Microsoft adds Chrome themes support to new Edge browser

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 6, 2020
Internet, Microsoft Edge
|
43

Users of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser which the company released in January 2020 officially will soon be able to install themes designed for Google Chrome in Microsoft's web browser.

Microsoft's new web browser supported the installation of Chrome extensions from the day of launch. While it needs to be enabled in the browser's options, it is a straightforward process that unlocks Chrome's vast extensions store and the extensions it hosts.

Users of the new browser who tried to install themes from the Chrome Web Store noticed that this was not possible at the time. The installation would throw the error "An error has occurred" when trying to do so.

microsoft edge chromium chrome themes

The process is not supported in current versions of Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft added a new option to the latest Canary build of its browser that allows users to install Chrome themes in Microsoft Edge. The feature is not enabled by default and needs to be unlocked on the experimental flags page of the browser.

If tests are successful, options to install Chrome themes will come to other Microsoft Edge channels in the near future.

microsoft edge allow chrome theme installations

Here is what you need to do currently:

  1. Make sure that Microsoft Edge Canary is up to date. You can check for updates on edge://settings/help.
  2. Load edge://flags/#edge-allow-store-extension-themes in the browser's address bar; the page should jump straight to the "Allow installation of external store themes" flag on the page.
    • Allow installation of external store themes
      Turn this on to allow themes from external web stores to be installed in Microsoft Edge. – Mac, Windows
  3. Set the experiment to enabled using the menu on the right.
  4. Restart Microsoft Edge.

Head over to the themes section of the Chrome Web Store to test the new functionality. You will notice that themes will install fine in the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.

chrome theme installed edge

Chrome, unlike Firefox, accepts only one custom theme installation and the same is true for the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.

To remove a custom theme, visit edge://settings/appearance in the browser's address bar and select "remove" next to custom theme.

Note that you may also disable the status of the experimental flag to uninstall the theme.

Closing Words

Users of the new Microsoft Edge web browser can install Chrome browser extensions and soon also Chrome themes from the official Chrome Web Store. Google does not like this at all and displays a notification to Edge users who visit the Chrome Web Store claiming that Chrome is more secure when it comes to the installation of these extensions.

Now You: Default theme or custom theme, what is your preference? (via Deskmodder, Techdows)

Summary
Microsoft adds Chrome themes support to new Edge browser
Article Name
Microsoft adds Chrome themes support to new Edge browser
Description
Users of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser which the company released in January 2020 officially will soon be able to install themes designed for Google Chrome in Microsoft's web browser.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 4:04 pm
    Reply

    @Sophie

    Nice “I am the good person, Iron Heart bad!” post, but this needs to be debunked.

    > and also not trying to victimize or persecute any particular individual.

    This is probably why I am the only one that is being bashed by you. Not that I would mind, your criticism is not really something I take seriously, since I don’t think people who do not understand the rationale behind my posts are really the ones I should listen to.

    > They (people like Iron Heart) always like to have the last word.

    What you describe as “me wanting to have the last word” is actually me debunking fake news and lies about Brave all the time. Lies which you do not mind of course, since you don’t use it. But that doesn’t make lying OK, and it doesn’t mean that what I do is pointless.

    > They can’t take criticism

    I can take criticism, but only if it’s not nonsensical for once and has provable points. Which is not the case here most of the time.

    > probably argued with their siblings endlessly in a desperate attempt to be notice, recognized, acknowledged, loved and respected….and ended up having to shout all the louder, to make up for their obvious deficiencies.

    There is a more obvious and easier explanation: I don’t like lies, fake news, and bullshit. As a principle, and I will do what I can to do away with them.

    Please, spare society the burden of you being a hobby psychologist. You are getting it wrong entirely.

    > John Fenderson and Tom Hawak.

    I read their posts, they seem to be somewhat friendly strangers who have a good writing style, but that’s about it. Seldom have I read a comment of these that really brought something new to the table, they have “little to share” as you would put it. That’s my opinion, if you are a fan of them, then that’s totally fine. Just read their comments then and skip mine like an adult would, if you can’t bear my comments. “Don’t like it, don’t read it.” doesn’t seem to apply to you at all, you prefer to read my comments even though you dislike them, and then whine about them endlessly. What is the psychology behind this, I wonder? Do you like to hear yourself talk? Do you like bashing me for avoidable reasons?

    > not competitive, and highly unlikely to engage in tit for tat “Brave is best” nonsense

    I have seen both of these gentlemen in far dumber debates, but that’s besides the point. Brave is the best browser for me(!), that doesn’t mean anyone else has to use it. I will debunk lies and fake news spread about it, though, the very thing you believe is “me wanting to have the last word”.

    > And lastly, I am a Firefox enthusiast. BUT….interestingly, (or not!) this is not about Firefox or Brave at all. The point is, I don’t need to come on here and extol the virtues of one against the other. All debate about each browser (or whatever the subject may be) is, or should be, welcome.

    You are a hypocrite, Miss Sophie. You bash me for wanting to correct the lies spread about Brave here, yet you never criticize the fake news spread here by others in the first place. Oh no no no… You criticize the one trying to debunk the fake news (me), this is the villain, not the people spreading them. As I said, hypocrite.

    > a rather daft moniker

    And you are the one complaining about me supposedly “trolling” others. What a joke, look in the mirror for once.

    > And very lastly Gary, look how Iron Heart has called you a “Pro Firefox troll”.

    Yes, I said that to him because he is. I already know “Gary D” from prior discussions.

    > Since when did this friendly place descend into something like this?

