Monthly Archives: January 2025

Securing Your Online Privacy: A Firefox Setup Guide

Posted by cviorel on January 2, 2025 No comments | This post has 50 views.

Chrome’s transition to Manifest V3 has significantly impacted content-blocking extensions, limiting their effectiveness in protecting user privacy. While uBlock Origin remains available on Chrome, its functionality may be restricted due to these API changes. This has led many privacy-conscious users to consider alternative browsers.

Firefox continues to support powerful content-blocking capabilities through its extended API support, making it an excellent choice for privacy-focused users. To help streamline the transition, I’ve developed a PowerShell script that automates the setup of a privacy-hardened Firefox profile.

Key features of this setup include:

Automated installation of essential privacy extensions
Optimized Firefox settings for enhanced security
Custom configurations to prevent tracking and fingerprinting
Easy deployment across multiple machines

You can find the script here: [GitHub repository link]

The script is open-source and customizable to match your specific privacy requirements. I encourage you to review the code and adjust the settings based on your needs.

For those interested in understanding the technical details, you can review the implementation on GitHub. Your feedback and contributions are welcome!

Stay secure!

Using PowerShell Modules from custom locations

Posted by cviorel on January 2, 2025 No comments | This post has 50 views.

Sometimes, work environments restrict PowerShell module installation in standard locations, even for the current user. In these cases, you may need to use modules from a custom folder.

However, Import-Module can’t detect modules outside standard locations. To solve this, I’ve created a function that adds a custom folder to the PSModulePath. This allows PowerShell to find and load modules from additional locations dynamically.

<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Adds a specified directory to the PSModulePath environment variable.

.DESCRIPTION
    This function accepts a directory path and checks if it's already present in the $env:PSModulePath.
    If the path is not present, it adds the path to the beginning of the PSModulePath, ensuring that
    PowerShell modules in that directory can be found. If the path already exists, no changes are made.

.PARAMETER PathToAdd
    The full directory path that you want to add to the PSModulePath environment variable. This is a
    mandatory parameter and must point to an existing directory.

.EXAMPLE
    Add-PSModulePath -PathToAdd "C:\MyModules"
    Adds "C:\MyModules" to the PSModulePath if it's not already present.

.EXAMPLE
    Add-PSModulePath -PathToAdd "D:\OtherModules"
    Adds "D:\OtherModules" to the PSModulePath if it's not already present.

.NOTES
    Author: Viorel Ciucu
    Date: 2024-09-19
    This function is useful for dynamically managing PowerShell module directories in your environment.
#>
function Add-PSModulePath {
    param (
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [ValidateScript({ Test-Path $_ })] # Ensure the path exists before proceeding
        [string]$PathToAdd
    )

    try {
        # Get the full path and remove trailing backslash
        $PathToAdd = (Get-Item -Path $PathToAdd | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName).TrimEnd('\')

        # Check if the path is already in $env:PSModulePath
        if (-not ($env:PSModulePath -split ';' | ForEach-Object { $_.TrimEnd('\') } | Where-Object { $_ -eq $PathToAdd })) {
            # If not, add it to the beginning of $env:PSModulePath
            $env:PSModulePath = "$PathToAdd;$env:PSModulePath"
            Write-Output "Path added to PSModulePath: $PathToAdd"
        }
        else {
            Write-Output "Path already exists in PSModulePath: $PathToAdd"
        }
    }
    catch {
        Write-Error "An error occurred: $_"
    }
}

.SYNOPSIS

Adds a specified directory to the PSModulePath environment variable.

.DESCRIPTION

This function accepts a directory path and checks if it's already present in the $env:PSModulePath.

If the path is not present, it adds the path to the beginning of the PSModulePath, ensuring that

PowerShell modules in that directory can be found. If the path already exists, no changes are made.

.PARAMETER PathToAdd

The full directory path that you want to add to the PSModulePath environment variable. This is a

mandatory parameter and must point to an existing directory.

.EXAMPLE

Add-PSModulePath -PathToAdd "C:\MyModules"

Adds "C:\MyModules" to the PSModulePath if it's not already present.

.EXAMPLE

Add-PSModulePath -PathToAdd "D:\OtherModules"

Adds "D:\OtherModules" to the PSModulePath if it's not already present.

.NOTES

Author: Viorel Ciucu

Date: 2024-09-19

This function is useful for dynamically managing PowerShell module directories in your environment.

function Add-PSModulePath {

param (

[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]

[ValidateScript({ Test-Path $_ })] # Ensure the path exists before proceeding

[string]$PathToAdd

)

try {

# Get the full path and remove trailing backslash

$PathToAdd = (Get-Item -Path $PathToAdd | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName).TrimEnd('\')

# Check if the path is already in $env:PSModulePath

if (-not ($env:PSModulePath -split ';' | ForEach-Object { $_.TrimEnd('\') } | Where-Object { $_ -eq $PathToAdd })) {

# If not, add it to the beginning of $env:PSModulePath

$env:PSModulePath = "$PathToAdd;$env:PSModulePath"

Write-Output "Path added to PSModulePath: $PathToAdd"

}

else {

Write-Output "Path already exists in PSModulePath: $PathToAdd"

}

catch {

Write-Error "An error occurred: $_"

}

You can use this in your $PROFILE.

Happy importing!

cviorel.com

Monthly Archives: January 2025

Securing Your Online Privacy: A Firefox Setup Guide

Using PowerShell Modules from custom locations

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cviorel.com

Monthly Archives: January 2025

Securing Your Online Privacy: A Firefox Setup Guide

Using PowerShell Modules from custom locations

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