A Couple of Brief Questions: Search Engines / Unplugged Laptop

1. When I want to 'clean' my laptop, I often go to History and 'Clear History'.
Then I scroll up to Manage Search Engines and there are 5, 6 , 8 different websites I have recently visited. I am confident they exist because my computer has picked up some cookies, but they are titled 'other search engines.' I don't like the idea of Twitter or Home Depot being my main Search Engine or having that much access to my laptop.

Yahoo is my default and my other laptop is Google.

I have gone through my links and clicked on the option to prevent websites from tracking me, I have Google Ghostery and another ad block popup blocker.

Maybe it is something I have to live with, but it there any way around it? What if I used Proton or a paid VPN from another nation?

Any suggestions ?


2. When my laptop is plugged in, the display is bright and clear. When I unplug it and the battery is still 100 percent, the display is reduced. It is not as bright. If the battery is supplying enough power to display the monitor and search online, why doesn't it display the contents as bright as it does when it is plugged in?

Do Apples do the same thing?



Thanks

Hey RamondWindoz,
1. I don't really have any suggestions, but hopefully others will add their thoughts on the subject... You can minimize tracking, cookies, etc by adjusting browser settings and 3rd party apps ... but basically if you're gonna be on the net, you're gonna be tracked to some extent
2. Check this tutorial - Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10
Note: Option 1 at step 7 - Adjust Plan Brightness

Eagle51 said:

Hey RamondWindoz,
1. I don't really have any suggestions, but hopefully others will add their thoughts on the subject... You can minimize tracking, cookies, etc by adjusting browser settings and 3rd party apps ... but basically if you're gonna be on the net, you're gonna be tracked to some extent
2. Check this tutorial - Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10
Note: Option 1 at step 7 - Adjust Plan Brightness

I might have to resign myself to clearing the search engines once a week.

But, I re-checked my settings. I had my Brightness set to high when it was plugged in and it was only half way when it was unplugged.

I set it to high and unplugged it and I did not lose any brightness. Great ! I am not worried about battery consumption. I don't ever use it enough unplugged for the battery to ever drain.


Thanks !

dalchina said:

You can use search engines such as DuckDuckgo which focus on protecting your privacy.
Certain AV companies offer secure browsers. Avast Secure Browser has many features intended to stop people tracking your use or keeping records of your browser usage.

Avast Secure Browser review - gHacks Tech News
However this was criticised in 2016:
Avast's Secure Web Browser Was Anything But Safe

Then there are sandbox programs, sometimes provided as part of an AV suite, or there's Sandboxie
Download Sandboxie 5.26 - FileHippo.com

which allows you to run any program in a sandbox so you can run it and close Sandboxie without any implications or risk to data remaining on your disk, unless you choose to write info to your disk from it.

Do not confuse privacy in terms of what is written to your disk with the use of a VPN. If you use a browser to browse sites via a VPN, cookies etc are written in the usual way.

Yeah, I guess VPN's don't protect us from cookies, only the ISP.

I was using AVAST until last week, I deleted it because I felt like had slowed down my laptop.
It was taking a millennia to restart the laptop and refresh. It has gotten quicker since I deleted it.

But I will check the others.....

Thanks !