    Yes, I am the one creating that climate all by myself, haha. Not the commenters writing fake news or your whining about me and bashing me, not the numerous insulting comments that were here before I even replied, directed at me and at others… Give me a break, lol. “Friendly place” perhaps for you and the Firefox swarm, not for anyone thinking differently.

    > when you are on your death bed blah blah blah

    How about you live your life and I live mine, I don’t value others thinking they know how to live my life better than I do, as this is ridiculous. And please stop the whining about me, I have to once again wipe your tears from my keyboard, I don’t need damaged keyboards.

  2. Sophie said on March 9, 2020 at 12:22 pm
    Reply

    @ Gary D

    Thanks for this, though I am definitely not looking for any kind of support, and also not trying to victimize or persecute any particular individual. It’s just that these boards were always a friendly place, but every once in a while, just as in life, it just takes one or two to spoil things and alter the friendly ‘chemistry’ so to speak.

    Like you, I have learned a lot from people, and also the site and site authors of course, and there are one or two very friendly souls on here (I won’t name them) that have bounced back to me in the same friendly spirit, that I have engaged with them. The process works best when people share their knowledge, and help others. That’s great when that happens. As in life, we are all at different stages of learning.

    Then along comes “people” like Iron Heart (no idea of the gender of course), and things can sour. They (people like Iron Heart) always like to have the last word. They can’t take criticism, they have to cut and paste bits of text, prove a point, endlessly bore the pants of anyone trying to “see” through reams and reams of contributions – to see the wood for the trees.

    The sort of people, (as I imagine the gender-unspecified-and-unknown “Iron Heart” might be), who ALWAYS had to have the last word….probably argued with their siblings endlessly in a desperate attempt to be notice, recognized, acknowledged, loved and respected….and ended up having to shout all the louder, to make up for their obvious deficiencies.

    Like you, I have visited these pages (thanks Martin and others!) for several years, probably about 2015 I’d say, so a bit late to the party. I read far more than I write, but definitely pipe up once in a while to engage with others and share a few things I hope might be helpful. Otherwise, I’m a fairly silent person, and might I add, deep with respect for others…………

    ………….unless IRKED, as I have been with the gender-non-specific Iron Heart.

    I’m not sure a moderator is a good idea, because that would likely lead to censorship of some form, but I do think that if there is ever time on the part of the site organizers, that if they see threads being taken over by endless and fairly pointless stuff……effectively competitive rows, then it might be a good idea to cull some of that stuff.

    Certainly, my very own message here might fall under that cull. So be it, it would not really matter. But I hope that my points here are constructive at least.

    Actually, I will name two people that are often on these boards…..John Fenderson and Tom Hawak. Apologies if I have mis-spelled any names there. Well, clearly to me, both are really great contributors. The former, can be instantly recognized (in my view) as highly knowledgeable, not competitive, and highly unlikely to engage in tit for tat “Brave is best” nonsense. The latter, a French gentleman I believe”, is enthusiastic, wishing to learn, and always always ready to share his tips and his knowledge in the most friendly and nice way you could hope for. I hope and think that I would be a contributor like that, if I were to comment more. Certainly, that is the angle I would aspire to come from, and seek to achieve.

    So….sorry for the long text here, to anyone that has wished to keep up. What we don’t need (though of course nobody is barring them) is people with little to share, but points to prove. That is what motivated me to speak out. Nobody has to agree with me of course, just my view.

    And lastly, I am a Firefox enthusiast. BUT….interestingly, (or not!) this is not about Firefox or Brave at all. The point is, I don’t need to come on here and extol the virtues of one against the other. All debate about each browser (or whatever the subject may be) is, or should be, welcome. It’s just that things start to break down when it just boils down to point-scoring, like our gender-less contributor with, may I say, a rather daft moniker…… Mr or Ms or Mrs Iron Heart…..the same person who likes to “append” text to the names of other contributors, so as to cast them in a bad light or denigrate them. This is exactly the reason why I wrote “Iron Fart”, myself, (rather childish of me), but so as to highlight this practice.

    And very lastly Gary, look how Iron Heart has called you a “Pro Firefox troll”. Since when did this friendly place descend into something like this? But I would not want Martin to censor it….its best that each make their judgement and decide what they think, and perhaps to some extent at least, ostracize those that spoil it for all the others.

    Thanks for keeping up to anyone that has, and to you : no-gender-iron-heart, when you are on your death bed at some point in the future, try and remember that civility, manners, good grace…and above all, point-scoring and always having the last word were not really what life was about. What it was about was giving and sharing knowledge in a friendly and collaborative way, so that you could learn from others, and they could learn from you, and that everyone was all the better for it.

    Thanks, Sophie
    xx

    1. Lord-Lestat said on March 11, 2020 at 2:23 am
      Reply

      @Sophie The only REAL trolls which are on Ghacks these days are part of the Mozilla-new Firefox-wannabelike-Chrome-imitation browser fandom.

      With each growing and more and more epic fails Mozilla falls with betraying their origin visions and believes and with betraying their origin power-user-base – and the higher the market-share loss of Firefox is becoming, the more Mozilla trolls launch attacks against other browsers, no matter if Edge, Pale Moon, Seamonkey or Vivaldi or Brave.

      Fits a radical leftist browser developer and it’s radical leftist user-base-new. The MAJORITY of these days remaining non-enigmatic and non-sophisticated Firefox fanboys/fangirls are simply radicals and are part of the WORST browser community which is around these days, comparing browser communities all together. Truly nothing to be proud of.

  3. allen said on March 9, 2020 at 9:11 am
    Reply

    I haven’t seen a good browser theme since I stopped using Firefox… and stopped creating themes for Firefox… because Firefox stopped supporting themes… and users.

    1. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 10:26 am
      Reply

      It’s not comparable to the full themes Firefox once had of course, but what about Vivaldi?

