Continuing the discussion from Some of your questions answered. Recap of Community Call from 09/20/2022:

old topic is locked, so here is the continuation

Windows 8.1 user here, Most probably my last topic here for a while so please read and give your support…

Continuing the discussion from Some of your questions answered. Recap of Community Call from 09/20/2022:

Unfortunately, Today brave has decided to drop support for Both Windows 7 as well as 8.1


where nearly 13% of windows users are still on these platforms (If on average 1.5 billion users runs windows today, then it’s roughly 30 million users who are still on these two platforms, this is minimum estimated numbers)

Im strongly convinced myself to not upgrade to windows 10 or 11, they are no where as good as windows 8.1 & 7 in terms of customization, user friendliness and giving full control and power over the operating system to command the computer to what to run and what not to. i want lightweight OS and Win 10 & 11 aren’t. i will continue to use brave just as it is in the way it’s right now for the next two years, Let’s wait for windows 12 to see whether it actually feels like an OS made for computers worth upgrading… i personally believe windows 7 and 8.1 were the last truly great operating system made for the PCs(in mind). Windows 10 and 11 is starting to feel like it’s an advanced version of android made for computers. it’s not bad or average but i don’t get the same excitement and happiness which win 8.1 & 7 are capable of delivering. Microsoft No longer cares about offering variety and maintaining a wide portfolio of windows and adding support to all of them, I believe Microsoft can do it but they purposefully scrap the older OS versions and disrespect the classics just to force push users to the newest OS versions to exaggerate the user counts and make profits from ad revenue which they show on MS Store and suggested content, pre-install apps, bloatwares…etc…

I really like brave and i do find it depressing that brave is not working on “Establishing a meaning for why they are running a company”,i mean a company shouldn’t exist just to make money because just about any company can make money, it’s important to earn an unique identity and establish a meaning…

Here, Have a look at this…

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All these videos often criticize Brave like “it’s just another browser” and also mocks the browser for chromium dependency. i personally believe “just another” to be insulting as it confirms that there is nothing unique or special about someone or something…

Here, have a look at this, this is mypal, the developers of this browser work hard to strive for a establishing a meaning and fulfilling a need for people who prefer older version of windows…

ok, i get the argument, there is no point in making browser where users are less, but it’s important to note that this browser has a meaning for it’s existence and won’t fall that easily into the category of “it’s just another browser”

i know completely moving away from chromium can be hard but everything had to be started at some point of time, Remember, Before chromium, there was internet explorer, Google made an effort so now chromium is popular. Before Google Docs, there was MS Word, Google made an effort so now Google Docs is futuristic and popular… Google might have android tv OS, But Samsung made an effort and thus Tizen OS is more super fantastic than android TVs, So the Lesson which is need to be observed here is, Regardless of what others are doing, if we put an effort today, with proper planning, we can get ahead of others in the next 5 years of time.

Chromium in and of itself isn’t perfect, There is No Bookmark queue or Bookmark Assistant where if one bookmark from a folder gets removed, Browser automatically loads the next bookmark link which is on that folder on the same current tab or new tab of user’s choice, No independent browser scaling like telegram desktop…

See here, there is a problem, i set the page zoom to be 200% on settings, extensions also getting zoomed in…

Zoom Bug with 200%


100% Normal size

the right design would be each extension having an independent zoom setting on the extension page to customize everything the way we want, Also there are other problems like,

  • Lack of ability to set custom shortcut key to launch websites (For example, Pressing alt+ B does nothing, so if i press the key while the browser is in focus, Brave community automatically gets loaded in a new tab)
  • Lack of ability to always open link in a new tab
  • history (only 3 months)
  • Lack of ability to “Auto resume/Self retry” failed downloads once the connection becomes online where the browser attempts to restart the error downloads without user input.
  • Lack of ability to force reload all tabs at startup
  • Lack of ability to open link in a new tab but not to load or freeze the tab after X minutes of time
  • Lack of ability to always Block all websites notification requests
  • No Notifications whenever a new sync code is generated (last word)
  • No Native Gestures support (For example, i want to hold on a link and right swipe the link to open link in a new tab but with chromium, i am unable to do it)
  • No Data usage Statistics
  • No CPU temp check…etc

