Chromium Portable - web browser

[freakazoid]

So, I'm thinking we should either change this listing to henrypp's chrlauncher or create a new one for it:
https://github.com/henrypp/chrlauncher

It does everything unofficial Chromium Portable used to do, but supports other builds of Chromium (like Ungoogled Chromium) by changing a value in its .ini file. I've been using this for the past couple of years and it works very well.

[webfork]

I have no objection. The standard portable Chrome (offered by PA) is barely portable, with a load of caveats on the program home page https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/ ... e_portable . Does this fare any better?

[lautrepay]

Does this fare any better?

No.

Note: Chromium has #secure-preferences feature based on the machine SID. So extensions, certificates and passwords are not portable. The best way to migrate your data is to synchronize them.

chrlauncher is just... a launcher, for

Chromium based (like Google Chrome, Opera, Yandex Browser, Vivaldi, etc.) and Firefox based (Mozilla Firefox, Basilisk, Pale Moon, Waterfox, etc.)

and an updater for

Chromium only

You have to download the application separately, at least for the first time.
X-Chromium, from winPenPack, is up-to-date (80.0.3987.122, last updated on Thursday 27 February 2020) and proven.
http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php?view.1082

[freakazoid]

You have to download the application separately, at least for the first time.

No you shouldn't have to download Chromium separately. When you open chrlauncher, it will prompt to download Chromium and extract it within the directory. It's all self-contained.

X-Chromium, from winPenPack, is up-to-date (80.0.3987.122, last updated on Thursday 27 February 2020) and proven.

Yes, this might be a better option for those used to the older, unofficial Chromium Portable.

[lautrepay]

You have to download the application separately, at least for the first time.

No you shouldn't have to download Chromium separately. When you open chrlauncher, it will prompt to download Chromium and extract it within the directory. It's all self-contained.

That's what I wanted to say. I expressed myself badly, you said it accurately.

unzip it and run chrome.exe with this command --user-data-dir=.\Profile

All chromium based browsers become portable like this. Also we could use --no-default-browser-check to prevent the browser from prompting the user to make it default

Although tpfc users tend to be advanced users, many (mainly beginners) don't know how to launch applications with arguments. That is why the main entry should be an easy solution that does not involve too many and/or complicated steps.[/quote]

Just download the offline installer from here

https://download-chromium.appspot.com/

Installers and archives can be downloaded from here, too: https://chromium.woolyss.com/

[webfork]

... if we chose between two, i think we should go with WinPenPack

Given that the current entry is so badly out of date, I am going to go ahead and swap the current Chroimum entry: https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2169 ... with WinPenPack's version: http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php?view.1082

Thank you for suggesting this.  Any additional ideas about how to tweak the program for additional privacy are welcome.

Although tpfc users tend to be advanced users, many (mainly beginners) don't know how to launch applications with arguments. That is why the main entry should be an easy solution that does not involve too many and/or complicated steps.

We actually have a policy about this that I can detail if you're interested, but the Google Chrome entry is a unique case.  Because full portability would provide less of the user data Google is hungry for, the program insists on locally-saved information, and many settings are not actually portable.  As I understand it, PortableApps' package mitigates some of the issues, but it remains one of the least portable programs in the database.

Note that I haven't tested this myself because I actively avoid Chrome, but I think Rudy5's process described in the entry above would be a good start  viewtopic.php?p=96127#p96127

[freakazoid]

I think the change to X-Chromium is better than nothing.

However, I would recommend chrlauncher for two main reasons:
1. The majority of the Chromium builds you can use with chrlauncher have codec support
2. It's way easier to update Chromium as the launcher can check for new versions on startup. Defaults to checking every 2 days.

[webfork]

I think the change to X-Chromium is better than nothing.

However, I would recommend chrlauncher for two main reasons:
1. The majority of the Chromium builds you can use with chrlauncher have codec support
2. It's way easier to update Chromium as the launcher can check for new versions on startup. Defaults to checking every 2 days.

I'm available to modifying the entry again, especially given that some kind of auto-update support is important to any modern browser. Some reasons I'm leaning towards WPP are:

• One of the issues I've seen with a number of the slghtly-modified Chromium distributions is that they go for a while and then drop off. The WPP distro (up now) has been in development for quite some time by multiple people and seems like a reliable download. chrlauncher meanwhile is just managed by one person.
• Though rare, there are some open source purists on Windows who don't want the extra codecs, Flash, etc.
• There might be a way to get auto-update to work through WinPenPack's launcher

[rbon]

How to disable hardware acceleration on Chromium
For see with Chromium an italian news site as Rai News 24 Live is necessary disable hardware acceleration as follows..
1. enter chrome://settings
2. enter Advanced link
3. under System locate Use hardware acceleration when available and disable it [move cursor (tiny ball) to left].
4. use this link of Rai Play https://www.raiplay.it/dirette/rainews24 (you can see full screen) and press play
5. done

You can also use this way:
1. enter the link of Rainews24 https://www.rainews.it/
2. select Live at right of screen
3. press play

[rbon]

About last X-Chromium (ver. 84.0.4147.125) and Widevine CDM:

I have seen thats last build of X-Chromium 84.0.4147.125 released the Aug. 14, 2020 do not contains the subfolder WidevineCdm inside '.Bin\Chrome\84.0.4147.125\'.
Unfortunately winPenPack grab the Chromium's build of Hibbiki on Woolyss Chromium as is and this build do not contains the subfolder WidevineCdm.
Widevine CDM is a plugin of Chromium for view protected contents as:
- Netflix
- Amazon Prime Video
- Disney Plus
- BBC
- Hulu
- Spotify
(other information on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widevine )

The solution for haved this plugin is download from Woolyss Chromium the Marmaduke's 'ungoogled' build (32 or 64 bit):
- ungoogled Chromium archive 32 bit: https://github.com/macchrome/winchrome/ ... 5-Win32.7z
- ungoogled Chromium archive 64 bit: https://github.com/macchrome/winchrome/ ... windows.7z
and extract the subfolder WidevineCdm. Widevine CDM current build is 4.10.1679.0 of Aug. 8, 2020.
Detailed info on Widevine CDM on https://www.widevine.com/news

[Midas]

Topic update: upstream Chromium latest release is v90.0.4400.5 (no release announcement; source download mirror at https://github.com/chromium/chromium/releases).

Portable X-Chromium in our database is currently v87.0.4280.88 [rev17] released 2020-12-29 (https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=2169).

A bit of a kerfuffle going down ATM, because of Google declaring it is revoking unofficial API keys granted over a decade ago. Here's an example:

The search giant is also using this opportunity to codify their belief that the only official Chromium builds are the ones that they provide themselves. With that simple change, anyone using a distribution-specific build of Chromium just became persona non grata. Unhappy with the idea of giving users a semi-functional browser, the Chromium maintainers for several distributions such as Arch Linux and Fedora have said they're considering pulling the package from their respective repositories altogether. With a Google representative confirming the change is coming regardless of community feedback, it seems likely more distributions will follow suit.

@ hackaday.com/2021/01/26
/whats-the-deal-with-chromium-on-linux-google-at-odds-with-package-maintainers/

If the whole issue looks arcane to you, maybe this official doc will help shed some light:

github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/master/docs/chromium_browser_vs_google_chrome.md

[webfork]

A bit of a kerfuffle going down ATM, because of Google declaring it is revoking unofficial API keys granted over a decade ago.

Because distribution-specific Chromium browsers can be optimized, this is a frustrating change. I don't know if that was standard practice among distributions, but it's certainly possible. As with everything else, this move is just to enable sale of valuable user data.

Anyway, given that other Google sister projects like Android and ChromeOS start with open code and then move increasingly closed-source, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was more than just an API key next time. It will be interesting to see where browsers like Brave and Edge go after that.

EDIT: from the article:

Those who believe firmly in the concept of free and open source software would tell you that this is a perfect example of why you should have been using Firefox or another truly libre browser in the first place.

[rbon]

Portable X-Chromium in our database is currently v87.0.4280.88 [rev17] released 2020-12-29 (https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=2169).

X-Chromium builds are based on Hibbiki custom builds https://github.com/Hibbiki/chromium-win ... .104-r1784 and contain:
• all-codecs (Chromium compiled with open-source audio/video codecs + H.264 + AAC)
• sync (access to all Google services)
• Widevine support (but not the .dll 'widevinecdm.dll' that is platform specific)

upstream Chromium latest release is v90.0.4400.5 (no release announcement; source download mirror at https://github.com/chromium/chromium/releases).

the builds of The Chromium Authors are:
• without all-codecs
• no-sync
• no Widewine

For details see the independent site (not affiliate to Google) Woolyss Chromium https://chromium.woolyss.com/

B.T.W.
Softpedia has link to build of The Chromium Authors https://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE- ... mium.shtml
its current build is 90.0.4403.0 (848123) • Thursday, 28 Jan 2021.

Finally if Chromium will closed-source no problem: i will migrate to Firefox with his Rust engine https://research.mozilla.org/rust/.

[webfork]

Also, a bit of an update on this from LWN with the suggestion by multiple distro maintainers will move away from Chromium. Key quote:

Many of us run free software — and avoid proprietary software — because we want to remain in control of our systems. Free software can be counted on to not disappear at inopportune times; proprietary software works at the whim of its owner and has no such guarantee. The stripping of functionality from Chromium builds is just another example of an owner indulging a whim and taking away features that they no longer wish to make available.

---

X-Chromium builds are based on Hibbiki custom builds https://github.com/Hibbiki/chromium-win ... .104-r1784 and contain:
• all-codecs (Chromium compiled with open-source audio/video codecs + H.264 + AAC)
• sync (access to all Google services)
• Widevine support (but not the .dll 'widevinecdm.dll' that is platform specific)

That's some good information and it's good that if you've GOT to run Chrome, there is at least some path outside of the Google route, but I feel like we're chasing something that is constantly drifting away. After all, it's very easy and indeed in Google's interests to throw more wrenches in the mix and make it harder for any non-official builds like Hibbiki, just as they did with Linux Chromium tools.

Anyway, it's nice to see more suggestions that we're pointing to the right Chromium distribution (https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2169).

[SYSTEM]

Also, a bit of an update on this from LWN with the suggestion by multiple distro maintainers will move away from Chromium. Key quote:

Many of us run free software — and avoid proprietary software — because we want to remain in control of our systems. Free software can be counted on to not disappear at inopportune times; proprietary software works at the whim of its owner and has no such guarantee. The stripping of functionality from Chromium builds is just another example of an owner indulging a whim and taking away features that they no longer wish to make available.

Gotta say I agree with the comments of the article. The features which rely on Google's API key are quite niche, especially for people who dislike Google. For them, not "phoning home" as often is an improvement!