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Filed under: Features, Windows, Freeware, Browsers, Lists

14 portable web browsers for Windows

Just about everyone has a usb flash drive by now. Apart from all that data you're packing (which you no doubt have encrypted in case your drive gets lost -- but that's a post for another day), why not pack up your favorite web browser and take it along for the ride.

There are a lot more options than you think - here are 13 different options for users of Windows PCs. Don't see your choice on the list? Share it with us in the comments!

Mozilla

Portable Firefox (current) [download] and Portable Minefield [download]
John T. Haller's Portable Apps project is always right on top of the latest Firefox updates, so it's the place to go if you need the Fox in your pocket. The most recent unstable branch is provided as well, in case you want to test it without installing.

PocketFlock v2 [download]
The kicked-up Firefox remix for social networking types is also available in a portable version, thanks to enthusiast Dave Ferrite.

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Filed under: Internet, Google, Freeware, Open Source, Browsers

Block ads in Chrome-based SRWare Iron with a single file

We've written about Iron before - it's the "privacy enhanced" browser based on Google's Chromium source. While Iron's simple privacy modifications are one reason I use it instead of Chrome, there's now a second one: dead simple ad blocking.

SRWare offers a simple .ini file for download that blacklists tons of known ad hosts. Follow this link to view the file on SRWare's website. Select all the text, copy it, and paste it into Iron's existing adblock.ini file. It's likely stored in C:\Program Files\SRWare Iron\ on your computer.

Visit a site like Yahoo or AOL, and you'll see the file in action - just look for broken image placeholders and error messages. It's a fast, easy way to speed up an already fast browser and save a little bit of bandwidth in the process.

[ via gHacks ]

Filed under: Windows, Google, Open Source, Browsers

Iron: Chrome for privacy fanatics

If you want to use Google Chrome but are concerned or have questions about Google's policies for collecting usage data, you might want to give Iron a try.

Iron, developed by German software company SRWare is Chrome stripped of all the user ID information that gave the German government cause for concern.

I don't speak German, but the guys at the Incomplete-News Project have helpfully published an English translation. According to them, Iron is essentially the Chromium source code, with the following modifications:

  • No unique user-ID
  • No user-specific information is sent to Google
  • No alternative error messages
  • Crash information is not sent to Google
  • No Google updater
I personally don't have a problem with having my search data transmitted to Google (as I'm sure it is in Safari and Firefox with my search bars now), but I do understand the concerns about data-collection potential.

I downloaded Iron, and other than featuring the same squished blue logo that CodeWeavers uses in its version of Chromium on the default tab page, everything worked exactly as expected.

XP and Vista users can download Iron from SRWare's site.
[via the Incomplete-News Project]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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