Resource Setting up a semi-incognito environment for browsing this forum

[LunarPyotr]

Hello, here is your tech guy with another guide to be safer on this forum, for all the people who don't want to mess around with GNU/Linux or virtual machines.
Note that this won't work if you have something like a monitoring software on your computer and this guide is only suitable for Windows (form Windows 10 to Windows 11, since those OS's are still maintained).

First of all, make sure you have at least 32gb of free space on your storage device (preferably the SSD that's in your computer.
Now here are the steps...

1. Download VeraCrypt msi package veracrypt download
2. Install VeraCrypt
3. reboot your computer after installing this tool
4. Go to Vera Crypt, click on Create Volume, Select the first option that says "Create an encrypted file container"
5. Select the first option that says "Standard VeraCrypt Volume"
6. make sure that "never save history" checkbox is ticked and then press the "Select File..." option
7. Now be careful! Try to hide the file in some non standard location.
I choose C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\ , created a folder there called "Drivers" and saved the file as "Dell Assistant Windows.hc" but you can choose any other file name. The most important thing is to use the .hc extension or leave it blank, since I didn't had any luck with saving it with .exe file extension.
8. Press next and leave everything as default in the Encryption Options
9. Now select the option that says "GB" and write 32 into the text box. After this click next.
10. Now you have to specify a password. Don't make any simple passwords like 1234 or qwerty. Be creative!
Good example is to choose a part of a song lyrics.
Gangsta's Paradise as a example..
we have

Spoiler: song text

Power and the money money and the power Minute after minute hour after hour

Now let's change it and make it into a strong password

Spoiler: lyrics as a password

%PowerAndTheMoney!money@ndThePowerMinuteAft3rMinuteHourAft3rHour

11. Press Next and move your mouse in random directions for a minute or four (the longer you move it, the better the encryption will be) and make sure you select the exFAT file system.

12. After youre done, press the Format button

13. When the formatting was done correctly, press on exit when you get into the "Volume Created" message.


Now you have a 32gb big file container. What's now?
Well, mount it. Select any free drive letter in the VeraCrypt main page, select the file you created before, press "mount" button and enter your password.

The virtual drive should appear on your "This PC" tab in the file explorer.

Now we get into the business.
Visit this link here click me and download the browser by pressing the big green button that says "Download from PortableA****"
and after it's done downloading, execute the downloaded exe file.
Now you can follow the normal install procedure and while going through the setup assistant, make sure you install it into your new virtual drive.
In my case it was the drive with the letter A:\.
Done, you now have a file container with a separate browser on it and it'll only be accessible after you enter the password you created for that specific virtual drive.

After you're done with your browsing session here, go back to VeraCrypt, select your file container and press "dismount" in order to disconnect the virtual drive from your PC.

Why did I choose Opera?
Because it has a VPN and a adblocker backed into the browser.
It's also quite lightweight which means if you have more space to store stuff and it's getting frequently updated.

Does it work on MacOS?
Don't know. I was able to create a virtual drive, install a browser to the "Applications" folder and then move the Opera container/app to the virtual drive but it was done on a old MacBook Pro 2013 that was on Ventura, which didn't have that shitty security chip and a standard Intel 64 bit CPU but we live in the future and all the new "security" restrictions but generally it worked on current mainstream MacOS version.

Someone told me that VeraCrypt was cracked and it's not secure to use it.
It's not cracked and it's as secure as the password you created for that file container/virtual drive.
When it comes to the "cracked" stuff, it was TrueCrypt that got discontinued and has many unpatched security issues. But this goes for everything if you don't do basic things like updating BIOS of your device, updating the operating system or even software you installed yourself like VLC Player, 7zip or the browser.
You can update the browser in the file container by re-downloading the file on the page I linked above and just performing a upgrade option in the installer

 

[loyalskateboard]

Thank you for that exceptional tutorial! I have to ask though, is it totally necessary for using this website? It feels a bit excessive. Incognito tab + VPN + not saving login information should be enough to hide it from prying eyes, right? It's not an illegal website and if you're at the point they're searching so hard, they probably have other evidence to admit you to a psych ward or whatever.

 

[LunarPyotr]

Thank you for that exceptional tutorial! I have to ask though, is it totally necessary for using this website? It feels a bit excessive. Incognito tab + VPN + not saving login information should be enough to hide it from prying eyes, right? It's not an illegal website and if you're at the point they're searching so hard, they probably have other evidence to admit you to a psych ward or whatever

Well, in some countries this might be seen as a illegal site, VPN doesn't really protect you if it doesn't have something like a kill switch and DNS Leak protection like Hide me does and Incognito Mode doesn't fully protect you. Incognito Mode doesn't save the browser history and the session data that contain login and password.
However, cache/DNS cache is still saved in the browser installation location and sometimes even in the temp folder
(To check this, press Windows + R and type in %temp% ..You can see there all the temporary files from most of the apps),
it can leave logs that may give a hint that you visit this forum and the most important thing is that on some browsers like Safari, it'll sometimes bypass the VPN connection in order to send some telemetry data to Apple.
It's already a good thing that you use a VPN but sometimes it isn't enough.

To summarize everything, this tutorial allows you to do something that Qubes OS Linux does (aka. "Edward Snowden favorite OS") but in a easier way.
Sure, if you plan to buy drugs, this still won't be enough and you might rather do something like running a Ubuntu virtual machine on Virtual Box, let it connect to a USB wifi adapter and then setup VeraCrypt in order to run something like a Tor Browser on top of the VPN but we all know that it's probably easier to go out into the wild and buy some weed there rather than doing all of this on a computer and risking to fall into a fed honeypot

 

[loyalskateboard]

Well, in some countries this might be seen as a illegal site, VPN doesn't really protect you if it doesn't have something like a kill switch and DNS Leak protection like Hide me does and Incognito Mode doesn't fully protect you. Incognito Mode doesn't save the browser history and the session data that contain login and password.
However, cache/DNS cache is still saved in the browser installation location and sometimes even in the temp folder
(To check this, press Windows + R and type in %temp% ..You can see there all the temporary files from most of the apps),
it can leave logs that may give a hint that you visit this forum and the most important thing is that on some browsers like Safari, it'll sometimes bypass the VPN connection in order to send some telemetry data to Apple.
It's already a good thing that you use a VPN but sometimes it isn't enough.

To summarize everything, this tutorial allows you to do something that Qubes OS Linux does (aka. "Edward Snowden favorite OS") but in a easier way.
Sure, if you plan to buy drugs, this still won't be enough and you might rather do something like running a Ubuntu virtual machine on Virtual Box, let it connect to a USB wifi adapter and then setup VeraCrypt in order to run something like a Tor Browser on top of the VPN but we all know that it's probably easier to go out into the wild and buy some weed there rather than doing all of this on a computer and risking to fall into a fed honeypot

Oh wow, I wasn't aware this site was illegal in some countries. I know it's blocked here in Australia but I thought it was just that. That was very interesting to read, thank you. I don't have an intelligent response but I appreciate it.