flyingpenguinw/brave-origin

Brave is a web browser built on Chromium with a built-in ad and tracker blocker. Over the years it has added a lot of other features: a cryptocurrency rewards program, a crypto wallet, a built-in VPN, an AI assistant called Leo, a news feed, a video calling tool, a Tor private browsing mode, a speed reader, and several telemetry systems. Brave Origin is a set of scripts and policy files that strips all of those extras out at the system level, leaving the ad blocking intact. The key detail is that this project applies changes through the browser's enterprise policy system rather than through settings. When you turn something off in the browser's own settings panel, the feature still loads in the background. Policies applied at the system level stop the feature from loading at all, which means no background processes, no memory usage, and no interface clutter from things you do not want. The scripts work on Linux, macOS, and Windows. On Linux and macOS you run a shell script with administrator permissions. On Windows you run a batch file as administrator, and it handles both the standard install and the Microsoft Store install automatically. The changes can be verified by opening brave://policy in the browser, where each disabled feature should appear as enabled in the policy list. Beyond just disabling features, the scripts also apply a few performance settings. DNS prefetching and TCP preconnection are turned on, and a memory saver mode is enabled. The project includes a post-setup checklist with a handful of browser flags to set manually, such as enabling parallel downloads and turning off the sidebar. The ad and tracker blocking that Brave is known for, called Shields, is left completely untouched. The project's stated goal is a browser that behaves like Brave did before the extra features were added.