User Agent Manager
The User Agent Manager enables you to spoof your browser's HTTP User Agent. The first lines of code for this feature were written by HJ back in 2000. He also used parts of it as a proposal for a Mozilla bug back in early 2001. His original work (everything else is just a copy) and most importantly the rising popularity of Mozilla Firefox, enables us to visit sites that otherwise blocked Mozilla browsers. For example, a website (eg some banks) may still not allow you to access their site at all, or parts of it, unless you are using an "approved" browser, usually Internet Explorer.
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Agent Manager
- Main window
- The User Agent Manager can be opened from the Quick Prefs Menu and with keyboard shortcut Accel+Shift+U. There are seven toolbar buttons which provide quick access, for both keyboard and mouse, to the most important/most used features, and are only enabled when they should be. All features are also accessible from the context menu. Here's a screenshot of our most recent public release:
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- Custom
- To change your user agent to one of the pre-defined ones, select the new user agent from the list and press either the Select button at the bottom of the window or the Custom button at the top of the window or enter on your keyboard.
- Original
- To restore your user agent to the default, press the Original button at the bottom of the window and press Close.
- Add
- To add a new custom user agent, enter the new user agent into the text field supplied and press Add or enter on your keyboard. You can also use this button when you are modifying an existing user agent to add it as an additional option, rather than replacing the user agent that you are modifying.
- Replace
- After modifying a user agent you can use this button to replace the user agent that you have just modified.
- Modify
- To edit an existing user agent, select it and press Modify or enter on your keyboard. After pressing this button, you can then choose to Add or Replace the user agent that you have just modified (see above).
- Delete
- You can delete one or more tabs, or tab sessions, with the Delete button on the toolbar, or with one of the context menu items: Delete Tab(s), Delete Window(s) or Delete Tab(s) and Window(s), but only one menu item will be enabled at a time. This depends on the selected item(s).
- You can also use the delete key on your keyboard to remove selected items, and note that removing items requires your confirmation. Here's a screenshots of that confirmation dialog:
- Settings
- You can open the settings window with the Settings button on the toolbar, or with context menu item Settings, which gives you full control over all available/used settings. There are four settings tabs to control all settings and more information is available in the settings section of this page.
- Note: the last active settings tab of the previous session will be automatically selected when you re-open this window.
- Context Menu
- The User Agent Manager has a Context Menu but that can only be opened with a right mouse click in the tree. The available/enabled menu items depend on the selected items in the three/ Here's a screenshot of the context menu.
- Drag and Drop
- Drag and Drop in the User Agent Manager has been switched of because of bugs, but we hope to re-enable it again in a future update.
General Settings Panel
- General Settings Panel
- Display about: page in a new/blank Tab when the default identifier is selected
- If this checkbox is selected, then when you modify the user agent, this will be confirmed by showing you the browser's "About" page. This page shows information about your browser, including the current user agent.
- Close the Tab when the User Agent Manager is closed
- Selecting this checkbox closes the browser's "About" page when the UA manager is closed.
- Display Help page in a new/blank Tab on startup
- If this is checked, then this page will open when the UA Manager is opened.
- Select the original User Agent when the browser is closed
- ensures that the UA is restored to the default value when the browser is closed, in case you forget to change it back manually when you are finished using it. This is important since otherwise you will be reporting a false user agent to the world, which will be being picked up by logs etc and skewing browser share.
Confirmation Settings Panel
- Confirmations Settings Panel
- Exit Confirmations can prevent accidental closures of the User Agent Managers main window. You can enable/disable confirmation dialogs for any of the supported actions on the following settings panel, or in the User Agent Manager expander on the Confirmations preference panel in the Preference Manager.
- Confirmations before Exiting
- Tick the checkbox for which action you want to prevent accidental closure. These options are pretty much self-explanatory so they do not require further explanation. Here's a screenshot of such confirmation window:
Miscellaneous Settings Panel
- Miscellaneous Settings Panel
- The Miscellaneous settings panel contains the settings for which we didn't want to add a specific settings panel, but the settings can be very useful. Here's a screenshot of this settings panel:
- User Agent Main Window
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- Where should new identifiers be inserted
- This set of radio buttons determines where a new user agent should be inserted in the main list. The items themselves are self-explanatory.
- Prevent deleting of selected/active identifier
- If this option is checked then you cannot delete the user agent that is currently active.
- Sync navigator.userAgent with HTTP User Agent
- Defines whether or not the user agent should be changed only for Javascript (ie the navigator.userAgent property), or whether the HTTP agent sent to the browser should be changed a well.