  4. Sophie said on March 8, 2020 at 5:31 pm
    Reply

    @Iron Heart [Editor: please…]

    you really are just beyond a troll. here, you tell everyone to shut up (which is just so rude in the first place) …but to “shut up with all your squabbles about browsers”.

    UNBELIEVABLE!!!

    until you trolled these boards, which lived happily ever after before you discovered it, nobody was engaging to this extent about brave this….brave that…. pompous nonsense that show you have nothing better to do with your time than shout and troll about browsers like its the be all and end all of life.

    “Every single thread!” you shout….without realizing the irony of this pathetic statement.

    “copy and pasting arguments” you shout…..without realising that its YOU who visit other repositories, and then paste the stuff in here, on Martin’s site, as if to reinforce you have knowledge about these things.

    “or better yet, don’t comment at all and let there be peace” you shout…..

    TALK ABOUT POT CALLING KETTLE

    as i’ve told you before, iron-fart, i suggest you take that trip to grand-mama, with your nice boiled eggs (hard, but not too hard cooked) and sit with her and think about the days of peace, before you discovered this site and trolled it to death.

    thanks so much (for nothing)

    1. Gary D said on March 8, 2020 at 7:20 pm
      Reply

      @ Sophie

      Excellent summation of iron Heart

      Stand by for his / her over the top reaction.

      I have been reading ghacks articles for at least six years. During that time, I have picked up a lot of tips from other posters.

      Since Iron Heart and Yuliya started to monopolise and troll Firefox articles and Firefox users, and Iron Heart started to push the Brave browser, while belittling the content from other commenters, the quality of the tips and links have dropped through the floor. In fact, many of the people who used to comment have disappeared.

      I bet that they have done the same on other blogs and been booted off. Martin really needs to have a moderator to cull many of the comments from them and the rest of the anti Firefox brigade before the ghacks blog becomes irrelevant.

      1. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 7:29 am
        Reply

        @Gary D

        > Since Iron Heart and Yuliya started to monopolise and troll Firefox articles and Firefox users,

        Trolling = not being based on facts, meant to humiliate. My comments = based on facts, meant to clarify. You don’t even know what trolling means. Trolling is what @Sophie did, attacking others just for the sake of it. And what you view as “monopolise” is basically others spreading too much bullshit, especially about Brave, and me having to debunk it. Less bullshit means that I would have to comment less.

        > and Iron Heart started to push the Brave browser

        Me mentioning that I use it does not mean that I push it. Most of the time I am just debunking postings that spread utter nonsense about it. Debunking nonsense = pushing it in your opinion?

        > while belittling the content from other commenters

        I try not to do that, except when other commenters belittle me, like @Sophie here. In this case: What goes around comes around.

        > the quality of the tips and links have dropped through the floor.

        That’s not my fault at all. And to be honest with you, it’s not like much of the comment section here is worth reading anyways, with or without me. You are acting like gHacks would have some super high quality comment section if only I left, which is an absolute joke.

        > many of the people who used to comment have disappeared.

        Proof or bust.

        > Martin really needs to have a moderator to cull many of the comments from them and the rest of the anti Firefox brigade before the ghacks blog becomes irrelevant.

        1) What about the numerous Pro-Firefox trolls, like you?
        2) Censorship isn’t cool, I never demand it for anyone, not even for those writing the greatest drivel imaginable.
        3) You are not a moderator, don’t assume deciding who can or cannot comment is your responsibility, because it clearly isn’t.

      2. Gary D said on March 9, 2020 at 10:55 am
        Reply

        @ Iron Heart

        Oh dear, did I hurt your feelings about being aBrave troll ?

        > What about the numerous Pro-Firefox trolls, like you?

        You really do like make unsubstantiated comments don’t you.

        > You are not a moderator, don’t assume deciding who can or cannot comment is your responsibility, because it clearly isn’t.

        I suggested that Martin appoint a Moderator. Did I volunteer ?

        NB
        I trawled ( not trolled ) back through the Firefox articles on ghacks. Until the middle of December 2019, your comments were readable and coherent. Since January this year, every time someone posts a positive comment about FF you jump in and denigrate the poster and FF THEN start telling them to use Brave.

        I suggest that you wind your neck in and calm your rhetoric down, Snot Iron Heart. I adapted the name (Snotphie) which you called Sophie.

        I look forward to your long winded, cut and paste, reply.

        I posted “I bet that they have done the same on other blogs and been booted off.”
        I note that, conveniently, you did not comment on that

      3. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 4:19 pm
        Reply

        @Gary D

        > Oh dear, did I hurt your feelings about being aBrave troll ?

        You aren’t really capable of hurting my feelings, unfriendly stranger, but I am not a Brave troll. I don’t think Brave is the one and be all, I just try to make substantiated claims about it. Contrary to others, might I add, which seem hellbent to spread fake news about it.

        > You really do like make unsubstantiated comments don’t you.

        Quite the contrary, I think the great majority of what I say is easily provable. That I think you are a Firefox troll has something to do with your posting history, buddy.

        > Since January this year, every time someone posts a positive comment about FF you jump in and denigrate the poster and FF THEN start telling them to use Brave.

        I do not advertise Brave. For me personally(!) it is the best browser, because it meets my(!) needs. I don’t care about and don’t gain anything from anyone else using it. I usually reply to Firefox fanboys who are hellbent on bashing Brave, as I don’t like fake news as a principle.

        > I suggest that you wind your neck in and calm your rhetoric down, Snot Iron Heart. I adapted the name (Snotphie) which you called Sophie.

        If @Snotphie insists on calling me “Iron-fart”, the very moment she hit rock bottom might I add, I have zero problems calling her that in response. Discussions should generally never degrade to such a low level, though, that’s not very civilized and contributes nothing except vitriol.

        > I look forward to your long winded, cut and paste, reply.

        How can I “cut and paste” my replies if I always have to react to different situations? Makes no sense. If I really did “cut and paste” all the time, my replies wouldn’t even be understood.

        > I note that, conveniently, you did not comment on that

        I didn’t reply to that because it’s just a childish assumption on your part that can neither be proven nor disproven. I don’t deal with silly assumptions like that, think what you want about me. If it gives you peace of mind, though: I didn’t get booted from anywhere, because I know to behave myself as long as others do the same. That I have to deal with people like @Sophie also isn’t my everyday life (luckily) or favorite leisure time activity.

    2. Iron Heart said on March 8, 2020 at 6:23 pm
      Reply

      @Snotphie

      > you really are just beyond a troll. here, you tell everyone to shut up (which is just so rude in the first place) …but to “shut up with all your squabbles about browsers”.

      That wasn’t even me, that was a troll pretending to be myself, the one and only, true Iron Heart. Since that wasn’t me, I will only engage with the parts of your comment that actually concern me. Note that gHacks makes it easy for people to identify as other posters since there is no account system for the comment section.

      > until you trolled these boards, which lived happily ever after before you discovered it, nobody was engaging to this extent about brave this….brave that…. pompous nonsense that show you have nothing better to do with your time than shout and troll about browsers like its the be all and end all of life.

      These boards had their fair share of browser debates even before I have arrived. And in case you haven’t noticed, Snotphie, I usually engage with commenters who either outright troll against or talk bullshit about Brave, which I then debunk. You just conveniently ignore that, painting me as the villain. Try again.

      > as i’ve told you before, iron-fart, i suggest you take that trip to grand-mama, with your nice boiled eggs (hard, but not too hard cooked) and sit with her and think about the days of peace

      I’ve noticed that you’ve turned from Snotphie into Sobphie in no time. Don’t cry me a river here, I am not responsible for your own grandchildren never visiting you and you projecting your own issues at me, as I’ve told you before, your issues are not my fault.

  5. Max Programming YT said on March 8, 2020 at 3:30 am
    Reply

    I was the one who gave a feedback about this issue. And also before that, I had an issue tha Microsoft solved pretty fastly. Thanks Microsoft

  6. Michael Jeacock said on March 7, 2020 at 9:33 pm
    Reply

    Very nice but how about supporting chrome’s advanced spell check. The Microsoft one is rubbish.

  7. Iron Heart said on March 7, 2020 at 9:10 pm
    Reply

    Shut up, all of you, with your squabbles about browsers!!! Every Single Thread! You’re probably just copy-and-pasting your arguments. Take your verbal assaults somewhere else. Comment on the article, or better yet, don’t comment at all and let there be peace.

    1. Iron Heart said on March 8, 2020 at 4:35 pm
      Reply

      @Fake Iron Heart

      There are much smarter and less obvious ways to impersonate me. You have much to learn.

      1. T J said on March 8, 2020 at 7:28 pm
        Reply

        @ “Not Fake” Iron Heart

        >There are much smarter and less obvious ways to impersonate me. You have much to learn.

        What an arrogant and swollen headed Prat you are !!

        You are destroying the quality of the ghacks comments section with your long winded “cut and paste” comments.

      2. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 7:18 am
        Reply

        @T J

        > What an arrogant and swollen headed Prat you are !!

        And you are a pathetic fool.

        > You are destroying the quality of the ghacks comments section with your long winded “cut and paste” comments.

        How about: “Don’t like it, don’t read it.” Act like and adult for once. Otherwise you are also free to leave. And no, my comments are not “cut and paste”. Except maybe when the same bullshit gets repeated by other commenters, tehn of course I have to debunk it the same way as before.

      3. T J said on March 9, 2020 at 10:29 am
        Reply

        @ Iron Heart

        > How about: “Don’t like it, don’t read it.” Act like and adult for once. Otherwise you are also free to leave.

        Same old reply. How repetitious of you. Cut and paste ??

        YAWN !

      4. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 6:16 pm
        Reply

        @T J

        It’s the same old reply because it’s still true and because you still refuse to head this advice. No reason to come up with a new reply in this case.

  8. ashrayspin said on March 6, 2020 at 11:39 pm
    Reply

    So won’t they bring the acryl effect to the new edge?

  9. leland said on March 6, 2020 at 10:19 pm
    Reply

    I have been using Google Chrome Themes with Edge since the first developer release. The trick was you needed an extension to download the CRX file in order to install it. They are just making it easier to this this without the extra step.

  10. chesscanoe said on March 6, 2020 at 11:31 am
    Reply

    For now I think Chrome beta in fact is more secure than EdgeC because it updates sooner in implementing security fixes. Chrome also has large thumbnails when you hover over a tab, saving a click when you check to see if the tab has updated since it was last checked. EdgeC may eventually win the function race versus Chrome, but for me it is not there yet, even in its Canary builds.

  11. Nizo said on March 6, 2020 at 11:15 am
    Reply

    I don’t suppose there’s much in it for security however if google instead said switch to chrome as it’s more privacy respecting they would be correct, which is a sad indictment of edge.

    1. Iron Heart said on March 6, 2020 at 1:31 pm
      Reply

      @Nizo

      Chrome vs. Edge is like pest vs. cholera. Both generally won’t respect your privacy in any way, minor differences between them notwithstanding. Opera is also a bad offender.

