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A new Browser

Seek assistance with all types of tech. - computer, phone, TV, heating controls etc.
GeoffF100
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Re: A new Browser

#380533

Postby GeoffF100 » January 25th, 2021, 11:07 am

1nvest wrote:
GeoffF100 wrote:Does it matter that Google is tracking you? What are you up to?

Your system likely has your SSID/password (wifi) details stored during each session, so if the link drops it doesn't require you to re-enter details. If you log into other systems you may have ssh keys/whatever also available. Run a spies (google) software on your system and you may be unconcerned about activities/data, but what if in turn they lapsed with securing data such as wifi/ssh ...etc. details? Some may flog such ssid/password details to anyone local enough to potentially exploit that. Say you're one of the (thankfully few) that do have their ssid/wifi being hijacked to be used for illegal activities, that may have the police smashing through your front door at 4am. Or worse, that target you for identity theft where you can be in and out of Court for a decade or more trying to prove that debts or activities in your name, wasn't actually you.

Yes privacy matters. Many shrug online security off lightly on the basis that they have nothing to hide, but often wouldn't be anywhere near as casual with their personal security. Would you be happy to have a stranger in your home recording/reporting back all your activities?

Browser's should not have access to my WiFi SSID/password. That is the responsibility of the OS. Nonetheless, I expect that Google could find a way of extracting that information, if they wanted to.

You have to place your trust in someone (or actually many people and organisations). If you use Windows, you have to place your trust in Microsoft. If you use Ubuntu or one of its derivatives, you have to place your trust in Canonical. Ubuntu is open source, so there are lots of independent people looking for nasties, so it is better than Windows in that respect. Nonetheless, I expect that Canonical could slip in a nasty. Debian is working on making sure that binaries reflect the source, but I believe that is still work in progress. There are no guarantees whatever you do.

Is Google any less trustworthy than the alternatives? Is Google likely to attack individual small guys? Are they likely to be able to cover it up if they do? Are the alternatives any better?

Infrasonic
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Re: A new Browser

#380589

Postby Infrasonic » January 25th, 2021, 1:14 pm

1nvest wrote:Brave replaces google ads ... with their own.

I use Dissenter (https://dissenter.com), which takes Brave and strips out all ads and spyware altogether. Funded by donations of bitcoins and or cheques, so even if the far right use it as a platform (includes a option to comment on web sites), if you don't sign up for or use that option (I don't), nor donate financially, you're not supporting any political sways behind it.

Fantastically fast. Nice being able to view youtubes with no ads. And also has a tor option in its menu .. ready to go/use.


You can run uBlock Origin in Brave which will block ads and other active scripts you choose on a site by site basis- as well as installing most other Chromium extensions. So fully customisable then...

The crypto ad thing can be switched off, it always has been an option in settings and off is/will be the default (as per my link upthread).

TOR is also an option - as long as you can deal with the fact that TOR exit nodes are all over the IP grey/blocklists (along with many other VPN's) and many servers have been compromised by state actors and cyber crims gaining remote control via elevated admin privilege exploits for nefarious activities.
So prove you're not a robot challenges are commonplace when browsing via TOR.
Other than that it's great...

Dod101
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Re: A new Browser

#380930

Postby Dod101 » January 26th, 2021, 2:33 pm

Dod101 wrote:
Lanark wrote:
Dod101 wrote:I agree with all you say Howard but I am still using Windows 7 and nothing else is different
Dod


Forget about the browser details, you absolutely should NOT be connecting Windows 7 to the internet if you care anything about online safety and security.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 66d9a53962
Technical assistance and software updates from Windows Update that help protect your PC are no longer available for the product.


Point taken. I am very lax with these matters but need to upgrade to W10.

Dod


Having spent a few hours today trying to upgrade to W10, as previously described on these Boards, a message arrived saying ' We cannot complete the upgrade because of REPLICATE-OC operation' (I do not remember the exact wording but that was the message). Mr Google does not help much with this. What do I do now because currently I am back to square one?

Anyone able to help please?

