---
layout: page
title: Browser extensions I often end up installing
permalink: /browser-extensions.html
sitemap: false
robots: noindex, noai
excerpt: "Browser advanced configuration that tends to not sync"
redirect_from:
- /firefox.html
- /firefox-extensions.html
- /firefox-addons.html
- /chrome.html
- /chromium.html
lang: en
---
Browser extensions are living in my browser policies.
- [Firefox](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/shell-things/src/branch/master/etc/firefox/policies)
- [Chromium](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/shell-things/src/branch/master/etc/opt/chromium/policies/managed)
Automaattinen sisällysluettelo / Automatically generated Table of Contents
- [Chromium flags](#chromium-flags)
- [Vendor-prefixed](#vendor-prefixed)
- [Firefox about:config](#firefox-aboutconfig)
- [Advertising](#advertising)
- [Cookie banner blocking](#cookie-banner-blocking)
- [DNS over HTTPS](#dns-over-https)
- [SSDs](#ssds)
# Chromium flags
These can generally be found from `about:flags` on Chromium based browsers, for
Vivaldi explicit `vivaldi://flags` is required and it also has
`chrome://settings` for the usual Chromium settings.
- `#enable-quic` - enabled
- `#enable-force-dark` - enabled with increased text constract
- `#force-color-profile` - sRGB
- `#trust-tokens` - enabled
## Vendor-prefixed
These likely also exist, but just without the `vendor-` part when searhcing.
- `#edge-automatic-https` - enabled
- `#edge-autoplay-user-setting-block-option`
- `#edge-tab-groups` - enabled
- `#edge-tab-groups-auto-create` - enabled
- `#edge-tab-groups-collapse-freezing` - enabled
# Firefox about:config
_On LibreAwoo or autoconfig, refer to my
[conf/librewolf.overrides.cfg in my shell-things repo](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/shell-things/src/branch/master/conf/librewolf.overrides.cfg)
which has kind of replaced this section?._
- `security.certerrors.mitm.auto_enable_enterprise_roots` to `false` in order to
not trust system CA store in case of enterprise MITM
- `security.OCSP.require` to `true` in order to not allow
[OCSP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCSP_stapling) soft fail. This may be a
bit paranoid, but _only the paranoid survive._
- `privacy.resistFingerprinting.letterboxing` = `true` so letterboxing is used
to hide real browser size.
[Tor Browser support](https://support.torproject.org/tbb/maximized-torbrowser-window/)
- [Bug 70315: text in menus and boxes unreadable if using dark GTK theme](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=70315))
- `image.animation_mode` to `once` in order to have gifs play once and then stop
everywhere (`none` to never have them play).
- `geo.provider.network.url` to
`https://location.services.mozilla.com/v1/geolocate?key=%MOZILLA_API_KEY%` in
order to send nearby WiFi networks to Mozilla instead of Google. See also
[MLS Software](https://wiki.mozilla.org/CloudServices/Location/Software).
- `network.IDN_show_punycode` to `true` in order to see punycode instead of
UTF-8 in case of spoofing attempt. However makes reading non-ASCII domains
painful. E.g. Cyrillic alphabet
- `reader.parse-on-load.force-enabled` to `true` in order to allow reader use to
be used on ~all websites and devices (regardless of low RAM?)
Future note:
[`network.dns.blockDotOnion;false`](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1497263)
?
## Advertising
Firefox seems to contain a lot of advertising or sponsoring nowadays, whether to
other Mozilla products or whoever pays them. See also
[Bug 1773860: Provide global long-term "disable all promos" flag](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1773860).
- `browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsored` &
`browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsored` to `false` to stop
sponsored links.
- `browser.vpn_promo.enabled` to `false` to hopefully stop Mozilla VPN
advertisements
- `browser.promo.focus.enabled` to `false` to stop Firefox Focus advertisements?
- `browser.preferences.moreFromMozilla` to `false` to not hear from other
Mozilla products?
## [Cookie banner blocking](https://www.ghacks.net/2022/12/24/configure-firefox-to-reject-cookie-banners-automatically/)
TODO: clean write this.
```js
defaultPref("cookiebanners.service.mode", 2);
defaultPref("cookiebanners.service.mode.privateBrowsing", 2);
defaultPref("cookiebanners.bannerClicking.enabled", true);
```
## DNS over HTTPS
- `network.trr.mode` depends, `3` to enforce DoH (required for ECH) or `5` to
explicitly disable. `2` to prefer DoH, but fallback to system also exists.
- [DoH is required by Firefox ESNI/ECH support](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1500289)
which encrypts SNI/ClientHello which would still leak which sites you visit.
[Another bug about ESNI/ECH + Android DoT](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1542754#c3)
- Are you using a VPN? Do they provide a DoH server? If yes, maybe the answer
is 3 for ESNI/ECH?
- `network.trr.early-AAAA` `true` to hopefully prefer IPv6
- `network.trr.uri` for the actual resolver address, e.g.
`https://doh.mullvad.net/dns-query`
- and if they provide as SOCKS proxy as a killswitch,
`network.proxy.socks_remote_dns` must be `false`
- `network.trr.disable-ECS` to `false` if preferring speed over privacy or using
NextDNS private ECS.
- [Wikipedia: EDNS Client Subnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDNS_Client_Subnet)
Some notes:
- There is also `network.trr.exclude-etc-hosts` for those using `/etc/hosts` for
blocking.
- You can confirm TRR working by visiting `about:networking#dns` where you
should be seeing DNS cache of Firefox and a lot of `TRR: true`.
- ECH requires `network.dns.echconfig.enabled` and
`network.dns.use_https_rr_as_altsvc` to be `true`, but they seem to default to
true at least in Firefox Nightly so maybe no action is needed.
- [While investingating how Android 9 Private DNS works, I also wrote a DNS
provider comparsion here on 2019-07-11]({% post_url blog/2019-07-11-android-private-dns-in-practice %})
## SSDs
This information is from
[Arch Wiki on Firefox tweaks](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox/Tweaks)
- `browser.sessionstore.interval` to `600000` in order to only store open
session every ten minutes (instead of 15 seconds) in case of crashes.
- alternatively `browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash` to `false` to not
store the session data for crash recovery at all. I think this may be the
more healthy option with all the information flood and dozens of tabs.
Why?
> Every object loaded (html page, jpeg image, css stylesheet, gif banner) is
> saved in the Firefox cache for future use without the need to download it
> again. It is estimated that only a fraction of these objects will be reused,
> usually about 30%. This because of very short object expiration time, updates
> or simply user behavior (loading new pages instead of returning to the ones
> already visited). The Firefox cache is divided into memory and disk cache and
> the latter results in frequent disk writes: newly loaded objects are written
> to memory and older objects are removed.
> Firefox stores the current session status (opened urls, cookies, history and
> form data) to the disk on a regular basis. It is used to recover a previous
> session in case of crash. The default setting is to save the session every 15
> seconds, resulting in frequent disk access.
and this is the reason why Firefox is at times accused of killing SSDs.
---
Changelog:
[GitHub.com commits](https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/commits/master/pages/browser-extensions.markdown)
|
[gitea.blesmrt.net commits](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/mikaela-info/commits/branch/master/pages/browser-extensions.markdown)