About QR code and other thoughts

[Rusenche]

Hello again

I've been testing Thorium (https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases/tag/M114.0.5735.134) alongside Ungoogled chromium and Bromite - buildtools for a few days now.

First. I like that in Thorium there is an option to enable the built-in google translate. And the built-in translator works flawlessly, while this menu - google translate is permanently disabled in Ungoogled chromium and in Bromite - buildtools with no option to enable.

In Ungoogled chromium there is a flag chrome://flags/#sharing-qr-code-generator. But in Thorium there is no way to disable "QR code".

On Bromite – buildtools is disabled, not even an enable flag. I didn't even find where it was disabled.

And second: Where do I remove the "Enable featured Thorium experiments" button to remove it from the ribbon?!

Third: I found that the "Secure Preferences" file ruins the transfer of settings from the "User Data" folder. Without this "Secure Preferences" file, only the bookmarks are transferred. No extensions transfer successfully, nor any other settings. The situation is the same when moving the "User Data" folder to Bromite – buildtools. I had to install each extension one by one, but I have extensions that have specific settings (which extensions don't have the ability to export/import settings).

And "Secure Preferences" breaks all personal settings in chrome://flags/. And this further complicates when trying to test between different Chromium browsers by carrying over your personal settings. Unfortunately no one has suggested export/import on chrome://flags/.

And one more thing - suggest an option to use https://github.com/henrypp/chrlauncher/ when using Thorium.

Because @uazo has proposed his own option to use chrlauncher because @henrypp doesn't want to update his program by adding other Ungoogled chromium projects as well as Thorium.

@Alex313031, look here: https://github.com/uazo/bromite-buildtools/ at the bottom.

Create a chrlauncher.ini

[chrlauncher]
Custom Chromium update URL (string):
ChromiumUpdateUrl=https://github.com/uazo/bromite-buildtools/releases/latest/download/updateurl.txt

Command line for Chromium (string):
See here: http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/
ChromiumCommandLine=--user-data-dir=".\User Data" --no-default-browser-check

Chromium executable file name (string):
ChromiumBinary=chrome.exe

Chromium binaries directory (string):
Relative (to chrlauncher directory) or full path (env. variables supported).
ChromiumDirectory=.\bin

Quite a long opinion turned out...

[gz83]

Because Thorium browser has enabled Google's services, it can use a series of functions such as translation normally.

Regarding the Disable QR code generator feature, this feature is not introduced in Thorium browser at the moment, so it is not available in Thorium browser now, and the decision of whether to introduce this feature will be made by Alex in the future.

Regarding Enable featured Thorium experiments, you can find Chrome Labs in chrome://flags and turn it off.

For User data, you can find Disable Encryption and Disable Machine ID in chrome://flags, turning them on will make User data more portable. For more information about these two features, you can get more information in the issues section of the Thorium repo

Regarding the chrlauncher issue, again Alex needs to make a decision.

@Rusenche @Alex313031

[Rusenche]

@gz83, thanks for the tip about Chrome Labs - I didn't know it disabled it. In my opinion, it is better to have this flag disabled by default.

/That's why I wrote that no one has proposed a function to export/import the flags, because the transfer of these settings.../

My recommendation to @Alex313031 is to introduce a flag to Disable QR code generator. For me, having this flag is a must. In my opinion, by default it is better when there is such a flag, QR code generator should be disabled. (For reference, see that this flag exists in Ungoogled chromium, in Bromite - buildtools is turned off by default. These two chromium projects turned off QR code generator as these were the users we wanted this flag QR code generator to exist because google removed this flag forcefully without considering users. Accordingly, google forcibly removed the disable flag disable QR code generator.)

For User data, you can find Disable Encryption and Disable Machine ID in chrome://flags, turning them on will make User data more portable.

Let me describe exactly how my settings are to clarify... For me, in my current Thorium test configuration, the: Disable Encryption and Disable Machine ID flags are set to Disabled.

@gz83 as I understand from your comment - you advise me to change Disable Encryption and Disable Machine ID to Enabled.

Changing the Disable Encryption flag to Enabled succeeded.

The problem occurs when I change Disable Machine ID to Enabled - breaks the settings - all installed extensions disappear.

Experimentally I found that just changing Disable Machine ID to Enabled - breaks the settings and all installed extensions disappear.

