Thorium-Win

• M109
• HEVC Software Decoding should now work, enabling you to play H.265 videos no matter what.
• Hide Side Panel button chrome://flags flag has been fixed.
• Minor bugs fixed

• See also new AVX2 Release > https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-AVX2/releases/tag/M109.0.5362.0

• M108

To learn about important stuffz regarding Windows 7, I have made a page about this (which also regards M108) here > https://thorium.rocks/win7

• M107
• Thorium Shell now has an icon on the taskbar.
• chrome://flags page now has the old radiation hazard icon that I always liked, which also fits thorium since it is named after a radioactive element.
• chrome://dino now shows "Thorium Dino" and fullscreen play mode now works correctly.
• Cookies icon color has been reverted back to blue and the original icon, and the reload button icon has been reverted back to blue. I will be working on adding a flag that will remove the top bar icon's colour, since some people seem to dislike it.
• Bookmarks bar now shows "Apps" like it used to, you can still disable it.
• RSS feed feature from upstream Chromium. (must enable in chrome://flags)

Built with new optimization: Polly
You can see a write up of the optimizations Thorium uses (including the new Polly) Here, and a page with speed comparisons with screenshots Here. I compare Thorium against Chromium, Chrome, Brave, and Vivaldi.

Also, try my new extensions: Thorium Scroll Tweaker (for increasing scroll speed on linux), and Resources Saver (allows you to save a full website, keeping directory structure and downloading resources that would otherwise be missed by just right clicking and using "Save As".

• Thorium Shell now has an icon on the taskbar.
• chrome://flags page now has the old radiation hazard icon that I always liked, which also fits thorium since it is named after a radioactive element.
• chrome://dino now shows "Thorium Dino" and fullscreen play mode now works correctly.
• Cookies icon color has been reverted back to grey, I will be working on adding a flag that will remove the top bar icon's colour, since some people seem to dislike it.

Built with new optimization: Polly
You can see a write up of the optimizations Thorium uses (including the new Polly) Here, and a page with speed comparisons with screenshots Here. I compare Thorium against Chromium, Chrome, Brave, and Vivaldi.

• Also includes Thorium UI Debug Shell v3.

Also, try my extensions: Thorium Scroll Tweaker (for increasing scroll speed on linux), and Resources Saver (allows you to save a full website, keeping directory structure and downloading resources that would otherwise be missed by just right clicking and using "Save As".

• M106

• NTP "Customize Thorium" and Search Settings crash bugs have finally been fixed! Finally, we have a fully bug free Windows release!

• All the patches and chrome://flags flags from the latest release notice on this page > https://thorium.rocks/misc/history.html

Thanks muchly to @gz83 for helping me debug this!

See also : My write up explaining the optimizations of Thorium > https://thorium.rocks/optimizations
and a new in-progress site > https://thorium.rocks/new

• New installer patches which close installer or thorium.exe if it is running before installing.
• New chrome://flags flag to allow setting a custom NTP. You can also do it with cmdline flag --custom-ntp=http://www.example.com/
• New chrome://flags flag to allow removing the Side Panel button. You can also do it with cmdline flag --hide-sidepanel-button

Attention Users: I have created a 10 question survey to view user satisfaction and how people are installing Thorium. It was created with surverymonkey, and I checked the boxes to anonymize your answers and to allow multiple responses. I would appreciate it if you guys would complete it (should only take ~2 minutes) It is here > https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TJHX7R7

• M105 Refresh
• Thorium Dino game! Try it at chrome://dino It has colours fixed from last release, and fullscreen is now working again.
• Extension icon reverted to normal one, although the blue colour is being kept.

• M105
• Extensions and main menu icon changed.
• NEW Thorium Dino game! Try it at chrome://dino/ (You have to type that in, links won't work)
• Rebased Intel HD & VAAPI patches (VAAPI is Linux only)

IMPORTANT The main executable is now named thorium.exe instead of chrome.exe, and the main thorium shell executable is now named thorium_shell.exe instead of content_shell.exe. The Readmes and portable scripts and building instructions have been updated. You MUST uninstall Thorium before installing this new release, I.E. do NOT just install the new .exe in place over the old one. You can uninstall it in control panel, and choose whether or not to keep your user profile data.

