Brave Browser 1.47: Windows group policy templates, clean link improvements, more

Brave Software Inc. released Brave Browser 1.47.171 for supported desktop operating systems. The new browser includes a number of important improvements, including support for Windows group policy templates, clean link improvements, built-in support for the Tor Snowflake extension, and improved window dragging support.

Brave 1.47 is already available. It should be installed on most user devices by default, thanks to the integrated automatic updating functionality.

Brave users may load brave://settings/help to display the installed version. Brave Browser runs a check for updates when the page is opened; any update found is downloaded and installed automatically then.

Brave 1.47

The new version of the Brave browser improves group policy templates handling on Windows. Previously, Brave users had to download the policy templates of the Chrome browser and modify them manually to match them to Brave's registry paths.

Administrators may download the latest Group Policy templates from this support page on the Brave website. The company notes that some settings are not yet implemented in the templates and need to be set manually in the Registry. These exceptions are listed on the support page.

Group Policy support is now also available for the browser's Shields feature.

Copy Clean Link improvement

Brave launched Copy Clean Link in earlier versions of the browser, but limited the feature to the browser's address bar. It is designed to strip of unneeded parameters of web addresses, which are often used for tracking purposes.

With Brave 1.47 comes support to the right-click menu. In other words, copy clean link is now accessible when users right-click on links on any webpage open in the browser.

Snowflake extension integration

Brave Browser supported Tor since 2018. It is a useful privacy feature that tunnels connections through the Tor network. The company launched support for Bridges in Brave 1.44, which helps users access the Tor network in regions in which Tor is blocked.

Now, with Brave 1.47 comes support for the Snowflake extensions. Brave users may install it to share their Internet connections with users in countries where Tor is blocked. Brave users find the option on the privacy Settings page of the browser -- brave://settings/privacy. There, they may enable Volunteer to help others connect to the Tor network, to install the Snowflake extension.

Other changes in Brave 1.47

The official release notes highlight other changes in Brave 1.47. Besides lots of crypto-related changes, here are the ones that stick out:

• Brave users who have not enabled the "use wide address bar" feature may now use the blank space on the left and right of the address bar for window dragging. The browser has such a small bar at the top for window dragging, that this may make a difference for users, especially when using touch.
• Mixed-content check is now enabled for .onion URLs.
• High resolution timer precision reduced to improve user privacy. Sites could use it in fingerprinting efforts previously.
• Performance of cosmetic filtering in third-party iframes improved.
• Fixed a crash in Brave News.
• Upgraded the Chromium core to version 109.0.5414.87.

Now You: have you tried Brave Browser recently?

Brave Browser 1.47: Windows group policy templates, clean link improvements, more