My favorite Windows web browser (without AI)

With a few tweaks, Brave is what Firefox and Chrome were in their golden ages.

Tomorrow is the dawn of the AI web browser. Perplexity’s Comet was the first, splashy one. This week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas. It’s just for Mac right now, but it’s coming to Windows soon.

Every web browser seems to be becoming an AI web browser. Microsoft is plowing ahead on a “Copilot Mode” that transforms Edge. Chrome is becoming a delivery mechanism for Gemini. Mozilla is packing in its own AI features. Opera has too many web browsers to count, and one of them is an agentic AI browser. Brave has its Leo AI assistant. Of course, Vivaldi is staking its claim on not incorporating any AI features. — but even Vivaldi’s reputation is becoming defined by its approach to AI!

AI browsers are both fascinating and half-baked. I’ve spent time with Perplexity Comet, and the experience of watching an AI slowly click and type for you is mesmerizing. But it’s slow, and Comet wasn’t designed with enough protection against prompt injection attacks. In other words, words embedded on web pages could trick the built-in AI assistant into revealing private information or taking other harmful actions.

Prompt injection is an unsolved problem, and it also affects ChatGPT Atlas. I don’t plan on doing my online banking in Comet, Atlas, or Edge’s “Copilot Mode” anytime soon.

Yes, I’m sticking with a traditional web browser for now. So, with that in mind:

Chromium or Firefox: Pick One

Rather than try to write up “the best AI browser,” let’s talk about the best traditional web browser. There are, roughly, three browser families these days:

• Chromium browsers: Chromium forms the basis of Google Chrome. That’s why Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Perplexity Comet, ChatGPT Atlas, and most other browsers look and feel the same. Most websites work best with Chromium browsers these days.

• Firefox and its forks: Firefox is still its own browser. (Mozilla gets most of its money from Google, and someone might wonder if Google is keeping Firefox around to pre-empt any arguments about it having a monopoly on browser engines.) Few browsers are based on Firefox, and the ones that are are niche projects. For example: The privacy-focused LibreWolf and Zen Browser, the spiritual successor to the Arc browser. Overall, Firefox still tends to feel a bit dated and clunky — to me.

• Safari: Apple’s Safari is its own browser, but Safari hasn’t run on Windows since 2012. (Yes, from 2007 to 2012, Apple was trying to win the Windows web browser market!)

When Firefox launched in 2004, it changed the web. These days, there’s no one “best web browser,” of course. And that’s a relief. You can use basically anything you want!

Years ago, it was easy to say Internet Explorer 6 was plain-old bad and people should switch to Firefox. But it’s not like the old days anymore. All web browsers are decent. But, as I look out over the browser market, there’s one web browser that shines a little brighter than the others.

Why Brave is the best Windows web browser (for me)

I can only share the best Windows web browser for me. In other words, that’s the web browser I use every day: Brave.

No browser is perfect, and Brave has its controversies. I never liked all the cryptocurrency stuff. When you install it, that’s the first thing you see. But, after a few clicks, it all goes away. I have Paul Thurrott to thank for repeatedly talking up Brave and encouraging me to give it a second chance.

What’s left is a streamlined version of Google Chrome, without Gemini AI popping up everywhere. More importantly, Brave has a built-in adblocker that just works. After Google switched Chrome browsers to the Manifest V3 extension system, adblockers just don’t work as well in Chrome anymore.

This isn’t an ethical argument about adblocking — not this week. I tried to avoid adblocking for a long time. Eventually, at How-To Geek, my boss had to turn the advertising dial up to keep people employed as ad rates declined. The “ad load” — the number of ads on the site and their resource usage — eventually became so heavy that I had to use an adblocker to get work done. If I had 20-30 How-To Geek tabs open, my laptop’s fans would be whirring away. I’m sorry we had to do that.

So that’s what Brave is to me: A clean, minimal Chrome-alike browser with a built in adblocker that works better than anything Google lets you install in Chrome.

My Brave browser setup. That’s it.

Much more could be said about Brave, too: That adblocking is a great example of how it respects user choice in a way the big browsers don’t. Another example is Brave’s Leo AI assistant: Brave lets you enter an API key so you can hook it to your AI model of choice. That could even be an AI model running on your local PC. Chrome, Edge, Comet, and Atlas will never let you do something like this. They want to own the relationship and provide you their company’s AI assistant. Brave gives you a choice. (You can also just turn Leo off and ignore it — I don’t use the AI features built into Brave.)

I’ll admit: I used Google Chrome for a long time. It’s a good browser. But the restrictions on adblockers and the constant barrage of Gemini features popping up in every corner of the browser — do I really need a Gemini button on my browser’s tab bar? — made me switch.

