Browser extensions

Here I will describe specific settings I use on the extensions I added to my browser(s).

Audio Only Youtube

• Chrome: the Details page immediately shows you the possibility to only disable the video streams of music.youtube.com:
  see Site access section
  Automatically allow access on the following sites:
  • *://*.googlevideo.com/*
  • *://music.youtube.com/*
  • *://www.youtube.com/*
• Edge: the Details page in Edge has a similar Site access section, however, no sites are filled in, so adapt it to your needs:
  • Allow this extension to read and change all your data on websites you visit: On specific sites
  • then click on the Add button
  • then fill in the sites (with wildcards!!!) *://music.youtube.com/*
  • and click on the Add button

Autofill

In Autofill has, I changed the following option in the Options page:

• Other Stuff tab
• just enable the check box of the Autofill delay options (keep the default delay of 1 sec)

Chrometana

• In Edge (as in Firefox and Opera), you cannot choose google.be as search engine (google.com is possible). Chrometana overcomes this problem.
• For all browsers, if you select something in another Microsoft application (Search from the taskbar, Word, …), Windows uses Edge and also forces Bing upon you to search instead of Google.
  1. < Windows 11 - EdgeDeflector redirects those searches to the browser of your choice.
     >= Windows 11 - !MSEdgeRedirect redirects those searches to your default browser.
  2. The Bing to Google redirection is done within the browser, using the Chrometana extension.

In the Options page of Chrometana:

• click on the Additional Settings button
• check the Apply to all Bing Searches radio button
• enable the Use a Custom Search Engine checkbox and
• fill in: https://www.google.be/search?q=

Redirector

In Firefox (and Edge and Opera), you cannot set google.be as search engine. You can't even add it, let alone set it as default. Therefore, I use the Redirector extension in Firefox.

• after installation of the extension, right-click its icon and choose Manage Extension
• it defaults to the Details page, but click on Options
  
• click on Edit Redirects
• there is an example redirect, you can simply click on the Edit button to adapt it to your needs
  • Description: google.com redirect, try going to https://www.google.be
  • Example URL: https://www.google.com/search?word
  • Include pattern: ^https://www.google.com/(.)*
  • Redirect to: https://www.google.be/$1
  • Pattern type: check the Regular Expression radio button
  • Pattern Description: Any word after google.com/search? leads to google.be/search? for that word.
• then click on Save

Tampermonkey

▼ userscript / brower ►	Firefox	Chrome	Opera*	Brave	Edge
Colruyt - bredere boodschappenlijst
myfav.es custom background
StretchVideo2FullScreenSurface3+

The scripts can be found on Greasy Fork.

*Opera

Please make sure to install the extension from the Opera addons site, not from the chrome web store, or you'll get a message that the extension is malicious and as such disabled. As you'll see from the Opera addons site, in fact it's the Tampermonkey BETA version. So, instead of the extension from the Opera addons site, you could also opt for the BETA from the chrome web store.

Toby Mini / Toby for Chrome

• Toby for Chrome - Better Than Bookmarks
• Toby Mini - Same as Toby. But not on the new tab.

Toby Mini with custom background - Chrome, Opera, Brave, Edge

I don't remember how I initially modified the extension, but for the update from 0.5.17 to to 0.6.3.1, I did just the following:

• install the extension from the chrome web store
• copy it from C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\<developer>\<browser>\User Data\Default (or ProfileX)\Extensions\gfdcgfhkelkdmglklfbndgopaihmoeci to a location of your choice on your hard disk
• modify version\js/toby.bundle.js:

original:

.Toby__toby--dark___3HTQv {\n  background-color: #21212a;\n}\n

and the original collection labels:

.List__listInput___3xRru {\n  color: #b7b7ce;\n  font-weight: normal;\n}

modification:

.Toby__toby--dark___3HTQv {\n  background-image: url(https://bsy.boossy.be/img/WERKSTATTkultur.jpg);\n  background-size: cover;\n}\n

and the modified labels:

.List__listInput___3xRru {\n  color: #b7b7ce;\n  font-weight: normal;\n  background: #353740;\n  padding-left: 0.5rem;\n  padding-right: 0.5rem;\n}

• now uninstall the extension
• in the extensions page, enable Developer mode
• click the Load unpacked button
• browse to the modified extension on your hard disk (you need to select the folder with the version number)
• the extension is added and shows an Errors button
• disable the Developer mode and the Errors button disappears

After a week or so, Edge started to spawn warnings, but this can be solved as well.

Toby for Chrome with custom background - Firefox

Toby Mini doesn't exist for Firefox. Toby (for Chrome) apparently existed in the past, but no longer exists. You can still find a version on !GitHub.

Since this version replaces the browser's new tab, and Tampermonkey can't run userscripts on new tab pages (or any other browser internal page), I needed another solution.

I found a clue here.

Start by launching Firefox.