We can blame 100s of faults about chromium based browsers but that’s not the point or even considered as an accomplishment, what matters is that we need to build something new which is independent of others and the browser keeps functioning continuously regardless of others dropping support. For this reason, Having an realistic goal is important, Brave should not fight/compete with chrome, Let Google do what they want to do and brave should focus on establishing an identity because competing with the other chromium based browsers and coming out on top is pointless because chromium will still get most of the credits… SO for the brave browser, brave should take a break from the brave browser itself (example, Brave’s future updates only dealing with Upgrading chromium and adblocking shields so the userbase is preserved and like Brave nightly, brave should release a new variant, maybe name it as Brave alpha, so on this alpha variant, it’s completely independent browser, no longer uses chromium, only thing which i believe will hold back brave devs is the extension support, but again here, brave devs need to break the dependency chain, instead of relying on extension devs, On the new brave alpha variant, brave devs should bring most of the extensions features built native into the browser)

Think about an average user, and look at the top 30 most used extensions, it would mostly be adblocker, screen recorders, screenshots, spell checks, tab management, VPNs…etc… all of this can be built right into the browser… once brave crosses the 3 years timeframe, all of the smart extension devs will consider opening up support of their extensions for the brave browser too, considering the fact brave devs can provide a new store and features equivalent to chrome, making the work loads of extension devs for porting to the brave browser to be super easy.

Instead of competing on the browser market, Brave’s future will be much more energetic, pleasant and meaningful if they could figure out a way to work on providing custom OSes which is based on windows, Built in antivirus integration, VPN integration… i.e Brave Inc would be much better if it strive to be a security and privacy based company rather than a browser based company. Although i haven’t seen much custom made ISOs which are based on windows, brave can do it first in a way where brave opens up a gateway on the Brave OS to Microsoft to get their % cut (license fee) and brave profiting from Brave antivirus, Brave vpn, Brave Firewall…etc

I want Brave Inc to be more like McLaren (McLaren doesn’t make most of the money but it’s there in top 5 Supercar Makers with unique identity)


Please choose to be unique, try to be unique and think that you can because i think brave can do it. A Windows 11 custom ISO with win 7 , 8.1 themes and icon support, bloatware removal, telemetry removal would be great… i will be happy to download it from brave or Github… i especially love Win 8.1 icons, Much more beautiful than Win 10 and 11

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Every web browser has stopped.

I mean, the list goes on. The reason is because the Operating System is no longer receiving support. With Windows 8 and Windows 7 being completely dropped by Microsoft, you’ll see support being dropped by almost everyone else. There’s no more security updates or anything there, which would only introduce security vulnerabilities. On top of that, sometimes coding and other things change. It’s a lot of work.

What’s important to note is that this doesn’t mean the web browsers will “blacklist” your device or anything. It just means you won’t be getting automatic updates. It may still be possible for you to manually update Brave and receive the latest that way. However, it will mean that you’ll no longer be able to receive support based on your OS.

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will the ab blocking and tracker blocking still be functional ? if the blocking and filter lists constantly gets updated and shields will continue to work regardless of the browser not getting updates, i would be somewhat happy with that

and only for this reason, im expecting brave team to work on creating custom ISOs for the Windows 11 Operating system so that by creating Windows 11 based custom ISOs, Brave team can have more control over the system. For Example, Replacing windows defender with Brave Antivirus, more security, removing all bloatwares , telemetry…etc

Reducing windows processing count to the maximum lowest count as someone possibly can , Installing Win 7 and Win 8.1 themes, wide variety of icons customization, aero support…etc

Windows 8.1 is the winner of all Windows OSes because windows processes count is as low as 22 and OS speed is absolutely incredible

Custom OSes made by brave would make things interesting, i am not going to give up windows 8.1 atleast until end of next year, so if brave starts today and by the time i get a new computer in 2024, i can have a new custom OS ready from brave also Microsoft would have finally reached fully stable version of 11…

Yeah, especially if you’re able to manually update to the newer versions of Brave. It’s just going to come down to the idea that you’re going to have to manually check every once in a while, as the browser won’t be able to auto update to my knowledge.

But that’s why I said, it’s not just going to suddenly snap and be like, “This browser no longer works because you’re using Windows 7.” It’s just eventually, the coding or necessary resources will expand beyond what is capable on your device. It’s just a question of how long until that happens.

Other important aspect is IF you experience technical difficulties, Brave won’t be able to help as it’s on an operating system that they no longer support.

