Changing Browser Settings

Google Chrome's settings allow you to configure many aspects of browsing behavior. For Chrome on Windows and Chrome on macOS, the process to access settings is similar, with minor differences in menu navigation. In Chrome, most options (cookies, cache, JavaScript, etc.) are found under the Settings page. Chrome does not have its own proxy UI but provides a shortcut to your operating system's network settings. Let's break down the steps for each platform:

Steps to Change Browser Settings for Chrome on Windows

1. Open Chrome Settings:

   Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of Chrome and select Settings. This opens Chrome's Settings in a new tab. You can also directly navigate to chrome://settings.

2. Configure Proxy Settings:

   In the Settings page, scroll down and click Advanced to show more options. Under the System section, click "Open your computer's proxy settings". Chrome will launch the Windows Internet Properties dialog (Network Settings). In the Windows proxy settings dialog:

   • For an automatic proxy configuration, enable Automatically detect settings (if using a PAC script or WPAD).
   • For a manual proxy setup, click Setup under Manual proxy setup. Toggle Use a proxy server to On, then enter the proxy Address and Port. If the proxy requires authentication, provide the username and password. Click Save to apply.
   • To disable any proxy and revert to direct connection, turn off the proxy toggle or select Automatically detect settings = Off and Use a proxy server = Off.

   Tip: Remember that Chrome on Windows relies on system-wide proxy settings. Changing these will affect other browsers too.

3. Manage Cookies:

   In Chrome Settings, click Privacy and security in the left sidebar (or scroll to that section). Then click "Cookies and other site data." Here you can adjust how Chrome handles cookies: for example, allow all cookies, block third-party cookies in Incognito, block third-party cookies entirely or block all cookies. Choose the option that fits your test scenario (note that blocking all cookies may break site functionality).

4. Clear Cache (Cached Files):

   Still under Privacy and security, select "Clear browsing data". In the dialog that appears, choose a Time range (for example "Last 1 hour" or "All time"), check "Cached images and files" and click Clear data. This will empty Chrome's cache.

5. Enable/Disable JavaScript:

   By default, Chrome allows JavaScript on all sites. To modify this setting, go to Privacy and security > Site Settings. Under the Content section, click JavaScript. Toggle the switch to "Blocked" to disable JavaScript completely.

6. Enable Dark Mode:

   Chrome supports dark mode, which can be triggered by OS settings or Chrome's appearance settings. On Windows, the simplest way is to use the system dark theme: open Windows Settings > Personalization > Colors and set the default app mode to Dark. Chrome will detect the OS theme and apply its dark interface automatically.

   to force websites into dark mode, you would need to use an extension or Chrome's experimental flag (chrome://flags > "Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents"). For most testing purposes, enabling the browser's dark theme is sufficient to see how built-in pages or form controls appear in dark mode.

7. Programmatic Approach for Chrome:

   As a QA engineer, you might want to automate these settings. Chrome's settings can be controlled via Selenium WebDriver or Playwright by passing appropriate options. For example using Selenium in Python to disable JavaScript and set a proxy for Chrome:

   

   from selenium import webdriver
   from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
   
   chrome_options = Options()
   # Disable JavaScript via Chrome preferences
   prefs = {"profile.managed_default_content_settings.javascript": 2}
   chrome_options.add_experimental_option("prefs", prefs)
   # Set a manual proxy
   chrome_options.add_argument("--proxy-server=http://<PROXY_HOST>:<PORT>")
   
   driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=chrome_options)

   In this snippet, the Chrome profile preference javascript is set to 2 (which blocks scripts) and the --proxy-server argument routes traffic through a proxy server.

Steps to Change Browser Settings for Chrome on macOS

1. Open Chrome Preferences:

   Launch Chrome on your Mac. In the top menu bar, click Chrome > Preferences... (or press ⌘ + ,). This opens the Chrome Settings tab (chrome://settings). You can also click the three-dot menu in Chrome's toolbar and choose Settings.

2. Configure Proxy Settings:

   Chrome for Mac uses the system network settings for proxies. In the Settings tab, use the search box at the top and type "proxy," or scroll to the System section. Click "Open your computer's proxy settings." This will launch the Network settings in macOS.

3. Manage Cookies:

   In Chrome's Settings on Mac, click Privacy and security in the left sidebar, then Cookies and other site data. You'll see the same options: allow all cookies, block third-party cookies in incognito, block third-party cookies or block all cookies.

4. Clear Cache:

   Clearing the cache on Chrome for macOS is done through the Clear browsing data dialog. Choose the time range and ensure "Cached images and files" is selected, then clear it.

5. Enable/Disable JavaScript:

   On Chrome for Mac, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings > JavaScript. Toggle the setting to Blocked to turn off JavaScript execution.

6. Enable Dark Mode:

   Chrome on macOS will use the macOS appearance by default. If your Mac is set to Dark Mode (via Apple Menu > System Preferences > General > Appearance > Dark), Chrome will automatically apply a dark theme to its UI, matching the system's theme.

   For testing dark mode in Chrome on Mac, it’s often easiest to just enable macOS Dark Mode, which will make Chrome dark and let you observe any styling differences in your web app (especially if your site adapts to the prefers-color-scheme: dark media query).

Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based, current version) shares a lot of its underpinnings with Chrome, so most settings are similar. Edge's Settings interface has different organization and wording, but you can manage proxy, cookies, cache, JavaScript and dark mode in Edge on both Windows and macOS.