Why not Firefox? Well, Firefox was once amazing. It changed the course of the web and freed us from Internet Explorer 6. But Firefox no longer performs as well on modern websites as Chrome-like browsers do. That’s not necessarily Mozilla’s fault, but modern websites work better with Chromium browsers. If you want to fight the good fight and stick with Firefox, I salute you.

As Paul Thurrott wrote in 2022:

Ultimately, what Brave is to me is what Firefox used to be. Or, perhaps more concisely, it’s what Firefox should be.

For what it’s worth, Brave also has an excellent Android browser with a built-in adblocker and cross-device sync. I prefer it to the Chrome app on my phone.

Chris’s Brave browser setup guide

I do some quick tweaks to make Brave uncluttered and minimal after installing it. After I do, I don’t have to see the crypto stuff.

Once I flip these switches in Brave, my browser stays minimal and clean. In Chrome, Edge, and even Firefox, I often discover new features I don’t want popping up. I have to hunt down ways to tweak them. In Brave, I configure my browser once and I’m not constantly twiddling knobs as new features pop up.

Brave lets you turn off these things in a few clicks. Meanwhile, Microsoft won’t let you turn off Edge’s Copilot icon without digging deep into Settings.

Here’s my quick setup guide. This is just what I personally do and recommend if you want to avoid the clutter:

• Hide the Brave Rewards icon by right-clicking the red triangle at the right side of the address bar and selecting “Hide Brave Rewards icon.” You don’t want to use Brave Rewards — it’ll send you notification advertisements and in return you’ll get an infinitesimal amount of cryptocurrency.

• Clean up your toolbar icons by right-clicking icons you don’t care about and selecting “Hide.” For example, I turn off the Brave cryptocurrency wallet and the VPN button.

• Declutter the New Tab page by opening a new tab and clicking the gear icon at the top right. Scroll through here and tweak the options. On the Background Image pane, I turn off “Show new tab page ads.” On the Search pane, I turn the search widget off — I can just use the normal address bar to search. On the Top Sites pane, I turn off the top sites. On the Cards pane, I turn off all the cards.

• Turn off Brave News by scrolling down on the New Tab page and clicking “No thanks.” You’ll get a more streamlined New Tab page.

• Choose your preferred search engine. I still use Google, but you may prefer something else — Brave uses its own search engine by default. To do this, right-click Brave’s address bar, and select “Manage search engines and site search.” Locate the search engine you prefer, click the three dots to its right, and select “Make default.”

• Turn off built-in crypto wallets by clicking menu > Settings, selecting “Web3” in the sidebar, and then turning both “Default Ethereum Wallet” and “Default Solana wallet” to “Extensions (no fallback)”. With these settings, your browser won’t have any crypto wallets unless you go out of your way to install extensions that provide them.

That’s it. There are other things you can tweak in Brave — you might want to go to Settings > Sync to set up cross-device browser sync. And I always install my preferred password manager in every browser I use. (Brave’s adblocker should work just fine out of the box without any extra tweaking, but you can tweak it from Settings > Shields.)

Aside from that, though, Brave will just work — and I never discover new features that annoy me popping up. It’s a welcome relief from the other big browsers that often feel like a delivery system for Google, Microsoft, or Mozilla’s new pet projects.

And now, the latest from Thurrott.com

Speaking of Paul Thurrott, let’s talk about what’s new on Thurrott.com this week.

(By the way, this section is not and has never been “sponsored.” I respect Paul Thurrott’s work, and I’m proud he endorses my work, too. That’s all.)

It’s a rough week for Xbox. Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft demanded is Xbox division to deliver 30% profit margins — way above average for the video game industry. For Thurrott Premium subscribers, Paul’s take on how Xbox was enshittified from within is essential reading.

Windows 11’s redesigned Start menu is now available in the Release Preview channel — it’s nearly here. Microsoft also says Windows 11 will be “AI native.” For Thurrott Premium subscribers, Paul ponders whether consumers matter to Microsoft at all.

In other platforms, Paul wrote up a review of the Pixel 10 Pro. For Thurrott Premium subscribers, he dove into the Zorin OS 18 Linux distribution.

Anyway, there is no “best web browser”

It’s not 2004 anymore, when I’d be arguing you have to switch to Firefox. It’s 2025, and you can use whatever you want! In this piece, I’m just sharing what I prefer.

I’ll be honest: I played with Comet, and I’ll be experimenting with other AI browsers, too. How could I not?

For my day-to-day browsing, though, I’m sticking with Brave.

So hey: Which web browser do you prefer? I’d love to chat about it in the comments.