Hi, I’m Adam, I’m known as Warwagon on the forum. For the past 19 years, I have been running my own computer repair business. In doing so, I deal with the average computer user on a day-to-day basis.

Every bit of information that I provide to people is done with the lowest common denominator in mind. It’s a common misconception that everyone who joins or browses a tech site is a techie. Some people are just looking for guidance. That is why for some, these technical tips may seem too simplistic, but they are educational for others.

Built into modern web browsers is a feature called “Private Browsing/Incognito Mode.” When in this mode, the browser does not save the cache, history, or any cookies from any of the websites you visit.

But what if you could have private browsing but also save all your cookies and keep your browsing history? Perhaps you want to keep a certain aspect of your browsing private from other people who can access the computer, but also enjoy the benefit of retaining bookmarks, history, and cookies for site preference settings?

This can be done using 2 free tools in combination. Veracypt and Portable Firefox.

Note: It should be noted that private/incognito browsing mode also blocks trackers and extensions. Which is not disabled by default in Portable Firefox. Instructions for this are at the end of this guide.

Veracrypt allows you to create a portable encrypted container that you can store on your computer, a USB flash drive, or an external hard drive. Portable Firefox is a version of Firefox that does not require installation and can be extracted and run from within the encrypted container.

Everything you do in portable Firefox is contained ONLY in the encrypted container, cache, cookie history, extensions, etc.

Today I’m going to walk you through setting this up.

• First, we need to download and install Veracrypt
• Once installed, start Veracrypt

• Click on “create volume“
• Put a dot in “Create an encrypted file container“then click”Following”

• Click on “VeraCrypt Standard Volume” then click next

Now we need to select a location to place your encrypted container. Click “Select File” and decide where you want to save it and then give it a name. The file will have no file extension. Once you give the file a name, click “Save money“. Then click on “Following” Y “Following” again.

Now select how big you want the container to be, I’d say 4 GB is a good size.

• Click next
• Now give your encrypted container a password
• Click next

Now move your mouse around like crazy to give your encryption some randomness. At this point, you can also choose your file system type. I’m going to choose NTFS.

• Click on “Format” to format your encrypted container.

Congratulations, you have just created an encrypted container.

Now we are going to mount it and put Portable Firefox inside it.

• First click “Select File“

  

• Locate the container you created and double-click on it.

• Click on “Mount“
• Enter your password
• Click on “okay(Give it a few seconds)

Your encrypted container will be mounted on the drive letter above, in my case it is drive letter O. So for “destination folder“Would go in O:\

Now we need Portable Firefox. It may be from portableapps.com

Once downloaded, open it. It will ask you where you want to extract the content. In my case, I’m going to extract it to the root of my new encrypted container which is on drive o:

That is all! Now open your container’s drive letter and you should see Portable Firefox!

Now just open it up and configure it to your liking, extensions and all!

How to disable cross-site tracking cookies, content tracking, cryptominers, and fingerprinting.

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines at the top right of Firefox and select “Settings“.
• Once in the settings, click on “Privacy & Security” On the left.
• On the right, scroll down and select “Custom“.
• Now choose what you want to block.

The other great thing is that it updates like a normal version of Firefox, so you’ll always have the latest version!

Once you are done, close Firefox and go back to Veracrypt and click on “Disassemble“

Sometimes you have to click “force unmount”

Happy Computing!

If you learned something today, great! If not, maybe share your own tech tip in the comments below!