Secret settings and the best extensions
Issue 630 • 27 April – 10 May 2022 43BEST EXTENSION FOR... Applying discount codes
Pouch
Chromium, Edge & Firefox
http://www.snipca.com/41504
Although Honey (www.joinhoney.com) is
the most popular tool for finding voucher
codes for online stores, we think Pouch is
a better choice for UK shoppers. Covering
more than 3,000 UK stores, the extension
automatically detects discounts when you
visit a site and either applies them at the
checkout or lets you copy the code (see
screenshot).
It works with big names including
Amazon, B&Q, Currys, easyJet and all themain supermar-
kets, and doesn’t
interfere with your
shopping, simply
showing the number
of available savings
on its toolbar button.
You can also save
your favourite brands
to be notified when
codes and offers
become available.
Although Pouch has a cashback scheme
called Pouch Points, which lets you earnpoints as you shop to redeem for gift cards,
you don’t need to sign up for this to use the
extension.If you don’t like that, try...
DealFinder by VoucherCodes
Chromium
http://www.snipca.com/41505
This extension for the UK’s “biggest
voucher code website” claims to find
discounts at more than 14,000 stores, with
7,000 new offers added every month.
However, you need to sign up for an
account to unlock the savings.help Mozilla identify and warn affected
sites by checking now if Firefox 100 is
likely to break your favourite websites. If
so, you can delay upgrading from Firefox
99 until the problem is resolved and
report the bug at https://webcompat.com
(see screenshot above). See our Workshop
below left to find out how to test Firefox
100 before you install it.
EDGE
Access Office tools with a
single click
Microsoft has added a sidebar to
Edge that lets you access Office
tools such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint
with a single click. Although the feature
will be of most use to Microsoft 365
subscribers, because it opens the online
versions of all that service’s apps, the
sidebar also provides shortcuts to other,
free Microsoft tools. These include
Outlook webmail and calendar, OneDrive
storage, Skype chats and the To Do task
manager.
Previously, you could open a grid of
these tools on your ‘New tab’ page by
clicking the App Launcher icon in the
top-left corner, but the new sidebar lets
you launch them instantly.
It’s hidden by default in the latest
version of Edge (100) but is easy to
unlock. Click the settings cog in the
top-right corner of the ‘New tab’ page,
select Custom then switch on the Office
Sidebar option (see screenshot above).
The sidebar will open on the left-hand
side of the browser, displaying icons for
the Microsoft apps – click the More
Apps button at the top of the list to
reveal their full names. To hide the
feature, click the three-dot icon at the
bottom and choose Hide Sidebar.OPERA GX
Switch between custom
browsing profiles
Most browsers now let you set up
multiple user profiles, which is
handy if you share your computer with
other people or you want to separate
your work and leisure activities. The
latest version of Opera’s GX gaming
browser (www.opera.com/gx) expands
this feature by providing custom
profiles for different purposes, which
you can switch between as required.
For example, the Potato profile
reduces Opera GX to its ‘bare bones’
configuration, disabling distractingoptions so you can focus on essential
tasks; the Rogue profile deletes all data
automatically on exit, so is useful for
letting someone else use the browser; and
the Streaming profile mutes tabs by
default, to block notifications when
you’re streaming videos and playing
games. You can also create a Custom
profile using the settings of your choice.
To access Opera GX’s profiles, click
the menu button in the top-left corner,
select GX and click Manage GX Profiles.
Click the ‘Create profile’ button, choose
a profile type, then assign the profile a
name and colour. Click ‘Add new profile’
(see screenshot below) and repeat for as
many profiles as you need. Switch
between them by clicking their pinned
shortcuts on the Windows taskbar.