Just the Browser: enterprise policies pointed at your own desktop browser

Configuration files aimed at enterprises, applied locally

The README states the thesis in its second sentence. Just the Browser removes AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations and other annoyances from desktop browsers, and the goal is to leave you with just the browser and nothing else. The mechanism it uses is the part worth pausing on: hidden settings in web browsers intended for companies and other organizations.

Every major browser ships an enterprise policy system, because organizations need to pin extensions, force a homepage, block features and standardize behavior across a fleet. Those same mechanisms work fine on a single machine. So this project is not patching a browser or maintaining a fork. It is writing the policy files an IT department would write, minus the part where they get uploaded to a management console.

That framing explains the shape of the repository. The contents are configuration files for popular browsers, documentation for installing and modifying them, and installation scripts. Four browser directories sit at the top level, `chrome/`, `edge/`, `firefox/` and `brave/`, and the rest of the tree is the website plus the tooling around it. The project is MIT licensed, primarily Shell, with roughly 3,010 stars, 93 forks, only 13 open issues, and a last push on 2026-09-15.

Three file formats because three platforms disagree

The documentation section names four per-browser pages for manual installation, each with explanations for every setting, then makes an observation about formats that predicts most of the friction in the project. The browser directories contain configuration files that are either JSON files, Windows Registry `.reg` files for Windows, or Profile Manager `.mobileconfig` files for macOS.

Three formats for the same idea means three deployment stories. JSON policies are read by Chrome and Edge from a directory the browser polls. Registry files express the same policy for Windows and have to be imported into the registry, normally with administrator rights. A `.mobileconfig` file is a macOS configuration profile, which installs through System Settings and shows up afterwards as a profile the user can remove.

Firefox is the odd one out in not sharing the Chromium policy format, which is why it gets its own directory and why several releases in the history are scoped to Firefox alone. The repository topics are chrome, firefox, google-chrome, linux, macos, microsoft-edge, mozilla-firefox and windows, so the supported surface is four browsers across three desktop platforms. Android is not part of it.

The `.mobileconfig` route deserves a note for anyone uneasy about running a script with administrator access. Installing a configuration profile is a visible, reversible action in macOS System Settings, whereas a registry import leaves far less of a visible trace.

Installing it is one command, and the README offers a way around that

The install script applies the configuration in a few clicks, and the README also points to the manual guides for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Brave if you would rather not run a script with administrator or root access, or if the script does not work for you.

On Windows the instructions are to search for Windows PowerShell in the Start Menu, right-click it, choose Run as administrator, paste the command and press Enter. The command is a single line:

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/corbindavenport/just-the-browser/main/main.ps1")))

That pattern is worth reading rather than skimming. `irm` is Invoke-RestMethod, so the line fetches a script over HTTPS and immediately executes the returned text through a scriptblock. It is remote script execution in one line, which is exactly why the README presents manual guides as a first-class alternative rather than only a fallback for broken machines. On older Windows versions it notes you may need a TLS 1.2 line first:

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol=[Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

Mac and Linux get the same shape through curl:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/corbindavenport/just-the-browser/main/main.sh)"

Running `main.sh` from a working directory with root or administrator access is the only instruction given beyond opening a terminal, so understanding which directories it touches before running it means reading `main.sh` first.

Release notes read as a log of vendors adding AI surfaces

The three most recent releases say more about the project's ongoing work than any feature list would, because each one responds to something a vendor shipped.

v1.9, published 2026-08-29, covers Google Chrome only. It disables the Ask Google button in the address bar, the Search this tab with Google Lens context menu option, and other features for sharing the current page to Google AI Mode and Lens, tracking the change to issue 74. Each release notes entry says existing users on other browsers do not need to update unless the settings are not working, which tells you the configuration is per browser and ships independently of the others.

v1.8, published 2026-08-08, covers Microsoft Edge. It disables the Copilot Cowork integration, and it force-enables Manifest V2 support in Edge so uBlock Origin and other MV2 extensions keep working until support is completely removed in 2027. It also fixes Google Chrome detection on Arch Linux. That MV2 line is the most consequential item in the history, because a browser deciding which extension runtimes to support is not something a local policy can fix indefinitely.

v1.7, published 2026-07-24, adds Brave Browser configuration for Windows, Mac and Linux, disables Edge's Pin to Taskbar wizard for websites, and fixes Firefox's built-in VPN still being blocked on Linux. It also adds a customizable base URL for easier testing and moves direct downloads for web browsers to a separate location.