      The only sane choices for privacy-respecting browsers are:

      – Ungoogled Chromium (probably the best)
      – Brave (also on mobile)
      – Pale Moon
      – Basilisk
      – Waterfox (at least so far, got bought up by an ad company recently, so might change in the future)
      – Bromite (on mobile)
      – Fennec F-Droid (on mobile)

      Iridium and IceCat are also good, but they are always a bit behind when it comes to browser updates, which is bad for security reasons obviously.

      Firefox is also bad for privacy by default, if you know how to tweak it (gHacks-user.js is a good resource), then it can also worthwhile, otherwise not so much. Additionally, you have to keep up to date with Firefox news, as Mozilla tends to add new anti-features regularly.

      1. TianlanSha said on March 6, 2020 at 10:30 pm
        Reply

        Don’t forget Kiwi on mobile, I don’t know about privacy, but it supports installing extensions from the Chrome Web Store so at least it can give you perfect ad and pop-up blocking. Sometimes it’s so good, it blocks images and you have to disable ad-blocking to see them.

      2. Anonymous said on March 7, 2020 at 2:48 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart
        Brave transferred around 12000 (!) packets on first launch, and 270 on the second even though I turned off Brave telemetry (which was buried deep under the “advanced settings” for some reason, I wouldn’t even know it was there if you didn’t tell me since Brave supposedly respects my privacy), Google Safe Browsing and allowing websites to check my payment options. It also made it seem like I had no other choice than enabling Brave Rewards. I would have been tricked into enabling it if I didn’t intuitively switch to a new tab.

        [first launch]
        https://imgur.com/a/mQeP3wV

        [second launch with telemetry off, still connects to Brave]
        https://imgur.com/a/1xjJnhM

        >https://www.ghacks.net/2020/02/25/study-finds-brave-to-be-the-most-private-browser/

        Looks like I’ve just debunked that biased study all by myself. So much for a privacy respecting browser. This is in stark contrast to Pale Moon and Ungoogled Chromium, which don’t spy on you like Brave by default.

      3. Iron Heart said on March 7, 2020 at 4:31 pm
        Reply

        @Anonymous

        Even after disabling Brave’s telemetry and crash reports (and SafeBrowsing), it will still check for a few things:

        – It will contact fastly.net domains, these are the update servers of Brave. It basically checks for application updates.
        – It still checks for rule updates of the internal HTTPS Everywhere rulesets.
        – It will check for rule updates of its adblock rulesets.

        All of these should remain enabled as they are generally positive and / or necessary for the correct operation of the Brave Shields. Those could be the remaining connection attempts you see in your second picture.

        You can hide the Brave Rewards icon sitting in the address bar in the Brave settings, and the Brave Rewards widget on the “New Tab” page can be disabled by pressing the X button that will appear on its left side once you hover over it.

        It is still true that Brave is more privacy-respecting than the other mainstream browsers, which also collect lots of telemetry (Firefox) or snoop out your browsing history (Chrome, Edge, Opera). The settings in Brave’s preferences pane are not hidden and actually turn off what they say they turn off, contrary to Firefox which still leaves telemetry enabled via a hidden setting.

        You are right though that there ARE browsers which are superior to Brave out of the box, I never denied that. Pale Moon or Ungoogled Chromium come to mind. I’ve actually used Ungoogled Chromium for a good amount of time. I gave up on it because it didn’t and still doesn’t have automatic updates, meaning I had to constantly check for updates by visiting their website, and this is extremely tiresome in the long run. So I switched to Brave, and my Brave setup is very close to Ungoogled Chromium in terms of privacy, it still establishes the connections I listed above, and these I don’t find problematic.

        I think Brave is the best “general use browser”, if you will. It doesn’t suffer from the weaknesses of browsers that may well have a better privacy level. For example, Pale Moon and Basilisk suffer from lacking web standard support at times, as the small team behind them has trouble implementing them in a timely manner. That’s not saying that the devs are bad at their job, just saying there are too few of them. Ungoogled Chromium suffers from not having automatic updates, and from making it unnecessarily difficult to install extensions from the Chrome Web Store, more or less usability issues, if you will.

        And I don’t really think you’ve debunked the study, at least not in the way it was carried out. Look at the browsers tested in the study: Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Yandex. Out of these, Brave is the most private out of the box, thus the conclusion of the study is correct. They didn’t test Pale Moon, Ungoogled Chromium etc., I am sure that they would range ahead of Brave if they had been tested, but since they weren’t part of the test at all you can’t say the results are wrong. Among the browsers tested, Brave has the best privacy by default.

      4. Anonymous said on March 7, 2020 at 6:35 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart
        >Even after disabling Brave’s telemetry and crash reports (and SafeBrowsing), it will still check for a few things:

        >– It will contact fastly.net domains, these are the update servers of Brave. It basically checks for application updates.
        It shouldn’t check for that because now that’s my package manager’s job. You do use GNU/Linux right?

        >– It still checks for rule updates of the internal HTTPS Everywhere rulesets.
        >– It will check for rule updates of its adblock rulesets
        >All of these should remain enabled as they are generally positive and / or necessary for the correct operation of the Brave Shields.

        That’s just, your opinion man. Brave lies to my face and does things on its own. How can I turn them off? Does Brave have an equivalent of about:config?

        >Those could be the remaining connection attempts you see in your second picture.

        All those connections happen over TLS and are encrypted so I can’t be sure of that.

        >It is still true that Brave is more privacy-respecting than the other mainstream browsers, which also collect lots of telemetry (Firefox) or snoop out your browsing history (Chrome, Edge, Opera). The settings in Brave’s preferences pane are not hidden and actually turn off what they say they turn off,

        False. Brave keeps phoning back home even though I turned off everything I could.

        >contrary to Firefox which still leaves telemetry enabled via a hidden setting.

