DuckDuckGo’s Windows browser is now available in open beta
DuckDuckGo’s privacy-focused browser is now available for Windows users. The Windows rollout comes nine months after the browser launched publicaly for Mac users. The Windows browser, which is now in public beta, includes many of the privacy protections featured in the browser’s iOS, Mac and Android versions.
Users can import their passwords and bookmarks from another browser or password manager when getting started. Although the browser doesn’t have extension support yet, DuckDuckGo plans to add it in the future.
The browser includes its own password manager that can automatically remember and fill in login credentials. DuckDuckGo for Windows can now also suggest secure passwords for new logins. The company says this functionality will get more convenient once it launches private syncing across devices, which will allow users to sync their bookmarks and saved passwords between different devices.
“DuckDuckGo for Windows is equipped with our privacy-protecting alternative to ad blockers: the browser blocks invasive trackers before they load, effectively eliminating ads that rely on that creepy tracking,” the company wrote in a blog post. “(Because so many ads work that way, you’ll see way fewer ads – if any at all.) We also remove the whitespace left behind by those ads for a clean, distraction-free look without the need for an outside ad blocker.”
In addition, the browser includes Duck Player, which is a built-in video player designed to protect users from tracking cookies and personalized ads when watching YouTube. The company notes that YouTube still logs video views, so it’s not completely anonymous, but none of the videos you watch in Duck Player contribute to your personalized recommendations or your YouTube advertising profile. You can leave the feature always-on, or opt in on individual videos.
DuckDuckGo says it’s working to bringing the Windows browser on par with its Mac browser, including improvements like faster startup performance, the ability to pin tabs, HTML bookmark import, more options for the Fire Button and additional privacy features.
The launch comes as DuckDuckGo recently announced the beta launch of an AI-powered summarization feature, called DuckAssist, which can directly answer straightforward search queries for users. The feature draws on natural language technology from OpenAI and Anthropic, an AI startup founded by ex-OpenAI employees, to power the natural language summarization capability, combined with its own active indexing of Wikipedia and other reference sites it’s using to source answers.
