Browser Tips
42 8 – 21 June 2022 • Issue 633
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To turn on Chrome’s ‘Enhanced
protection’ option, which warns you
about risky extensions, click the browser’s
three-line menu button and choose
Settings. Select ‘Privacy and security’^1 in
the left-hand menu and click Security 2.3
To make sure you haven’t installed any
dodgy extensions, click back to the
Security page and click the ‘Check now’
button under ‘Safety check’^1. This will
scan Chrome for harmful extensions and
software 2 , and exposed passwords.2
Select the ‘Enhanced protection’ option^1
in the Safe Browsing section to receive
warnings about potentially dangerous
extensions, downloads and websites. If you
find the feature overzealous, switch to
‘Standard protection’ 2 instead.CHROMIUM
Block online ads without
leaving spaces
One of the
main
problems with using an ad blocker –
other than the ethical issue of depriving
sites of revenue – is that it can mess up a
site’s layout and leave big gaps where the
ads were. A new extension called
Retheme (www.snipca.com/41958)
prevents this from happening by
removing ads from web pages, then
cleaning up afterwards. It automatically
adjusts a site’s design to reduce empty
space and make the content easier to
read. This gives you the best of both
worlds, because you won’t see annoying
ads or even know they were there in thefirst place. Retheme works best on
‘high-traffic’ sites that it applies custom
themes to – see our ‘before’ and ‘after’
screenshots (left below) of the Time
website (https://time.com).
Retheme’s developer suggests that you
use the add-on in tandem with your
usual ad blocker, such as uBlock Origin
(www.snipca.com/41842), to ensure you
block trackers, scripts and other
unwanted elements too. Alternatively, if
used on its own, ads will simply be
rendered invisible, so sites will still earn
money from them.
Note that when you install the extension
from the Chrome Web Store, you may see
a warning that it’s “not trusted by
Enhanced Safe Browsing”, but this is
because it’s from a new developer – see
our Workshop below to find out how to
turn this option on and off. Retheme is
completely safe to use and makes
browsing the web a lot less irritating.FIREFOX
Confirm you want to
download or open files
In Issue 625 (page 42), we reported
that Mozilla had removed the option
from Firefox to confirm that you wanted
to download a file. This saved you having
to click to continue, but also ran the risk
of you downloading something
accidentally or – more worryingly –
malware being downloaded without your
knowledge. The change was made in
version 97 of the browser, but in response
to feedback from users, Firefox 101
(released 31 May) has restored the feature.
When you click a download link, you’ll
now be prompted to confirm that youwant to save the file to your default
downloads folder. To choose different
folders for your downloads, click Firefox’s
three-line menu button, choose Settings
and scroll down the General tab to the
‘Files and Applications’ section. Select the
option ‘Always ask you where to save files’
(^1 in our screenshot above).
You can also set Firefox to ask you
whether to open a file rather than save it.
The Applications box lists its default
actions for file types such as PDF and
We b P, which you can change by clicking
their dropdown menus^2. Below this,
you’ll see a new option to ‘Ask whether to
open or save files’^3.CHROME
Rearrange tabs using
keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts help take the
strain off your wrist when browsing
the web, saving you from constantly2
BEFORE
AFTER
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3
WORKSHOP Avoid dangerous extensions in Chrome
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