XPost: alt.comp.software.firefox   
   From: marion@facts.com   
      
   On Mon, 18 Aug 2025 16:43:04 -0000 (UTC), Marion wrote :   
      
      
   > OMG. Everything I touch in Windows has needlessly unnecessary complexity.   
      
   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.   
      
       
       
    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\DummyBro   
   ser\Capabilities]   
    "ApplicationName"="Dummy Browser"   
    "ApplicationDescription"="A privacy-preserving dummy browser"   
      
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\DummyBro   
   ser\Capabilities\FileAssociations]   
    ".htm"="DummyBrowserHTML"   
    ".html"="DummyBrowserHTML"   
      
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\DummyBro   
   ser\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\\DummyBro   
   ser\\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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)