Packets Browser Features

A complete overview of the major user-facing capabilities currently included in Packets 1.70.0. The sections are ordered by expected importance to most users, from core browsing and privacy controls through advanced diagnostics and experimental features.

1. Core browsing and navigation

• Chromium-based desktop browsing in a native Windows application.
• Multiple tabs with new-tab, close-tab, activate-tab, and recently closed tab support.
• Combined address/search behavior for URLs and search queries.
• Back, Forward, Reload, Home, and standard keyboard navigation shortcuts.
• Open links in new tabs and open tabs in separate Packets windows.
• Windows default-browser registration for HTTP and HTTPS, with Settings controls and a dismissible startup prompt.
• Single-instance routing for URLs opened by Windows or another application.
• Startup choices: Open the home page, Continue where I left off, Blank page, or Local HTML file.
• Session restoration with saved window size and position.
• Local .html/.htm browsing with native file selection and View Source support.

2. Privacy, blocking, and user control

• Built-in ad and tracker blocking with a true master enable/disable switch.
• User-editable ads.txt, trackers.txt, and allowlist.txt rule files.
• Immediate blocklist reload, validation, duplicate reporting, restore, and safe atomic saves.
• Constrained single-pass response filtering for supported ad/tracker responses, with fail-open behavior and size limits.
• Per-site camera, microphone, location, and notification permissions with persistent Ask, Allow, and Block choices.
• Unified Clear Browsing Data controls for cache, cookies, history, downloads, permissions, credential preferences, and blocked-request counts.
• Cookie Manager with filtering, current-site view, individual deletion, and Delete Visible.
• Page Information panel showing URL, origin, protocol, zoom, loading state, and security summary.
• Development and installed profiles are separated so test data does not overwrite the normal Packets profile.

3. Bookmarks and history

• Bookmarks Bar with bookmark folders and nested folder organization.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of bookmarks and folders within the toolbar and inside folders.
• Drag bookmarks or folders into another folder or back to the Bookmarks Bar root.
• Visual drag destination indicators and protection against invalid recursive folder moves.
• Right-click bookmark management including Add Folder, Add Shortcut, Move, Rename, and Delete.
• Bookmark import from Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and compatible HTML bookmark files.
• Bookmark export, backup, and restore support.
• Browsing history panel with saved history, clear history, and recently closed tabs.

4. Downloads, saving, and printing

• Downloads Manager with current-session status, progress, file location, Open, Show in Folder, Remove, and Clear Completed actions.
• User-selectable download destination with remembered last save folder.
• Optional suppressible Download Complete notification.
• Right-click Save Image As and file-saving workflows.
• Native Windows printing, including physical and virtual printers.
• Direct Save Page as PDF support.
• Compatibility handling for same-origin print-helper windows used by sites such as Gmail.

5. Credentials and form usability

• Local credential manager for saved website usernames/passwords.
• Save and update credential prompts, per-site disable controls, and clear-saved-credentials support.
• Chromium spellchecking in editable fields.
• Right-click spelling replacement suggestions and Add to Dictionary when supported by the current Electron session.
• Secure website copy-to-clipboard support while clipboard reading remains restricted.

6. Widevine DRM and media compatibility

• Castlabs Electron for Content Security runtime with Widevine component initialization.
• Encrypted Media Extensions/Widevine support for compatible protected-media sites.
• DRM Diagnostics panel showing runtime information, Widevine key-system availability, secure-context state, and robustness probes.
• Fail-safe DRM startup: normal browsing remains available if Widevine initialization or updating is unavailable.
• Commercial streaming compatibility can vary by service because some providers impose requirements beyond Widevine availability.

7. Local AI integration

• Local AI Chat panel with provider bridge and in-memory conversation history.
• Ollama provider support with connection testing and local model generation.
• LM Studio support through OpenAI-compatible local model/chat endpoints.
• AI provider settings foundation with provider registry and protected API-key storage for supported provider configurations.
• Explicit page-context approval flow with Use Selection and Use Page controls.
• Preview/confirmation before approved page content is sent to the selected AI provider.
• Page Summary shortcut gated by the page-context setting.
• Resizable AI panel, message timestamps, message count, Copy Last, Clear, and transcript export.
• AI Chat can be disabled entirely and is disabled by default in fresh beta profiles.

8. Everyday browser tools and appearance

• System, Light, and Dark appearance modes.
• Custom Packets browser chrome integrated with Windows window controls.
• Per-tab zoom controls from menus and keyboard shortcuts.
• Find in Page with match counts and next/previous navigation.
• Packets-owned View Source viewer with line-wrap control and local-file support.
• Open images in a new tab.
• Status-bar mute control.
• Top menus and hamburger-menu access to common browser functions.

9. Network inspection and blocking diagnostics

• Dockable Network Monitor for the active tab.
• Draggable monitor width with saved sizing preference.
• Request filtering and searchable request diagnostics.
• Blocklist actions directly from captured requests.
• JSON and CSV export of privacy-conscious request metadata.
• Dedicated Response Filters view with match, change, skip, and error diagnostics.
• Ad/tracker debug logging and blocked-request counters.
• Request capture intentionally excludes request bodies, cookies, authorization headers, and response bodies.

10. Update, release, and transparency tools

• Manual Check for Updates command.
• About Packets panel with application version information.
• Open Source Notices access for bundled third-party components.
• Published SHA-256 checksum support for release verification.
• Public Release Notes and Known Issues pages for beta testers.

11. SCAVS age-verification prototype

Experimental: SCAVS (Self Contained Age Verification System) is a research/prototype feature and should not be interpreted as a production identity-verification service.

• Local OCR-based age-verification workflow with local result storage and deletion controls.
• USA passport MRZ DOB parsing prototype.
• Florida driver license DOB parsing prototype with OCR-tolerance handling.
• User-managed allowlist for sites permitted to receive a minimal verified-age signal.
• Minimal window.packetsAgeVerification site signal for eligible allowlisted origins.
• SCAVS diagnostics, test-page signaling, integration guidance, parser framework, and parser self-tests.

This page describes Packets 1.70.0. Maintenance fixes and implementation details are documented separately in Release Notes. Features may change during controlled beta testing.