BrokenURL prevents URLs from being opened in the default browser automatically

BrokenURL prevents URLs from being opened in the default browser automatically
August 31, 2020
https://www.ghacks.net/2020/08/31/b...-opened-in-the-default-browser-automatically/

BrokenURL
Website
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Alternative is Browser Select:
https://github.com/zumoshi/BrowserSelect

 

any current browser is able to move to pages which are closest to the wanted address, or throw 404 not found. e.g. firefox is using google (default search engine) to find similar results and redirect.

 

This looks like a good idea but reminds me of an issue I don't think it entirely fixes. Installers that open a browser after install or after uninstall. As the installer in almost every case has to run elevated, the browser it spawns also run elevated. Whether the site it opens is compromised or if you continue to browse with it you can imagine the issues it can cause. Some installers do not have this issue, but most do. A way to drop the rights of the launched browser would be good.

 

Good intervention, this was mentioned sometimes before in this forum that it can lead to manipulated pages.

 

Wait a minute, isn't this exactly what it tries to fix? I also hate this stuff, I tried to make EXE Radar block it, but I could't figure out how to do it. I would like to have a tool that blocks all apps from launching browsers like chrome.exe, firefox.exe and vivaldi.exe, only Windows Explorer and the browsers themselves should be able to launch them as child process.

 

A HIPS security tool can do this.

 

Simple as that - make IE as default browser and force it into a sandbox with no web access and disallowed process. A HIPS in total takes more work than offering benefit.

 

You're probably talking about Comodo. I hope that EXE Radar will also implement strict parent-child process control, this is what I still miss. You could do this stuff with System Safety Monitor in the past. But anyway, isn't BrokenURL supposed to solve this problem too?

I think you're misunderstanding, that doesn't solve anything. Because IE will still be launched.

 

Comodo works for this. It's incredibly secure if one can figure out how to utilize some of the HIPS features it provides, especially when run in Paranoid mode. SSM was and still is my all time favourite. Powerful yet intuitively easy to use, it really set the standard by which all other HIPS measure against, and I haven't seen anything since that comes close to it. Too bad its development came to an end.

 

Comodo (any) is a very questionable software, not only in these times. I won't use it on Windows 10. i had several HIPS installed in the past, all where discussed here, the best was "Online Armor" which was dropped dead by emsisoft. "best" as "simple", few options, but understandable. The complexed one was "Malware Defender". Anytime HIPS needed attention and I won't spend such much time to get my system working. HIPS is overrated from my view, now more than before.

 

Based on the time and effort I've put in to it to customize and harden its rules and what I've witnessed, it's security is analogous to Fort Knox within ADX Florence. It will slam the door shut on the installation or uninstallation of any program attempting to launch a browser, or anything else for that matter.

Anyway, this is OT. The BrokenURL program looks like a half-baked attempt to address the issue at hand.

 

You can use Osarmor. It has rules to prevent some browsers from opening without you wanting it.

You can also make custom rules for those browsers that aren't well known. I made one for Brave when I used to have OSarmor installed

 

I decided to try this app with the help of Sandboxie, then I installed YTD Video Downloader because it always opens the browser. What BrokenURL does, it presents you a screen and gives you an option to choose which browser should be opened. But there isn't a blocking option, so would be cool if this was added.

I have to admit, it's a bit too complex for me, but still a good tip.

 

You know what, I was thinking that BrokenURL should actually fix the annoying problem of apps launching browsers after install, so I decided to give it another try but now I get some error when trying to register it as the default browser, do you also get this? I'm planning to install BrokenURL in all of my Sandboxie sandboxes.

 

I've never tried BrokenURL. It just doesn't look like something that would benefit me.

 

Well fun fact, if you use AMD's own browser, they use a chrome 77 browser (massively outdated as the current stable version is 88, lmfao)










And JS enabled lol. Just asking for disaster. The funniest thing is they have literally an entire tab icon (the globe icon) that launches the browser for you to explore, idk why u would have that in the control settings of ur gpu... But also it gets launched through various places such as checking release notes of the newest driver

 

Yeah I hate it when browser gets launched for things that could be done within app, especially when its no warning it just opens.

This app seems perfect for me.

But on the subject of javascript, wouldnt it be great if it was mandated that every page should be functional without javascript. So many sites now seem to be implementing it just for the sake of it, even sites that just have text often blank page without js now.

 

No javascript? Ugh...

You literally can't use a frond end framework without javascript (the very thing that forms how your site behaves), for more info read https://medium.com/swlh/do-we-really-need-a-front-end-framework-e8c8c3e4df0b

 

examples?
GDPR/DSGVO is mandatory for commercial pages because readers IP is part of personal data. any other pages which contain a form or other input need also a consent popup. thats almost done with javascript to get the cookies if user hast read and confirmed its choice.

some pages render content dynamically, this is done by javascript.

blocking javascript nowerdays and complain about missing content - not really. and this do not include advert scripts.

 

Why use a framework?

All my sites except one dont even use php. The one that does works without js.

 

Show one

 

not on here sorry dont want to associate with my account on here, but I just concentrate on the information to share, dont worry about site looking flashy, and no need for cookie consent if you dont use cookies in the first place.

 

I think you should really check it out. I have installed it on Win 8.1 and it correctly stops apps from automatically launching the browser, which has always been a huge annoyance. I discovered that you don't actually have to make a choice when BrokenURL pops up, you can simply click it away.

Also, it even remembers your choice, this means that it won't interfere with certain apps like VirusTotal Uploader from launching the browser. My question to you is, can you perhaps check if you can make it work on Win 10? Because I get some error, it fails to register itself as the default browser, and in Win 10 you can't manually change this, believe it or not.

 

Sorry, it's just not important enough to me, and I've never seen the opening of a browser by an app as anything more than a mild nuisance at most. When it comes to my email client, I will copy then paste a link from the message to the browser of my choice.