Dod

Lanark
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Re: A new Browser

#380967

Postby Lanark » January 26th, 2021, 4:10 pm

You could spend 500 hours investigating driver conflicts and digging into registry settings, or take the easy route - backup all the files you need to keep and perform a fresh/clean install of windows 10, restore the files and re-install applications as required.

ReformedCharacter
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Re: A new Browser

#380989

Postby ReformedCharacter » January 26th, 2021, 4:56 pm

Dod101 wrote:
Having spent a few hours today trying to upgrade to W10, as previously described on these Boards, a message arrived saying ' We cannot complete the upgrade because of REPLICATE-OC operation' (I do not remember the exact wording but that was the message). Mr Google does not help much with this. What do I do now because currently I am back to square one?

Anyone able to help please?

Dod

It's worth the time to check that you have enough free disk space, apparently > 30GB is needed.
Also, I'd try checking the current Windows system files:

From Start menu / All Programs - right-click on Command Prompt and select 'Run as Administrator' (I hope that's correct, it's been a while since I used Windows 7). When the command box opens type sfc /scannow (note the space)

Quite possibly neither of those will fix your problem but they're worth checking before looking further.

Also, if you have any USB devices plugged in apart from keyboard and mouse, then unplug those.

RC

AsleepInYorkshire
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Re: A new Browser

#380992

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » January 26th, 2021, 5:08 pm


Dod101
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Re: A new Browser

#380995

Postby Dod101 » January 26th, 2021, 5:22 pm

RC
I got a message to unplug USB’s quite early in the operation and did so but will try the other matters.
AiY
Some quite specific stuff there. I suspect drivers might be the problem because I have occasional BSODs which apparently can be caused by that.

Thanks to both and I will report back.

Did

BobbyD
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Re: A new Browser

#381187

Postby BobbyD » January 27th, 2021, 12:07 pm

Dod101 wrote:Having spent a few hours today trying to upgrade to W10, as previously described on these Boards, a message arrived saying ' We cannot complete the upgrade because of REPLICATE-OC operation' (I do not remember the exact wording but that was the message). Mr Google does not help much with this. What do I do now because currently I am back to square one?

Anyone able to help please?

Dod


Fresh install sounds like good advice.

Do you have your Windows 7 Key?

If so have a look here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softwar ... /windows10

ETA: I believe Win10 will simply accept your Win7 key, haven't done it personally.

mc2fool
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Re: A new Browser

#381198

Postby mc2fool » January 27th, 2021, 12:33 pm

Dod, are you confident that your PC has the hardware requirements to run Windows 10? It'd be worth checking before you go further.

There used to be a MS program you could download that would check and tell you, but I can't find it on a quick search. Maybe someone else knows where it is and can provide a link?

Dod101
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Re: A new Browser

#381205

Postby Dod101 » January 27th, 2021, 1:09 pm

mc2fool wrote:Dod, are you confident that your PC has the hardware requirements to run Windows 10? It'd be worth checking before you go further.

There used to be a MS program you could download that would check and tell you, but I can't find it on a quick search. Maybe someone else knows where it is and can provide a link?


Thanks. I have checked on the MS website and certainly have more than adequate hardware. The W7 I am using currently is with the SP1 as required and so everything there seems to be in order.

Dod

Infrasonic
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Re: A new Browser

#381218

Postby Infrasonic » January 27th, 2021, 1:41 pm

Dod101 wrote:
mc2fool wrote:Dod, are you confident that your PC has the hardware requirements to run Windows 10? It'd be worth checking before you go further.

There used to be a MS program you could download that would check and tell you, but I can't find it on a quick search. Maybe someone else knows where it is and can provide a link?


Thanks. I have checked on the MS website and certainly have more than adequate hardware. The W7 I am using currently is with the SP1 as required and so everything there seems to be in order.

Dod


If Breelander sees this thread he can probably help as the resident Windows guru.

I never used W7 but if you've taken a full back up or clone with MR (I'd do both to be safe) then you could try resetting W7 to 'factory' and then doing the upgrade.
Sticky upgrades/updates sometimes benefit from the resident OS being as vanilla as possible.

Dod101
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Re: A new Browser

#381220

Postby Dod101 » January 27th, 2021, 1:49 pm

Infrasonic wrote:
Dod101 wrote:
mc2fool wrote:Dod, are you confident that your PC has the hardware requirements to run Windows 10? It'd be worth checking before you go further.

There used to be a MS program you could download that would check and tell you, but I can't find it on a quick search. Maybe someone else knows where it is and can provide a link?


Thanks. I have checked on the MS website and certainly have more than adequate hardware. The W7 I am using currently is with the SP1 as required and so everything there seems to be in order.

Dod


If Breelander sees this thread he can probably help as the resident Windows guru.

I never used W7 but if you've taken a full back or clone with MR (I'd do both to be safe) then you could try resetting W7 to 'factory' and then doing the upgrade.
Sticky upgrades/updates sometimes benefit from the resident OS being as vanilla as possible.


Thanks That is probably what I should do. I am grateful for the various comments but am very wary of getting too much into the depths of my PC since I am likely to do as much harm as good. Anyway I will check and make sure that I have fully cloned the disc and do a back up of the stuff I really need and then consider a factory reset.

Dod

Infrasonic
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Re: A new Browser

#381223

Postby Infrasonic » January 27th, 2021, 1:58 pm

Dod101 wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:
Dod101 wrote:
Thanks. I have checked on the MS website and certainly have more than adequate hardware. The W7 I am using currently is with the SP1 as required and so everything there seems to be in order.

Dod


If Breelander sees this thread he can probably help as the resident Windows guru.

I never used W7 but if you've taken a full back or clone with MR (I'd do both to be safe) then you could try resetting W7 to 'factory' and then doing the upgrade.
Sticky upgrades/updates sometimes benefit from the resident OS being as vanilla as possible.


Thanks That is probably what I should do. I am grateful for the various comments but am very wary of getting too much into the depths of my PC since I am likely to do as much harm as good. Anyway I will check and make sure that I have fully cloned the disc and do a back up of the stuff I really need and then consider a factory reset.

Dod


Do a 'full backup' image in Macrium Reflect, that can be restored from an external (USB/SATA) drive to an internal SATA one (the existing one if it is healthy).
Do a 'clone' as well to be belt and braces.

https://blog.macrium.com/techie-tuesday ... be74abb089

The reason for the confusion about the difference between disk imaging and disk cloning is that both achieve the same end result — they replicate the contents of a hard drive. Data, files, software, the master boot record, allocation table, and everything else needed to boot and run your operating system, both a disk image and a disk clone can comprehensively capture everything that makes your machine run. This means they are both powerful techniques that can help you to quickly recover your PC if your hard drive fails or becomes corrupt.

However, the subtle technical differences between a disk image and a disk clone are important. While you shouldn’t see one approach as being “better” than another, once you compare them, you’ll have a much better sense of the relative benefits and disadvantages of both. This means you’ll be able to make an informed decision about the right way to go about copying a hard drive for your needs...
Cont.

ReformedCharacter
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Re: A new Browser

#381226

Postby ReformedCharacter » January 27th, 2021, 2:04 pm

Dod101 wrote:
Thanks That is probably what I should do. I am grateful for the various comments but am very wary of getting too much into the depths of my PC since I am likely to do as much harm as good. Anyway I will check and make sure that I have fully cloned the disc and do a back up of the stuff I really need and then consider a factory reset.

Dod

I hope this doesn't appear as a duplicate as my first attempt to reply seems to have disappeared into the ether.

Just to say that you might consider an upgrade to Win 7 SP2, actually called the 'Convenience Rollup' first. With luck that may clear up any outstanding driver issues and enable a successful Win 10 upgrade.

https://www.lifewire.com/latest-windows ... es-2624595

RC

absolutezero
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Re: A new Browser

#381479

Postby absolutezero » January 28th, 2021, 11:28 am

Firefox - plenty settings you can tinker with if you want to avoid surveillance.

GrahamPlatt
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Re: A new Browser

#381785

Postby GrahamPlatt » January 29th, 2021, 5:28 am

Brave intergrates IPFS

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/19/2223 ... http-nodes

IPFS = InterPlanetary File System - I wasn’t aware we had internet on another planet yet.


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