Read as a sequence the pattern is clear. Each release is a small, dated, attributable correction to a specific vendor behavior with issue numbers attached, and the gap between these three is about three weeks.

The website lives in the same repository as the policies

One detail that catches people out: the documentation site is generated from this repository. The README says the repository includes the static site generator for justthebrowser.com, built with Eleventy and Simple.css, with icons from Bootstrap Icons.

That means the documentation a user reads online and the configuration files they install come from the same tree, so a documentation fix lands in the same pull request as the setting it describes. The tree backs this up. Alongside the four browser directories sit `index.md`, `browsers.md`, `support.md` and `404.md` as content, `_includes/` for templates, `media/` for assets, `.eleventy.js` for configuration, and `CNAME` for the custom domain.

Serving it locally takes the standard Eleventy two-step:

npm install
npx @11ty/eleventy --serve

The only file content the repository exposes is `package.json`, and deployment is handled by a GitHub Action named `eleventy_build.yml` rather than by anything you run yourself. There is a `CONTRIBUTING.md` at the root, and `main.ps1` and `main.sh` are the two install scripts referenced earlier.

The site being in-tree has a practical consequence worth naming: anyone who wants to check exactly what a setting does, or what a browser directory contains, reads it in the same place they would look for the installer. It also means a fork can be a complete replacement rather than only a patch, since the documentation travels with the policies.

What this approach can and cannot do

It is worth being precise about the boundary here, because the project's name invites an assumption it does not quite meet.

The configuration files work with settings the browser already exposes as policies. They cannot disable a capability the vendor has not made policy-controllable, cannot stop a browser phoning home if the vendor hardcodes an endpoint outside the policy system, and cannot outlive a vendor removing the policy framework itself. The Manifest V2 situation in v1.8 is the clearest case: the project could force-enable MV2 support to keep uBlock Origin working, against a stated end date of 2027 when support is completely removed.

They also do not make a browser anonymous. Disabling telemetry data reporting removes what the browser is configured to send, which is not the same as network-level anonymity, and nothing in the repository claims otherwise. Brave is the nearest privacy-oriented browser in the supported list, and it brings its own blocking rather than gaining it from these files.

What the approach does buy is durability in a specific sense. Because the files are declarative settings applied on top of the browser you already have, you keep the browser's own updates, security patches and extension support, and you can diff your configuration against upstream at any time. The cost is that you own the upkeep: a new vendor feature requires a new release, and v1.7 through v1.9 are the schedule for how quickly that tends to happen.

For updates, the README points at the Atom feed:

https://github.com/corbindavenport/just-the-browser/releases.atom

Watching only new releases through GitHub's Watch menu is the alternative, and the feed is offered as compatible with Feedly, Inoreader, The Old Reader and Feedbin among others. Since these releases are the project's entire product, that feed is the operational signal worth watching.

Editorial conclusion

The idea carrying this project is that every feature it removes is still present in the browser and merely hidden, because browsers ship policy mechanisms aimed at large organizations that anybody can apply locally. That is why the repository is a set of configuration files rather than a fork or a patch, and why it survives vendor updates better than a fork would. The limit of the approach is equally clear from the release history: each entry is reactive, describing one vendor shipping one new AI surface, so the configuration is a snapshot of what needed turning off on a given date rather than a durable fix. What the repository settles well is how to install the files on each of the four browsers and which settings each one controls. Where to start is the manual guide for your browser rather than the script, because the guides explain each setting while the script only applies them.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. corbindavenport/just-the-browser on GitHub
2. License: MIT
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases