Web developers might do this to see how their websites will appear on different versions of a browser. Sometimes, add-ons and other installations can change your user agent without your knowledge. In any case, it's important to switch it back to the default user agent to display most websites correctly. Apr 23, 2017 User-Agent is a line that sends information to the site about the software used. Originally, websites used such data to identify the OS and browser version in order to correctly display embedded. Apr 23, 2017 User-Agent is a line that sends information to the site about the software used. Originally, websites used such data to identify the OS and browser version in order to correctly display embedded.
The user agent of a web browser is a string value which identifies that browser and provides certain system details to servers hosting the websites you visit. Thanks to the new flags page in Internet Explorer 11, it is now very easy to change the user agent string. You can experiment with it using the latest publicly available Windows 10 build at this moment, which is 9879. Let's see how it can be done.
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User Agent Switcher
Change the User Agent in Internet Explorer 11
To change the User Agent string in Internet Explorer 11, you need to open the Flags page mentioned above.
To change the User Agent string in Internet Explorer 11, do the following.
- Type the text below in the IE address bar and press Enter on the keyboard:
- There you will find the Custom User Agent section. Modify it according your personal needs.
For example, this is how the browser identifies itself by default.
The default user agent is:
However, in the User Agent box it has the following, old IE11 User Agent value:
Now, let's change it to my Linux browser. I will enter the following in the user agent box:
Change the option 'Set the User Agent String to the string in the box below.' to Enabled and click the Apply Changes button.
You must restart Internet Explorer to apply the new changes.
Let's check it once again:
Now Internet Explorer 11 tells websites that it is Firefox running on Linux.
To revert the changes, you need to open about:flags once again and set the 'Set the User Agent String..' option to Disabled. Additionally, you can set the User Agent text box back to
That's it.
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Manually Change The User Agent Setting In Your Browser Download
Microsoft's upcoming Chromium-based web browser Microsoft Edge may change the user agent automatically based on the visited site.
The new Microsoft Edge web browser is based on Chromium, the same core that Google Chrome uses. It may identify as Chromium because of that and that should give it the same level of compatibility with websites and applications as Google Chrome.
Microsoft Edge may also identify as Microsoft Edge instead, however on select sites. One of the main motivations for doing so is Edge's improved support for media streaming sites like Netflix.
Whereas Chrome users may play Netflix streams in a quality of up to 1080p (with some trickery offered by an extension, the default is 720p), Microsoft Edge classic users may enjoy streams in a quality up to 4K.
That's a big difference and one of the core advantages of Microsoft Edge. The new Chromium-based Edge offers the same advantage, as it includes Microsoft's own DRM solution for commercial media streams and Google's Widevine solution.
Bleeping Computer reports that the new Chromium-based Edge browser downloads a JSON file regularly from config.edge.skype.com (what is with that URL, Microsoft?) which matches certain domains to certain user agents.
When an Edge user connects to any of the sites mentioned in the configuration file, e.g. netflix.com or hbonow.com, Microsoft Edge applies the user agent that the JSON file assigned to the site. In the case of streaming media sites, it is identifying itself as the classic Edge browser:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.140 Safari/537.36 Edge/18.17763
For Facebook and Messenger, it identifies as Google Chrome specifically:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/75.0.3763.0 Safari/537.36
and for most sites, using the default user agent:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/75.0.3763.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/75.0.131.0
The JSON file has a section that overrides exposure of DRM plugins. Edge may restrict exposure to one of the supported DRM plugins on select sites. It does so for CBS, Shudder, TVnow, Bitmovin and Sling currently, and exposes only Google's Widevine to these sites.
Why is that done?
Microsoft has not published any article or information on Edge's user agent changing capabilities. The most likely explanations are compatibility and functionality. Microsoft picks the classic Edge browser to unlock high quality streams on certain media streaming sites, Google Chrome when the user agent offers advantages, and the default user agent of the browser on the majority of sites out there.
User Agent switching is another advantage that Microsoft Edge has over Google Chrome.
Now You: Have you tried the new Edge? Did you like it?
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