don't even like Edge but i put it because it will work flawlessly. I am biased to Firefox because its always been a good browser. Seamonkey is just mentioned because its a good alternative on the old gecko engine for times when you want to browse online, but only use a small amount of memory to do so. I would not main SeaMonkey as its to old but its good for basic browsing.

If you really want to use Brave then i would stick to versions close to 1.4.7x The issues you are facing may be due to the browser being out of support on 7 since 2022. I don't use Brave so take this wit ha grain of salt, but i do know that Chromium browsers are subject to break because windows 7 being EOL.

If you really want a chromium browser then this is probably the one to use. I have no idea on it and never used it but if i liked chromium then i would use this.
Supermium Web Browser

 

[Aardvarkly]

I have several browsers installed so I will fall back to my second favourite, Firefox ESL but I have heard talk of it being going belly up this september. Once I run out of usable browsers I will take the big jump and ditch Windows completely and go to Linux. I already have it on a hard drive ready to plug in when needed.