ALSO We are making a new website for Thorium! Check it out at > https://thorium.rocks/

Thorium UI Debug Shell A program for tinkerers, lets you explore inside the Thorium UI. Try it by running the thorium_debug_shell.exe in the .zip.

• M104 Refresh
• Executable names changed to reflect Thorium name
• Compatibility mode bug is FIXED.
• New Security Patch : RSA uses 2048 bit length instead of 1024
• Show all extensions by default patch
• Better tab outline when running with dark theme/in dark mode
• Parallel Downloading enabled by default
• Tab Hover Cards enabled by default
• Drag and Drop tabs between windows on Wayland patch (Linux only)
• Updated logo on chrome://components page
• Chrome Labs shown by default with a new logo I made.
• Support for FLAC audio
• New setup .exe icon. The Chromium one is the same one since 2008, a 256 color 24px Windows XP installer icon. The new one is a 64px 32 bit icon that combines the Thorium logo with the Win 7+ installer icon.
• CONTENT_SHELL.BAT has been renamed to THORIUM_SHELL.BAT

Also, try my scrollbar theme for Thorium > https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-ScrollBars It's great in dark mode!

• Updated Icons
• Custom UI Colours for some icons
• New Dark Mode (Right click thorium launcher and it will be under the other extra desktop actions)
• Updated portable scripts.
• New WidevineCDM patch.
• Updated V8 SEGV bug patch.
• An easter egg (Go to chrome://kill, it will simulate a tab crash, see new sad tab icon and text underneath lol. This easter egg will only show otherwise if a tab actually crashes)

NOTE: The thorium_compat_mode.bat is a little batch file I made to automate the setting of compatibility mode on windows 10/11 to mitigate the bug where it will say "Error code: RESULT_CODE_MISSING_DATA". You will have to right click and select "run as administrator" because it sets compatibility mode for all users, which means it writes to the HKLM registry hive which is restricted to admins.

Also, try out my simple scrollbar theme for Thorium, Thorium Scrollbars. https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium_ScrollBars If you are not familiar with how to manually install a chrome extension see https://stackoverflow.com/a/11879334/19023992

Summary

This is a special program, built on top of content_shell and incorporating a multitude of options for testing, viewing, and debugging UI resources in Thorium.
Run the views_examples_with_content.exe, and you can select from the menu. Some things are interactive, some load internal resources, and some require loading external resources like viewing .icon files. In that case, you can load a file using its full path in the box towards the bottom.

Use in Thorium

I built this to view and test native Chromium UI icons in the .icon format.
These files are in:
//chromium/src/ui/views/vector_icons ## For many subcomponents like native UI views.
//chromium/src/ui/views/window/vector_icons ## For icons relating to the top bar.
//chromium/src/components/vector_icons ## For components that affect many build targets.
//chromium/src/chrome/app/vector_icons ## For icons only used in the browser.
//chromium/src/ash/resources/vector_icons ## For icons used in Chromium on ChromiumOS.
//chromium/src/chromeos/ui/vector_icons ## For icons specific to ChromiumOS.
//chromium/src/chromecast/ui/vector_icons ## For icons specific to ChromeCast.

Building

To build, use: autoninja -C out/thorium chrome chromedriver content_shell setup mini_installer views_examples_with_content or just
autoninja -C out/thorium views_examples_with_content to exclude building the rest of Thorium.

More info can be found at > https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/refs/heads/main/components/vector_icons/README.md

@gz83 @midzer @dabugen

• M103
• Fixed branding in some components.
• Added Widevine CDM patch.
• Icon issue is fixed.

The thorium_compat_mode.bat is a little batch file I made to automate the setting of compatibility mode on windows 10/11 to mitigate the bug where it will say "Error code: RESULT_CODE_MISSING_DATA". You will have to right click and select "run as administrator" because it sets compatibility mode for all users, which means it writes to the HKLM registry hive which is restricted to admins.

