safing
Portmaster V2 forces microsoft webview installation
Pre-Submit Checklist:
- Check applicable sources for existing issues:
What happened: Tried installing the new portmaster v2 but the install failed with the error "could not install webview2".
My my operatingsystem windows 10 normally would be a privacy nightmare, personally i'd call it malware. However i used a script with over 6000 lines of code to clean up the mess that windows is, and installed an opensource firewall software called portmaster (v1) and modified it to block all traffic and only allows what i specifically permitted, so my privacy is protected even when im using windows 10 as os. That being said, as a part of the cleanupprocess, ofcourse microsoft edge including webview have been fully removed of my os, i dont want microsofts webview on my personal computer, as a privacy company you should agree with that and not force me to install webview anyway just to use your portmasterV2. So, is there an alternative solution that lets me use portmasterV2 without webview?
What did you expect to happen?:
How did you reproduce it?:
Debug Information:
Greetings and welcome to our community! As this is the first issue you opened here, we wanted to share some useful infos with you:
- 🗣️ Our community on Discord is super helpful and active. We also have an AI-enabled support bot that knows Portmaster well and can give you immediate help.
- 📖 The Wiki answers all common questions and has many important details. If you can't find an answer there, let us know, so we can add anything that's missing.
![github-actions[bot] avatar](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/15368?v=4 "Published by a pub.dev verified publisher"){kind=small}
The Portmaster V2 User Interface is built on the mature and well-known Tauri framework, which leverages the native OS WebView.
This significantly reduces the installer size and eliminates the need to bundle Electron (a full standalone browser) with every Portmaster installation. As a result, having WebView installed on your system is essential.
If you strongly prefer not to have WebView on your system, I recommend using Portmaster V1 instead.
However, in general, I would not advise removing WebView, as it is a critical component for the stability and functionality of modern operating systems.
The Portmaster V2 User Interface is built on the mature and well-known Tauri framework, which leverages the native OS WebView.
This significantly reduces the installer size and eliminates the need to bundle Electron (a full standalone browser) with every Portmaster installation. As a result, having WebView installed on your system is essential.
If you strongly prefer not to have WebView on your system, I recommend using Portmaster V1 instead.
However, in general, I would not advise removing WebView, as it is a critical component for the stability and functionality of modern operating systems.
I never heared about the tauri framework, not a coder here. But you telling me it uses the native os webview makes me think it doesn't mater WHICH webview i use aslong as i have one which is set to default. Are there any opensource system webviews for windows10? I have the same question for android since i don't use google. Also another question not realted to the OG topic, since the partnership between safing and ivpn, have you made any efforts for a portmaster mobile release for android? In all honesty i love portmaster for what it is, but if youre serious about privacy you simply cannot force or expect any person to use microsofts webview, you are crossing the redline. I don't know if you stenya are part of the developement team but if you are or not, it would be really respectful from you if you could discuss this with the whole team working on portmaster. I mean common really, forcing people who care about privacy to use microsofts webview, you can't be serious... this sucks. really does. I have removed webview from my system and never encountered any issues so far, your advise is heared and highly questioned. You know what, i was a protonvpn customer and since they updated their software to automatically download microsoft webview i quit their product.
I didn't mean to offend anyone. I myself feel offended being forced by a privacy product to use MICROSOFT edge webview. How can any serious privacy company force their customers to rely on microsoft? Insane.
I thought this was supposed to be an offline installer? The 2.0.24 installer kept failing because it keeps trying to get Edge Webview2. Ironic, and sloppy.
It's pathetic a privacy product FORCES it's users to install any software from microsoft. Safing should devinitely not ignore this issue. iVPN and Safing must be on high alert of what they're doing here. There MUST be another solution.
Thanks for your feedback on this, we take them seriously.
A couple of notes:
- The choice for switch to Tauri, which brings the Webview requirement was made by the original Safing team, not the new developer group at IVPN. We were aware of this choice, accepted it and stand by it, it won't be reverted in the v2 version.
- There is no ulterior or secondary motive for this choice (we received some questions around this via support). We are not in contact with, funded by, share or sell data to, ie. have no relationship with Microsoft or any other company. It's simply a Tauri dependency.
- You might have a threat model or a personal security assessment that allows using a Microsoft OS but not any Microsoft dependencies. That's fair. However you need to acknowledge that...you are ultimately using a Microsoft OS. Webview2 is installed by default on Win 11. We don't think that making the choice of sticking to Windows and accusing privacy software developers of maleficence for relying on any Microsoft components is warranted. We can disagree on this, and if we do, we accept your opinion, no problem.