Steps to Change Browser Settings for Edge on Windows

1. Open Edge Settings:

   Launch Microsoft Edge on Windows. Click the three-dot menu (Settings and more) in the top-right corner, then click Settings. Edge's settings open in a new tab (with a left-hand sidebar menu). You can also navigate directly to edge://settings in the address bar.

2. Configure Proxy Settings:

   In Edge (Windows), go to Settings > System and performance. On the System settings page, click "Open your computer's proxy settings." Edge will open the Windows Proxy Settings dialog.

3. Manage Cookies:

   In Edge's left sidebar, click "Cookies and site permissions." Then on the right, select "Manage and delete cookies and site data." Here you'll find a toggle for "Allow sites to save and read cookie data (recommended)", which if turned Off will block all cookies in Edge.

4. Clear Cache and Browsing Data:

   To clear Edge's cache or other data on Windows, click Settings > Privacy, search, and services in the sidebar. Scroll down to the "Clear browsing data" section. Click the button "Choose what to clear."

5. Enable/Disable JavaScript:

   Edge allows toggling JavaScript via site permissions. In Edge Settings, go to Cookies and site permissions. Scroll through the list of site permissions and find JavaScript. Click it, and you'll see an option to Allow (recommended) or Don't allow. Switch it to Don't allow to globally disable JavaScript in Edge.

6. Enable Dark Mode:

   Microsoft Edge on Windows has a built-in dark theme independent of the system theme. To enable it, go to Settings > Appearance. At the top of the Appearance settings, find "Overall appearance." You will have three options: Light, Dark or System default. Select Dark to immediately switch Edge's UI to dark mode.

   Edge’s dark mode will also apply to content on internal pages (like Settings, New Tab) and, if a website supports detecting the prefers-color-scheme media query, it may serve a dark theme to you.

   Edge also has an experimental flag for forcing dark mode on web content (accessible via edge://flags > "Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents"), but for most QA needs the standard dark theme option suffices.

Steps to Change Browser Settings for Edge on macOS

1. Open Edge Preferences:

   On a Mac, open Edge and click Edge > Preferences... from the top menu bar (or press ⌘ + ,). This opens the Edge Settings tab (edge://settings). You can also click the three-dot Settings and more menu in the upper-right and choose Settings.

2. Configure Proxy Settings:

   Similar to Chrome, Edge on macOS uses the system's proxy settings. In Edge Settings, go to System and performance and click "Open your computer's proxy settings." This will bring up the macOS Network settings (Proxies tab) for your active connection.

3. Manage Cookies:

   In Edge for Mac, click Cookies and site permissions in Settings, then Manage and delete cookies and site data. The same options are available: toggle "Allow sites to save and read cookie data" on or off to allow or block cookies, and use "Block third-party cookies" to restrict third-party cookies.

4. Clear Cache:

   Clearing cache on Edge macOS is done via Privacy, search, and services > Clear browsing data > Choose what to clear, just like on Windows. Select the timeframe and data types (cached images/files, cookies, etc.), then clear them.

5. Enable/Disable JavaScript:

   Edge's JavaScript setting on Mac is found under Site Permissions > JavaScript. Toggle it off to disable JS. This is identical to the Windows instructions: once you flip the switch to "Don't allow," Edge will block scripts on all sites.

6. Enable Dark Mode:

   On macOS, Edge can either follow the system theme or be set manually. Go to Settings > Appearance. Under Overall appearance, choose Dark to immediately switch Edge into dark theme. Alternatively, choose System default so Edge matches your macOS light/dark mode automatically.

Mozilla Firefox has a different settings interface (called Preferences on Mac, Options on some Windows versions, now just Settings on Windows) and it handles some things differently from Chrome/Edge. Firefox has its own proxy settings dialog (it doesn't use the OS proxy by default) and disabling JavaScript requires an advanced configuration change.

Steps to Change Browser Settings for Firefox on Windows

1. Open Firefox Settings:

   Open Firefox and click the ≡ (hamburger) menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings (it might be called Options on older versions). This opens the Settings tab (about:preferences). On Windows, you can also press Alt + T then O to open Options directly.

2. Configure Proxy Settings:

   Firefox does not automatically use the system proxy on Windows; instead, it has an internal proxy settings dialog. In the General panel of Firefox Settings, scroll down to the bottom where you'll find Network Settings. Click the "Settings..." button next to Network Settings.

3. Manage Cookies:

   Navigate to Privacy & Security in the left sidebar of Firefox Settings. Under the Cookies and Site Data section, you can click "Manage Data…" to see stored cookies and site data and remove them for specific sites.

4. Clear Cache:

   In the same Cookies and Site Data section of Privacy & Security, there's a button "Clear Data...". Click it to get options to clear Cookies and Site Data and/or Cached Web Content. If you want to clear the cache, check Cached Web Content and press Clear.

5. Enable/Disable JavaScript:

   Firefox does not have a simple checkbox in the settings UI to disable JavaScript (unlike Chrome/Edge). To turn off JavaScript in Firefox, you have to use the advanced configuration editor. In the Firefox address bar, type about:config and press Enter. You will see a warning page about voiding your warranty. Click "Accept the Risk and Continue." Search for javascript.enabled and toggle it to false.

6. Enable Dark Mode:

   Firefox has built-in themes. To enable the dark theme on Firefox for Windows: open the ≡ menu and click Add-ons and themes (or type Ctrl + Shift + A). In the Add-ons Manager, go to Themes in the left pane. You should see Dark, Light and System themes listed. Click Enable next to the Dark theme.

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