1) Enable customized user stylesheets

• type about:config in the address bar
• Accept the Risk and Continue
• type toolkit.le in the Search box and you'll find toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets
• if its value is false, than change it to true by clicking on the toggle button next to it

2) Write your customized user stylesheet

• in Firefox, type about:profiles in the address bar
• click on the Open Folder button next to the Root Directory entry
• create a chrome subdirectory in that directory
• open this chrome folder and create a file userContent.css
• paste your adapted .css in this file:

@-moz-document url-prefix("moz-extension://3d349c01-7e15-440c-8866-8b96754047ee/toby.html") { 
.Toby__toby--dark___3HTQv { background-image: url(https://bsy.boossy.be/img/WERKSTATTkultur.jpg); background-size: cover; }
.List__listTitle___1f0F3, .List__listInput___3xRru { color: #b7b7ce; font-weight: normal; background: #353740; padding-left: 0.5rem; padding-right: 0.5rem; } 
}

• note that I use:
  @-moz-document url-prefix("moz-extension://3d349c01-7e15-440c-8866-8b96754047ee/toby.html")
• and not:
  @-moz-document url("about:newtab") [impossible] or @-moz-document url-prefix("moz-extension") [possible, but too unlimited]
• save the file and quit the editor

Restart Firefox and check the result in your new tab!

3) Bookmark icon

When you add the Toby new tab page to the bookmarks , you get a generic globe icon . You can correct this in a similar way:

• again in the profile Root Directory, in the chrome folder, now create a file userChrome.css
• paste the following .css code in it:

/* First line of userChrome.css must be this: */
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

/* Custom favicon for this bookmark */
.bookmark-item[label="Toby"] image {
 width:0!important;
 height:0!important;
 padding: 0 0 16px 16px !important;
 background:url('data:image/png;base64,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')!important; 
}

• make sure that the value for label (Toby) is identical to the bookmark name
• the url is the image, Base64 encoded:
  • the image can be found here: extension\path\version\img\icon-16.png
  • encoding the image online can be done here e.g.

URL Auto Redirector

I do not like msn.com, so in the past:

• I blocked the site through the Windows firewall, but some Windows services make use of the msn.com site, so I stopped doing that
• I blocked the site through the Simple Blocker extension - the great advantage is that it is immediately clear you blocked the site, because instead of the site, you get a page mentioning in a large font This page has been blocked by Simple Blocker

Now I opt for a redirector extension. In the Options page of the URL Auto Redirector extension, I defined the following rule:

Source	Destination	!RegExp	Enable	Delete
^https://www.msn.com/(.*)	about://newtab

Later heb ik de source gewijzigd in ^(.*)msn.com/(.*)

At a certain moment, I noticed this didn't work anymore in some Chrome-based browsers. I then did an nslookup for msn.com and www.msn.com, and I found out that www.msn.com is just an alias for a-0003.a-msedge.net. So I added this one as well, and the redirection of msn.com based pages worked again:

Source	Destination	!RegExp	Enable	Delete
^(.*)a-0003.a-msedge.net(.*)	about://newtab

Another usage can be to redirect /fr/ sites to /nl/ sites:

Source	Destination	!RegExp	Enable	Delete
^https:\/\/(.*)\/fr\/(.*)	https://$1/nl/$2

or more extreme:

Source	Destination	!RegExp	Enable	Delete
^https:\/\/(.*)\/fr(.*)	https://$1/nl$2

^https:\/\/(.*)\/fr\-BE\/(.*) ► https://www.lotuscars.com/nl-BE/

The Dynamic Theme app has links to the pictures it uses. These links go to https://www.bing.com/spogtlight?q=... You can redirect them to google as follows:

Source	Destination	!RegExp	Enable	Delete
^https://www.bing.com/spotlight(.*)	https://www.google.be/search$1

Opera

• Comparable as in Edge, in Opera, you cannot choose google.be as default search engine (google.com is possible). You can add google.be as an additional search engine, but you cannot make it the default.

So I created the following rule:

Source	Destination	!RegExp	Enable	Delete
^https://www.google.com/(.*)	https://www.google.be/$1

Overview

▼ extension / browser ►	Firefox	Chrome	Opera	Brave	Edge
Audio Only Youtube
Autofill
Chrometana Redirect Bing Somewhere Better
Dualless
EditThisCookie
Funkify Disability Simulator
GoFullPage Full Page Screen Capture
Google Translate
History Trends Unlimited
IBA Opt-out (by Google)
Leoh New Tab
Opera Ad Blocker
Protect My Choices
Redirector
Remove YouTube & Instagram Recommendations						This extension contains malware. > replaced by Unhook
Scroll To Top Button
ShowPassword
Simple Blocker
Smallpdf Edit, Compress and Convert PDF
StayFocusd
Tampermonkey
The Printliminator
Toby (for Chrome)
Toby Mini
TrooperBot
uBlock Origin
Unhook						Remove YouTube Recommended Videos
URL Auto Redirector
Wappalyzer
Window Resizer
▲ extension / browser ►	Firefox	Chrome	Opera	Brave	Edge