- A logical next recommendation derived from the previous point is - we recommend privacy-conscious users who want to fully escape Microsoft to switch to Linux and stop using Windows.
I'll keep this thread open, but please note the above if you want to add anything to this report, and please keep it civil. Thanks.
Oh... https://github.com/safing/portmaster/issues/1984 i made a dublicate
I want to get to Mr johnnyburnaway point (3), Yes some of us use microsoft windows as OS over linux because of various reasons, some popular programs like adobe premiere are made for linux only (ofcourse there is the option to create a VM within linux, but if you lack knownledge and time to learn linux...) with the help of opensource firewall applications like portmaster V1 or simplewall those who care about privacy can still achieve it by entirely blocking microsoft with the bigtech filterlist and those few connections whom still pass through to microsoft can be manually blocked. On my W10 install there is no microsoft webview because i have deleted it, how would i be able to use portmaster V2 now? My suggestion is if the V2 depends on edge webview and wont be reverted, it would be a welcome option to offer another alternative solution for those who oppose microsoft edge webview. An offline installer should be an offline installer no matter what. Else how is it an offline installer? Most users of Portmaster V2 wont be affected of V2 depending on edge webview but some will. If i have zero choice but to install microsoft webview on my personal pc, or else lose access to portmaster V1 after support is dropped and V2 requires edge webview, i will install webview... But i have questions if you don't mind. Does microsoft edge webview phone home, yes ofcourse, can the phone-home be entirely blocked by portmaster V2? Does microsoft edge webview constantly run as a background service when portmaster V2 is active? How do we install edge webview after removing it, just by unblocking the connection attempt within portmaster V1? Is there a way to offline install edge webview, maybe here: https://store.rg-adguard.net/ Is edge webview available for download on the microsoft store website, if so please share the link for the original package. Please note that i try to keep my system as clean as possible, meaning the amount of services on my W10 install is the bare minimum to maintain functionality, adding microsoft edge webview as a constant active task to be able and use portmaster V2, well.. i hope you get my point.
This "We don't think that making the choice of sticking to Windows and accusing privacy software developers of maleficence for relying on any Microsoft components is warranted" you are correct, portmaster is an amazing product and it is free, some of us dislike your choice to rely on microsoft webview however if anything i owe you a massive thank you for giving me the possiblity to protect my privacy for free.
I thought this was supposed to be an offline installer? The 2.0.24 installer kept failing because it keeps trying to get Edge Webview2. Ironic, and sloppy.
Still a fair point :(
Thanks for your feedback on this, we take them seriously.
A couple of notes:
You covered OP's concerns regarding privacy implications from using additional Microsoft dependencies. But you haven't addressed the tangible issue I posted about: the V2 installer stalled indefinitely because its attempt to download Webview2 was being blocked by V1. Not only is this ironic (and frankly a little embarrassing) but this means V2 is literally not an offline installer unless I'm missing something here?
https://github.com/safing/portmaster/issues/1932#issuecomment-3186524743
Thanks for your feedback on this, we take them seriously. A couple of notes:
You covered OP's concerns regarding privacy implications from using additional Microsoft dependencies. But you haven't addressed the tangible issue I posted about: the V2 installer stalled indefinitely because its attempt to download Webview2 was being blocked by V1. Not only is this ironic (and frankly a little embarrassing) but this means V2 is literally not an offline installer unless I'm missing something here?
I agree it is ironic V1 blocks V2 attempt to connect to microsoft. It is sad that they decided to mandate webview from msedge. If webview is installed, the V2 installer must not download it thus making it an offline installer. But for people who don't have msedge webview installed ofcourse V2 is NOT an offline installer!
This issue has been automatically marked as inactive because it has not had activity in the past two months.
If no further activity occurs, this issue will be automatically closed in one week in order to increase our focus on active topics.
I agree it is ironic V1 blocks V2 attempt to connect to microsoft. It is sad that they decided to mandate webview from msedge. If webview is installed, the V2 installer must not download it thus making it an offline installer. But for people who don't have msedge webview installed ofcourse V2 is NOT an offline installer!
Can Webview2 be included in an offline installer so the installation does not fail?
Instead of webview it should be allowed to use any browser to open Portmaster, since it is running on localhost which the webview opens:
http://127.0.0.1:817/ui/modules/portmaster/
For those who intentionally removed the WebView component from their system, there is a way to use the Portmaster user interface from a web browser: https://github.com/safing/portmaster/issues/2096#issuecomment-3654501497