Privoo Desktop: Browsing

From the Privoo reference. This article covers version 5.0.5.

Main article: Privoo Desktop. For shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts.

This article describes Privoo's browsing interface. Page content is rendered inside <webview> guests, keeping site content isolated from the browser's own interface, which is itself an ordinary web document.

Tabs

Tabs may be dragged to reorder and shrink to fit as more are opened, following Chrome's sizing behaviour, so that a full strip degrades gracefully rather than becoming indistinguishable slivers. Closed tabs can be restored with Ctrl Shift T, and open tabs searched with Ctrl Shift A.

Tab groups

Tabs may be collected into named, coloured groups from the tab context menu, which keeps long sessions legible when a single task spans many pages.

Split view

Dragging a tab onto either half of the page area splits the view, presenting two live pages side by side; the shortcut is Ctrl Shift E. The two tabs are rendered as a single joined unit in the tab strip while retaining independent close controls, so the pair reads as one object without losing individual control.

Vertical tabs

An alternative tab presentation: a collapsible side panel with an icon rail and a search field across open tabs. The rationale is geometric. A horizontal strip allocates each tab a shrinking share of a limited width, so titles become unreadable as tabs accumulate; a vertical list grows down a comparatively tall screen and preserves titles.

The sidebar

A rail along the window edge providing access to downloads, history, bookmarks, settings, and any sites pinned as applications. Pinned sites open in a panel sized for the site rather than compressed into a narrow strip; certain sites known to require additional width receive it automatically.

When a panelled site is playing audio, hovering it displays the current track with a pause control. The sidebar can be set to Hover mode, in which it collapses to zero width and reappears when the pointer reaches the window edge.

Profiles, guest and incognito

Profiles are separate browsing identities with their own cookies, logins, history, extensions and settings. Isolation is at the filesystem level: Chromium's entire userData directory is redirected per profile at process start. Two accounts on the same site can therefore be signed in simultaneously without interference. See Installation: profiles.

Guest mode provides a session that retains nothing. Incognito (Ctrl Shift N) opens a private window whose session is discarded on close and never written to history. Incognito windows always close fully rather than minimising to the tray, so a private session does not linger in memory.

Command palette

Ctrl K opens a single search field addressing tabs, history, bookmarks, settings and actions. It is generally faster than locating a setting by navigation.

Reading and viewing modes

The address bar

Search suggestions are retrieved from the configured engine as the user types, and the engine's icon is displayed. Beyond ordinary URLs, the address bar resolves:

Speed Dial

The new tab page. It presents a search field with live suggestions and, optionally, shortcut tiles, a clock, weather and privacy statistics. Each element is individually switchable, so the page can be reduced to a search field alone.

Backgrounds may be a static image, a video file, or one of several animated themes; animation can be disabled entirely. An optional link to Privoo News displays release notes rendered from the local build, which issues no network request. See Appearance.

History, bookmarks and downloads

All three are searchable, stored locally, and available at privoo://history, privoo://bookmarks and privoo://downloads. Bookmarks can be imported from other Chromium browsers on the same machine. None of this data is transmitted, as no destination exists.

See also

• Privoo Desktop: Appearance
• Privoo Desktop: Keyboard shortcuts
• Privoo Desktop: Profiles and data isolation