@gz83, if you are using the latest version of Thorium, do you have the Disable Encryption and Disable Machine ID flags set to Enabled?! (Not to complicate things, but for me they are on Disabled and they are set that way, but I don't remember why they had to be Disabled and is that correct?!...).

[Rusenche]

@Alex313031?!

[Rusenche]

Third month now @Alex313031 doesn't look at this thread to join.

I just tested Thorium v.116.0.5845.169 - https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases/tag/M116.0.5845.169/.

I transferred my profile and it worked without any problems... except maybe only 1 - in chrome://extensions/ only one extension in red says: This extension violates Chrome Web Store policy.

There is already progress and instead of Chrlauncher - you finally have a useful tool: https://codeberg.org/ltguillaume/thorium-winupdater/releases/latest. Well done.

Strong recommendations to @Alex313031:

• Chrome Labs in chrome://flags should be Disabled by default.
• flag for Disable QR code generator (chrome://flags/#sharing-qr-code-generator) is absolutely necessary/mandatory.

@Alex313031, added this flag so that this can be turned off and not be in the menu of any site where it is right clicked.

I'm adding a photo so you can see...

I'm asking a new question, hoping that @Alex313031 will post his opinion in this thread on an attempted discussion started a few months ago - how do I remove that thing in the top right of the photo circled in red?!

[gz83]

If you don't like chrome labs, you can turn it off in chrome://flags;

Also, I wonder why you need to turn off chrome labs, QR CODE generator and hide the avatar in the upper right corner?

@Rusenche

[Rusenche]

@gz83

The concept is popularized as "user experience".

It is extremely convenient to remove them.

You advise me to turn off chrome labs... (I wrote that it is off by default).

I'm catching on to your start of your sentence, @gz83, "if you don't like"... @gz83, advise how to turn them off if I don't like the QR CODE and avatar above?

And a few months ago I wrote and listed how many Chromium-based browsers have turned off QR code, but here it is not even taken into account.

..........

I found a problem. Not sure which version of Thorium it originated from, but https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store/releases is no longer functional. This extension had features to visualize if the installed extensions have updates available and the user decides whether to install them or not. When porting the profile - all extensions were updated, although the extension does not allow this to be done automatically. There are problematic extensions whose developers push malicious fixes into new versions, and you just want to stick with the version that isn't affected. A typical example is the extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-image-by-right-click/hhmnengcgekecnlielgcfcbjanjlnifg/. And now no version of the chromium-web-store extension works or prevents any extension from auto-updating, although I have marked a few extensions not to check for updates. It's too bad that the chromium-web-store extension doesn't work as intended in Thorium.

[gz83]

It's not difficult to turn off the chrome labs, just need Alex to turn it off in the code, or turn it off as I mentioned above, but since the code for the 116 version of the feature has been frozen and the new 116 version has been released to the public, there will be no modification to the code of the feature part for the time being.

As for disabling the QR code generator, the code will need to be reworked, and combined with the above chrome labs, I will copy this issue to Alex again and let him make the final decision.

Is there anything bad about the QR code generator, I'd like to know what you think of this feature and if it really affects your use?

@Rusenche @Alex313031

[Alex313031]

@Rusenche You can disable chrome labs with the chrome://flags/#chrome-labs flag

I added the flag to remove the avatar from ungoogled. chrome://flags/#show-avatar-button

I can add the ungoogled flag to remove QR generator in the next release.

The chromium-web-store extension is only needed on ungoogled chromium, thorium has full support for the chrome web store

[Rusenche]

@gz83 and @Alex313031, thanks for the replies.

@Alex313031, you're leaving out a small detail, but it's hugely important. With Thorium, you have no control over extensions. What do I mean? If an extension has an update available - Thorium updates it automatically without asking us if we want to. What if we don't want to install the available update?!

As a user, I wait at least a week for every single update and read user reviews. And in the case of the extension I mentioned above (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-image-by-right-click/hhmnengcgekecnlielgcfcbjanjlnifg/) - it installs a malicious search engine and such in its latest version. I mean that Thorium does not provide a choice - whether I want to update an extension or I want to stay with the current version of the extension. Because Thorium still doesn't provide any option for the extensions in terms of available updates. What if we don't want to install the available update?!

chromium-web-store has exactly such a function and it worked successfully in Thorium, but I don't know from which version it no longer works correctly.

chromium-web-store should work again in new Thorium versions so we can choose - whether to update available updates to installed extensions; we also have the option to ignore an extension from checking for available updates and such at all. That's my idea. Chromium-web-store features are perfect and provide prevention for users. Please consider restoring the proper functioning of the chromium-web-store in Thorium. I'm not parting with this extension unless you suggest an alternative extension that performs the functions of chromium-web-store.

@Alex313031, agree that even you as a developer want to have control over even just choosing whether to update extensions or not.

@Alex313031, it's the same with Thorium - it's up to the user to update the Thorium version or not. So you've made Thorium not check for updates, nor install them automatically. It's the same with extensions, but so far they (the extensions) don't have that feature that you did on Thorium. There is an extension ready for this purpose… (chromium-web-store).

I hope you understood my point correctly.

[gz83]

Will the chromium-web-store extension work properly in version 116 of chrome/chromium?

@Rusenche

[Alex313031]

@gz83 @Rusenche It might be interesting to make a flag to control auto update behavior of extensions. There is an enterprise policy for this, so if I can just find where in the code it is controlled by the policy, I can put an if else statement behind a commandline flag, something like --no-extension-updates.

However, usually it is good for extensions to auto update, but sometimes it fucks something up, or they add something undesirable or even malicious. For these instances, what I do is download an older version of the extension in .crx format, unpack it, and then load it in developer mode (which never auto updates)

[Rusenche]

@gz83 I confirm that chromium-web-store extension works successfully and flawlessly in Ungoogled Chromium and in Cromite, I don't know about Brave, I haven't tested it recently. But I don't know why Thorium ignores the features of this extension...

@gz83 and @Alex313031 I suggest you both test the extension in question in Ungoogled Chromium by bringing your profiles over to see if there are updates available for given extensions it shows updates available (currently mine says 6 available new updates but not installing them) and you have the choice to install, to ignore an extension update, or to choose which extension to update - or to install all available updates. Exactly such features, @Alex313031, it wouldn't offer it the primary idea you share. It's more convenient to check which in Thorium ignores the features of the mindblowing extension in question and Thorium updates everything…

[gz83]

I still want to ask the question mentioned above, does this extension work properly on Chrome/Chromium version 116 (not Ungoogled Chromium, Cromite, etc. browsers)?

@Rusenche

[Rusenche]

@gz83

I tested with GoogleChromePortable_116.0.5845.188.

The bookmarks were transferred, but not the extensions.

The extension (chromium-web-store) installs as crx but doesn't work because:

• no flag chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling;
• in a red inscription on the extension it says: "This extension is not listed in the Chrome Web Store and may have been added without your knowledge.".

It's practically a completely impossible test in Chrome.

[gz83]

OK, thanks for the test results. As Alex said earlier, there may be a new experimental flag for the Thorium browser, and either Alex or I may look into this further

@Rusenche

[Rusenche]

I was currently testing as Chromium this: https://github.com/Hibbiki/chromium-win64/releases/tag/v116.0.5845.180-r1160321

But again the extensions didn't transfer, but the --disable-machine-id --disable-encryption flags are missing here.

So it's practically impossible to test the extension if it works.

With such a flag, you will miss significant amenities such as:

• choosing which extension to install - its update (can be 1 of 6);
• choice to ignore forever 1 or several extensions to never check for updates;
• choice to install only 2 or 3 out of 12 available updates.

Although I don't know why @Alex313031 as a developer didn't check what in Thorium breaks the features of the extension in question.

These are my thoughts.

[Rusenche]

I tested https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases/tag/M117.0.5938.157 for the presence of the specified flag (chrome://flags/#sharing-qr-code-generator), but unfortunately again it was not added.

[candrapersada]

why is there no feature to download and install the crx extension without the chrome web store?

[gz83]

why is there no feature to download and install the crx extension without the chrome web store?

You can package the extension through developer mode, or search for other solutions on the Internet. Additionally, the Google Web Store is not hosted by us.

@candrapersada

[candrapersada]

but why is there a flag chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling in thorium-legacy but in thorium there is no flag chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling?

[gz83]

but why is there a flag chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling in thorium-legacy but in thorium there is no flag chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling?

thorium-legacy currently cooperates with supermium and uses part of supermium's code. This flag may also come from this.

If you keep Google Suite, I guess you don't need to enable this flag.

@candrapersada