        Source?

        >You are right though that there ARE browsers which are superior to Brave out of the box, I never denied that. Pale Moon or Ungoogled Chromium come to mind. I’ve actually used Ungoogled Chromium for a good amount of time. I gave up on it because it didn’t and still doesn’t have automatic updates, meaning I had to constantly check for updates by visiting their website, and this is extremely tiresome in the long run. So I switched to Brave, and my Brave setup is very close to Ungoogled Chromium in terms of privacy, it still establishes the connections I listed above, and these I don’t find problematic.

        My package manager updates Ungoogled Chromium using RPM Fusion repositories. I just need to type “sudo dnf upgrade –refresh” on my terminal, enter my password and it will be updated along with the rest of my system. Windows larpers pretending to care about privacy are the worst.

        >I think Brave is the best “general use browser”, if you will.

        I disagree.

        >It doesn’t suffer from the weaknesses of browsers that may well have a better privacy level. For example, Pale Moon and Basilisk suffer from lacking web standard support at times, as the small team behind them has trouble implementing them in a timely manner.

        Pale Moon works absolutely fine for most websites. I can understand how it’s not ideal for YouTube since Google sabotages all the other browsers but it’s fine for everything else. Did you even use it? They don’t spy on people and outright lie to my face about respecting my privacy and that’s far more valuable to me.

        >That’s not saying that the devs are bad at their job, just saying there are too few of them. Ungoogled Chromium suffers from not having automatic updates, and from making it unnecessarily difficult to install extensions from the Chrome Web Store, more or less usability issues, if you will.

        You just need to unzip the extension and point Ungoogled Chromium to that folder. It’s not difficult. Actually it’s far more easier than turning off most of Brave spyware that comes enabled by default now that I have to dissect it’s source code and remove all the spyware before compiling it myself.

        >And I don’t really think you’ve debunked the study, at least not in the way it was carried out. Look at the browsers tested in the study: Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Yandex. Out of these, Brave is the most private out of the box, thus the conclusion of the study is correct. They didn’t test Pale Moon, Ungoogled Chromium etc., I am sure that they would range ahead of Brave if they had been tested, but since they weren’t part of the test at all you can’t say the results are wrong. Among the browsers tested, Brave has the best privacy by default.

        The claim of that study was that Brave is the most private browser and I thoroughly debunked that claim with raw data. Brave is not a mainstream browser with it’s sub %0,01 market share anyway so they should have also looked at Pale Moon and Ungoogled Chromium.

      5. Iron Heart said on March 8, 2020 at 6:12 pm
        Reply

        @Anonymous

        > It shouldn’t check for that because now that’s my package manager’s job. You do use GNU/Linux right?

        On Linux distros, I would agree with you. Not on other OSes, though. I use macOS because some software I need for work isn’t available on Linux. So the choice was either Windows or macOS.

        Brave could be offered in the MS Store or the Mac App Store, but the regulations for software to be offered there are so asinine that almost no major developer does it or even can do it. There is a way of updating software on Windows / macOS more easily, but in order for it to be used more often than now, the regulations for offering software there would have to be softened quite a bit.

        > That’s just, your opinion man. Brave lies to my face and does things on its own. How can I turn them off? Does Brave have an equivalent of about:config?

        You can indirectly turn them off by clicking the menu button -> AdBlock -> uncheck all lists. You can turn HTTPS Everywhere off in the Brave Shields settings in the main preferences pane.

        As for about:config, there is chrome://flags, but it is not really comparable.

        “Brave lies to my face” is very strong (and wrong) wording here. The rule updates do not violate your privacy, even well respected extensions like uBlock Origin have to update their rules. And updated rules enhance your privacy since they ensure that ad + tracker blocking is always at its optimum.

        > All those connections happen over TLS and are encrypted so I can’t be sure of that.

        But you can see the addresses Brave contacts, and those precise addresses and what they are for is documented online. It needs to be noted that the amount of packages sent was drastically reduced in your setup after you’ve disabled telemetry and SafeBrowsing, so the requests it still performs are minimal, and related to the things I listed above, none of which are problematic. Research it yourself if you don’t believe me.

        > False. Brave keeps phoning back home even though I turned off everything I could.

        It still transmits…

        – Your operating system.
        – Brave version number.
        – Your IP address.

        …to its update server whenever it checks for updates. The server needs to know your operating system so that the correct update file is delivered to you, so that you don’t get the Windows files on Linux, for example. The server needs the Brave version number so that it can determined whether an update is needed, or not. Your IP address the server needs so that the download actually reaches its destination (your PC). As you can see, all this is necessary, and those are the three things automatic updaters in any(!) application have to transmit in order for a correct update process to take place. Criticizing this on Linux is legitimate in the light of package managers, criticizing it on Windows or macOS would be idiotic though, as they have no equivalent of package managers aside from their Stores with their attached asinine rules.

        > Source?

        https://www.ghacks.net/2018/09/21/mozilla-wants-to-estimate-firefoxs-telemetry-off-population/

        The setting I mean is toolkit.coverage.opt-out. This is hidden by default in about:config, but needs to be turned off in order to fully get rid of telemetry in Firefox after you’ve already disabled all other telemetry settings. As I said, Brave doesn’t do anything like that.

        > My package manager updates Ungoogled Chromium using RPM Fusion repositories. I just need to type “sudo dnf upgrade –refresh” on my terminal, enter my password and it will be updated along with the rest of my system.

        Yes, I think your criticism is a legitimate one on Linux, since package managers exist there. I do have a question, though: Since updating Ungoogled Chromium is much easier on Linux, for what purpose do you need Brave? The tiresome update process was the only major gripe I had with Ungoogled Chromium… But as you know, I am not a Linux user.