I don’t really have anything to say on that, as it’s completely beyond my realm of knowledge. You have seen things I’ve shared though and heard them speak themselves. I doubt it’s happening, but we shall see.

ok how do you manually update brave ?.. i haven’t tried it because im not ready to lose any bookmarks as running a new install.exe might reset everything to new ? not sure about it and i think brave has ended the browser support completely, not just those automatic updates but completely stopped support because if only automatic updates were stopped, Brave would have said that warning in this way…

Your PC will no longer receive automatic updates, you Should update it manually from here (where here is an hyperlink… and beneath this, there should be an update checker tool where win 8.1 and 7 users can use it every now and then)

Also if updates were meant to come by just as you say manually, not necessarily with security updates, but just like how sidebar got updated in the last few months which is a new feature(IF brave team believes they can add support for some of the brave’s very new features which they believe can also function very well in older OS versions, they should add that in new updates, i don’t necessarily want security updates but just those feature based updates…sure i cant get all of it but i should be able to get some of it… Completely shutting down support is not fair…

BTW how would you do this? Just installing a new version on top of already existing one? I haven’t found any info so far.

Yeah, assuming work. I’m actually trying to get official details on this of how it’ll work and what’s possible. As of now it’s kind of speculation and all on my part, which never is good. I’ll let you know when I’m able to get better details, which hopefully will come by Wednesday

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if you have direct contacts with Brave devs team, Can you ask them the following Questions on your community call ? this is detailed request but you can shorten it after grasping the concept

Will they ever work in future on creating Custom OS which is based on Windows 11 for a much better browsing and overall PC experience ?

The reason for this Question and request is that working on a custom OS which directly modifies the windows 11 OS will help in creating better technology such as Antivirus Integration and System Wide VPN integration(Currently i believe both the chromium as well as the Windows 11 aren’t capable of achieving the same, especially VPN, while browser VPNs just provide the VPN connection for the browser, it doesnt change any connection of the system connection settings, So having the ability of changing and protecting the internet connection of entire system and not just limiting to a browser would be great… this also applies for antivirus programmes… currently, we need to use separate apps if we need System wide VPN and antivirus…But i believe an improvement would be controlling all of them just by using one application which is just a browser where i think the devs need to change some system codes of windows 11 os to achieve this fantastic control…

This video is a detailed explanation of changing everything including all the icons

this one is basic for changing just a few of those things but i want some hi-tech company like brave to do most of these and integrate all of this customizations directly on to the custom OS settings page which is based on Windows 11 by changing/editing some codes, especially due to Win 11 taskbar isn’t good at customization as win 7/8.1.

Maybe Windows 2000 and XP is just too old but if Win 7 and 8.1 can be supported this far, it’s only for their beauty, Speed and Performance… These Lightweight OSes such as Win 7 and 8.1 are far more superior to win 10 and 11 in terms of speed and performance so by making Win 11 Super lightweight by removing cortana, preinstalled apps, disabling all kinds of tracking, reducing the windows process to maximum lowest possible count and retaining the Win 7/8.1 beautiful icons(which shares the same) by just a click of a button without going through installation processes and integrating classic windows photo viewer would make it awesome… All the Classic Windows 7/8.1 themes, start menu and icon personalization should be directly integrated in the Settings page of custom OS made by brave team which is based on windows 11.

Microsoft Change in their logo designs says it all, at first, while Windows XP and Windows 7 came out, especially Windows 7, the logos were too colorful and they were too good at offering customization and more user control but as the evolution passes by, the logos were getting darker and darker, specifically the current blue one which keeps getting darker, the removal of colors of win 7 logo on the later operating system also indicates the removal of customization, user control and freedom.

With Brave Wallet and Brave Search which i believe brave team is obsessed with, especially the Brave wallet, there is no end point coming that easily, the development for these will go on forever and ever and there is already way too plenty of alternatives for search engine and crypto wallets… However, when it comes to Custom Windows based OSes, there isn’t any well known company doing this, most of the custom OS builds are fan made projects or indie, So if a Californian hi-tech company like brave were meant to take on projects like this, it will give them a huge boost in popularity, respect and fan base of at-least of 100 million users which i believe are users count of people who like windows 7 and 8.1 and still wish they could go back to it if there were drivers support for new hardwares still made available today for win 7 and 8.1… The Speed, Performance and design feels so different compared to 11 and if brave wanted it, with enough effort, Brave team could bring those exact same feels of win 7/8.1 on win 11 with huge performance boost and more private OS feel…

I Strongly Believe Microsoft won’t do it as they start to believe “what they do as New is Right and it’s better and right idea to scrap off the older designs” which according to me is morally wrong… if Microsoft was a responsible company, they will facilitate a way to preserve all of the classic design and styles of icons and themes on the latest windows versions but they just scrap it completely without any feelings and emotions… Microsoft became irresponsible to focus on little things and now start to care more about preinstalling apps, trackers and injecting ads, ads, ads, ads and more ads…