• Refresh of M102

-- Same information from previous release below↓

NOTE: There is an upstream bug in Chromium. It only appears on Windows 10/11. Windows 7/8/8.1 are fine.
Problem: You may get a condition when launching where extensions will not start and open tabs will say "RESULT_CODE_MISSING_DATA" or "STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN".
To fix this: Right click the Thorium shortcut, or the actual executable at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Chromium\chrome.exe , go to properties, and set the compatibility mode to windows 7 or 8.

ALSO: INFORMATION REGARDING SYNC. To enable sync on these releases, please add your google account to https://groups.google.com/u/1/a/chromium.org/g/google-browser-signin-testaccounts as per the official documentation at https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys/#signing-in-to-chromium-is-restricted

• Fixed portable thorium.bat and fixed branding on chrome://version.
• Updated to M102.

Same release compiled with AVX2 can be found at > https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-AVX2/releases/tag/M102.0.4952.0

NOTE: There is an upstream bug in Chromium. It only appears on Windows 10/11. Windows 7/8/8.1 are fine.
Problem: You may get a condition when launching where extensions will not start and open tabs will say "RESULT_CODE_MISSING_DATA" or "STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN".
To fix this: Right click the Thorium shortcut, or the actual executable at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Chromium\chrome.exe , go to properties, and set the compatibility mode to windows 7 or 8.

ALSO: INFORMATION REGARDING SYNC. To enable sync on these releases, please add your google account to https://groups.google.com/u/1/a/chromium.org/g/google-browser-signin-testaccounts as per the official documentation at https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys/#signing-in-to-chromium-is-restricted

As per previous release, I finally fixed the icon issue as described at https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/issues/5

This is an AVX2 release, and to direct people to the new repo I am not putting the actual files here.

Starting with this release, and going forward, AVX2 releases will be at https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-AVX2/

This new repo will host Windows AVX2 releases, and I will occasionally also put Linux AVX2 releases in there.

This repo will continue hosting AVX releases. Thank you everyone for using Thorium!

NEW: AVX2 Builds are now being served at https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-AVX2

FIXED: FINALLY fixed the icon issue!!

Speaking of Logos, this release is based on Chromium 101 so it has Thorium's new logo which is in line with the upstream Chrome/Chromium Logo change. If you wanna see the difference, go to the main repo and look in the logos directory and compare with the icons in the NEW subdir of the logos dir.

Also, so much thanks to @RobRich999 as he helped so much with this project. He has sadly stopped making public Chromium builds, but I use all of his compiler optimizations as well as some others, so I welcome people coming from https://chromium.woolyss.com looking for an alternative to his builds. I was a frequent user of the site and much thanks to @woolyss for accepting my work.

Also, in relation to this, I will be making a separate Thorium Windows repo specifically for AVX2 builds, since I know they are in demand.

Thanks, everyone for using Thorium, it keeps my motivated to keep improving it and keep it updated.

This release is only going to be offered as an installer, as I work out some bugs. Especially this darn icon bug. Work is ongoing.
to fix this, I know its ugly and annoying, but at least the browser works. It only appears on windows builds, and only since M100.x.xxx.x

This is an experimental release for AVX2 CPU's! Will not work on CPU's older than Intel Haswell or AMD "Bristol Ridge".

• Added more patches and tab audio muting and reload button menu to UI.

UPDATE: Reuploaded the portable .zip because of a dumb error in the launcher .bat files. Thanks to @K4sum1 for pointing it out.

ALSO: I know about the icon issue that has been plaguing my last few releases, where the icon on the taskbar is a yellow "warning icon" rather than the proper Thorium logo. I am working on a fix as we speak!

Chromium's 100th Birthday!
ALSO: I know about the icon issue that has been plaguing my last few releases, where the icon on the taskbar is a yellow "warning icon" rather than the proper Thorium logo. I am working on a fix as we speak!

Windows Installers now contain the extra stuff that was only in the portable .zips and linux installers: chromedriver and content_shell and an icon to set for content_shell if you make a shortcut to it.