        The only valid reason to use Brave over Ungoogled Chromium on Linux is the pending Manifest V3 change that will likely hit Ungoogled Chromium, I imagine?

        > Windows larpers pretending to care about privacy are the worst.

        macOS larper here, lol. Not much better, I know. There’s one thing Linux users will never understand, I fear: It’s oftentimes third party software that keeps others on Windows or macOS, and not necessarily a lack of knowledge or will to switch. I don’t think any macOS or Windows user deserves bashing when his / her needed software is just not available on Linux. If Linux checks all the boxes for your personal use, then that’s fantastic, but that is just not the case for everyone out there. I would gladly opt for some nice distro with LTS support if I could, though I must say that macOS is still the lesser evil compared to Windows 10. At least macOS has a good UI, haha – matter of taste of course.

        > I disagree.

        A good general use browser has to be measured in three main categories:

        1) Web compatibility.
        2) Ease of use.
        3) Privacy level.

        Pale Moon falls short in 1), Ungoogled Chromium falls short in 2) – at least on Windows / macOS. Brave is very good in 1) and 2) and is still decent in 3), or at least better than all mainstream browsers in 3). It’s what I would install on a PC of a person who needs it to “just work” and still have a good privacy level. If “ease of use” is not a concern, Ungoogled Chromium would be my default recommendation. I understand that updating Ungoogled Chromium is easier on Linux, but this OS doesn’t have a big presence in the desktop market, and therefore doesn’t play a major role when recommending browsers to people.

        > Pale Moon works absolutely fine for most websites. I can understand how it’s not ideal for YouTube since Google sabotages all the other browsers but it’s fine for everything else. Did you even use it?

        There is more than the YouTube issues, check out their GitHub page – issue section. There you will find web standards listed that still need to be implemented, but they do not progress quickly by any means. Again, not saying the devs are bad at what they do, just saying that there are too few of them.

        And yes, I’ve used Pale Moon. Personally, I gave up on it because it is not multiprocess, in my experience it does choke on script-heavy websites, whereas Ungoogled Chromium and Brave work just fine on the same machine.

        > You just need to unzip the extension and point Ungoogled Chromium to that folder. It’s not difficult.

        It’s difficult compared to just going to the Chrome Web Store and clicking “Install”, why the Ungoogled Chromium devs make it any less easy than that is beyond me. Just why?

        > Actually it’s far more easier than turning off most of Brave spyware that comes enabled by default now that I have to dissect it’s source code and remove all the spyware before compiling it myself.

        Disabling Brave’s telemetry is not hard, it can be done from the settings pane with a tiny number of clicks. It is legitimate to disagree with telemetry being enabled by default though, but I still commend them for making it easy to turn off while others actively try to prevent you from turning it off fully, by partially hiding it (Mozilla).

        > The claim of that study was that Brave is the most private browser and I thoroughly debunked that claim with raw data.

        Again, Ungoogled Chroium and Pale Moon were not part of the test sample. Had they been in the test, I am sure they would range ahead of Brave, but since they weren’t, you can’t say the results (which are based on the browsers that were actually in the test) are faulty.

        > Brave is not a mainstream browser with it’s sub %0,01 market share anyway so they should have also looked at Pale Moon and Ungoogled Chromium.

        Brave has over 10 million monthly active users:

        https://brave.com/brave-passes-10m-mau/

        I beg your pardon, but I just don’t believe that Pale Moon and Ungoogled Chromium have a user number anywhere close to that user base, their better privacy level notwithstanding. So Brave has more of a right to be included there in terms of user base, the only thing that did surprise me was that Opera wasn’t included in the test.

      6. Nizo said on March 6, 2020 at 4:20 pm
        Reply

        Oh I know, I was just saying you have to really put some effort in to make it even worse than chrome. When they talk about privacy they mean stopping others from snooping but are fine doing it themselves.

        The trouble I’ve had with using ff and a hardened user.js is that it’s easy to break too many sites so gave up with that route. Plus you shouldn’t have to do at least some of that if it really was privacy respecting.

        Palemoon has more and more sites that don’t work properly and basilisk was extremely slow when I tried it.

        Ungoogled chromium is some work for example installing and updating extensions, not a big deal though, but for me no sync would be a pain having multiple machines. Also I’m not sure what their plans are for rolling back manifest 3 or the cname problem, they don’t say much on github.

        After the obvious half truths (or worse) that the waterfox dev kept repeating after the takeover that is off my list forever. Plus he now says it’s not a privacy browser.

        So I guess it’s brave unless something better comes along, I hope they sort out sync soon.

      7. Iron Heart said on March 6, 2020 at 6:45 pm
        Reply

        @Nizo

        > Also I’m not sure what their plans are for rolling back manifest 3 or the cname problem, they don’t say much on github.

        Google has announced that the Enterprise version of Google Chrome will retain a fully functional webRequest API, meaning it will still be part of the codebase, just disabled for consumers. Retaining a fully functional webRequest API in other Chromium-based browsers might be as easy as flipping one switch differently, but I am not sure which roadblocks Google will come up with in order to prevent that.

        In any case, Brave Shields (and the Opera built-in adblocker) don’t rely on any extension API, they are native code, and will continue to work regardless of what Google does to the extension APIs.

        > After the obvious half truths (or worse) that the waterfox dev kept repeating after the takeover that is off my list forever. Plus he now says it’s not a privacy browser.

        Yes, I know. Just wanted to say that nothing bad has happened in the GitHub repo so far, so in its current state Waterfox can still be recommended. The developer selling out to such a company doesn’t bode well for the future though, hence my disclaimer. So yeah, I agree.