With Custom OS Projects, You start it, You finish it in a meaningful amount of reasonable time, What’s the real benefit of doing this ? It will earn an identity for Brave team and boost the company’s respect and popularity for doing things which the stock version of windows won’t be able to do it and moreover if people were to buy for Microtransactions in games, people will most likely do it for extraordinary themes if they were meant to be offered by directly integrating the purchase on the settings page of custom OS

Brave can add more themes by hiring ui designers and easily charge 20$ for each theme and 249$ for lifetime upgrade to use all of themes for free… the business model is more similar to elegant themes https://www.elegantthemes.com/

This is much more profitable and will give a huge boost in popularity as compared to brave search, brave talk monthly subscription and brave wallet which is free to use… so i hope brave will be wise enough to change their focus on what others weren’t doing and going to a place where there will be less competition… I’m Not saying that themes dont exist right now, they do, but they aren’t organized and lack compatibility… we need a group of devs who can give assurance to use a software by giving strong affirmation that using this specific software made by them won’t break any existing win 11 settings and lifetime bug fixes will be offered.

Developing custom OS will also facilitate to implement these two requests…

brave-rewards-earning-money-could-become-better-it-you-add-mining-systems-CPU and GPU-power-business-model

Brave Rewards(Earning Money) could become better it you add mining system's cpu power business model

vertical-tabs-sidebar-concept-design-for-bringing-style-similar-to-samsungs-tizen-os-and-freezing-frozen-tabs

Vertical tabs (sidebar) concept design for bringing Style similar to Samsung's Tizen OS and Freezing/frozen tabs

Imaging Win 12 coming out in Aug 2025 and Microsoft does something terrible and unacceptable on it during launch and people start saying “Guys, I’m just going to wait for Brave Software Inc. to release the custom OS version of this edition of windows which will be more lightweight and private.” How does this feel ?

Thanks for reading, as a lover of brave browser, i want the brave team to evolve and see my dream wishes comes true. Really not going to update to win 10 and win 11 as long as i possibly can until i run out of option to purchase older hardwares where the stocks for it aren’t available anywhere.

Well, I have the first part of answers.

Photos 12_5_2022 02_13_32

As to custom OS and all, it’s not anything on their immediate radar. I have brought it up before, including even trying to encourage them of considering Brave Mobile as well. These are all things they would like to do in the future as a possibility, but it would be in a far distant future if it does happen.

Just like I believe that call you’re continuing from is where I asked if they’d ever deviate away from Chromium base to have their own browser. At this point they don’t foresee it happening. Doing these types of things are very costly and there’s just not enough of a demand for it all to happen either.

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The lack of taskbar settings was a dealbreaker in Win11 to me. As well as in both 10 and 11 the lack of proper taskbar opacity similar to 8.1. And if those can be fixed, and even 11 Start can be reverted to 10 Start - I still could not find a way to bring 8.1 Start back to 10/11. Because it was much more clean and responsive than Win10 Start. And above all of that - nobody can bring back Charms Bar. Which was the best thing in Win8.1 on a tablet. Why? Because right under your right thumb were Search / Start / Settings buttons. Including “show keyboard” in Settings which was a huge help in windowed fullscreen games where you can’t click on keyboard icon on the taskbar since the said taskbar is not visible anymore. I’ve tried to make an app to do this, and I’ve managed to make it appear on moving mouse cursor from a corner to the middle of the right side of the screen, and added a search - but MS libs are kinda junk, and the said search was worse than the actual 8.1 search. But on a touchscreen still new Win10 style panel keeps appearing instead. 10-11 were nothing but a pure disappointment at this point.
P. S. And yes, I also hate rounded corners. Hated them in XP, in Vista, in 7, so was happy af in 8/8.1, but in 11 they’ve managed to screw this up again for some reason.

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@Shassk yes i 100% agree with you, Win 8.1 was the last good OS made by Microsoft

Start screen looks really cool after you customize it

People hate on it without customizing it by seeing what Microsoft delivers it by default

@Saoiray Not happy to hear this, but anyway i gave my effort to get into this request in detail on this thread

Have a look at it, i felt like i repeated this request enough number of times but this should be the LAST one with much more detailed examples and explanations.

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Brave definitely beat the bushes around IE and Edge. If they don’t stand up now for Win 8.1 or 7 then it’s a loss for them. The Microsoft pressure crunch is being played for financial gains. BRAVE DON’T GIVE IN. There’s more to be gained maintaining your browser out there as T H E alternative .

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You’re 100% Right

Added a reply to the other user which should be worth highlighting here

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