      8. Nizo said on March 7, 2020 at 10:41 am
        Reply

        Regarding cname and manifest 3 I meant I didn’t know what ungoogled chromium’s plans are, I understand brave doesn’t use extensions for their shields. Both are mentioned in the ungoogled issues section on github but that’s about it. Anyway no sync isn’t something I’d want to put up with (although brave’s is also mia at the moment until the sort it out).

      9. Anonymous said on March 6, 2020 at 2:29 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart
        Brave spies on you by default so I wouldn’t recommend that but the rest of that list seems fine to me. I don’t about Basilisk much but they say Pale Moon folks are behind it which might be a worthwhile option as well.

      10. ashrayspin said on March 6, 2020 at 11:35 pm
        Reply

        But if you use one of those browsers, don’t you create a unique fingerprint which can be used to track the user?

      11. NineNine said on March 6, 2020 at 6:44 pm
        Reply

        @anon you obviously didn’t read the research last week from Dublin University showing that Brave is the only one of the main browsers that out of the box doesn’t spy on you.

      12. Iron Heart said on March 6, 2020 at 6:37 pm
        Reply

        @Anonymous

        Brave has one telemetry setting and one crash reporter setting in its preferences pane, both can be disabled by unchecking the related boxes (two clicks in total). That’s better and more transparent than what Firefox does by default – even if you disable Firefox’s telemetry in about:config, you still have to deactivate a hidden(!) about:config setting to get fully rid of it:

        https://www.ghacks.net/2018/09/21/mozilla-wants-to-estimate-firefoxs-telemetry-off-population/

        Brave also has good website-facing protection by default (Brave Shields), Firefox’s tracking protection (which is deactivated by default) is a joke compared to Brave Shields. Brave’s default settings are more privacy-respecting than the ones of Firefox:

        https://www.ghacks.net/2020/02/25/study-finds-brave-to-be-the-most-private-browser/

        I think it can be on this list without a problem. There are browsers which are even better than Brave, but it definitely ranges above all mainstream browsers out of the box.

        You mentioned Basilisk; it was indeed developed by the Pale Moon team. Its privacy settings are well thought out and sane by default.

      13. Anonymous said on March 7, 2020 at 2:13 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart
        I didn’t say anything about Firefox but it’s good to know you acknowledge that Brave spies on you by default.

      14. Iron Heart said on March 9, 2020 at 7:50 am
        Reply

        @Anonymous

        How do you define “spying”? Spying to me is having your browsing history / website interaction data sent to some remote server. Telemetry is not necessarily “spying” in that sense, but I hold the firm opinion that telemetry should also be opt-in, which is why I criticize Brave for it. On the other hand Brave makes it easy to disable telemetry (compared to FF) and they don’t add new telemetry all the time (compared to FF).

  12. Allwynd said on March 6, 2020 at 8:28 am
    Reply

    That’s a good thing, because the basic gray (light/dark) theme of most Chromium browsers is really boring.

    One thing I hate about the new default theme of Google Chrome is that the idiots at Google removed the outline on the address bar making it blend in badly with the rest of the UI. Opera made it even worse where they went as far as to make the address bar the same color as the rest, which makes the address look like it’s just floating there for no reason.

    I hope this stupid fad for flat design dies and we go back to gradients and gloss on UI like it was in XP/Vista/7. It’s true that Microsoft picked a bad default theme for XP – that childish Crayon Blue, maybe the Silver theme should’ve been the default one, but I guess they wanted to get away from the gray color of the Classic theme before that… But that flat UI is just asking for trouble. Microsoft, again proved how flat UI can be ugly, displeasing and boring with Windows 8 and 10. It took them more than 5 years (since it was also in Windows 8) to get the message that people don’t like flat, 2-colored icons that look straight up like placeholder icons for an internal pre-test NDA alpha build. The person who gave that idea should be fired and never allowed to work as a design advisor for anything other than barcodes.

    1. Yuliya said on March 6, 2020 at 10:35 am
      Reply

      The best theme Microsoft has ever made was in the developer preview of Windows 8: https://i.imgur.com/1ElZSi5.png
      It’s the perfect mix between 7’s gloss and modern flat designs imo. Right now their modern stuff (for as useless as it is) it’s got some nice effects, unfortunately M$ won’t allow it on Win32 in order to push their new crap as better/prettier.

      1. TianlanSha said on March 6, 2020 at 10:27 pm
        Reply

        If they removed 1 or 3 pixels from all the edges to give it a more curved look, I’d agree. Those sharp edges look ugly to me. It’s like a prototype for something that’s far from finished.

        Curved edges on the other hand give a more pleasant look. XP had it albeit only on top of the windows, but still better than nothing. Vista and 7 had it everywhere and it looked damn classy. Mac OS has had curved edges for a long time and despite being a very limited and unsupported OS in terms of usability, it’s damn beautiful, there need to be more things like that.

        When you look at the latest changes to Windows 10, you can see Microsoft are coming back around to curved edges. Start menu’s web search has it, Chromium Edge has it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they apply it in the next 5 years for the rest of Windows 10, namely the windows and the start menu.

      2. Omega said on March 6, 2020 at 7:58 pm
        Reply

        Unfortunately their graphic designers left before Win8. I’m not sure what happened whether they were let go like the QA teams or just didn’t want to work on designs a 6 year old could do. Either way they still haven’t hired any decent replacements as the new “improved” Windows icons demonstrate. However to be fair they now look like ones a 10 year old created, so that’s progress of a sort.

      3. David said on March 6, 2020 at 7:12 pm
        Reply

        Nope, the best theme was the Windows Whistler one: https://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload/2015-07/1436021739.or.5619.png

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