Use uBlock Filters to Hide Sections of A Website (such as Twitter)

Vivaldi BrowserThere are a few websites which display content, I don’t want to see and I’ve been looking for a way to block it. I am a user of the Vivaldi browser, which is Chromium based. The browser supports all of the extensions in the Google Play Store, which includes the uBlock Origin ad-blocker.

As well as doing traditional ad-blocking, the extension also allows you to block arbitrary elements of the site. In the caes of Twitter, I want to hide the Bookmarks and Verified tabs on the navigation pane:

Twitter sidebar

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Remove Extra Toolbar Spacing from Vivaldi Browser

Vivaldi BrowserI’m a big fan of Vivaldi browser, but they keep doing things in updates which really annoy me. The common ones are adding lots of extra bookmarks or adding extra entries to the side panel, but there have been others like changing how the themes show active tabs or ,a href=’https://www.azurecurve.co.uk/2023/04/vivaldi-browser-no-longer-asking-for-folder-when-adding-bookmark/’>changing how new bookmarks are handled.

The most recent one I’ve encountered after applying an update only affected a couple of machines (although every profile on those machines) was lots of extra space either side of the address bar. You can remove the extra space by right clicking on the buttons to one side of the address bar and selecting Edit » Customize Toolbar:

Edit toolbar

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Backup and Migrate Vivaldi Profile to a Different Computer

Useful ApplicationsI use multiple computes on a regular basis and want to have the same setup on each machine and I also have multiple profiles set up, all of which makes configuring Vivaldi on a new machine a complete pain.

I did some poking around and found that the %localappdata%\Vivaldi\User Data folder has sub folders for each profile. If you copy the content of a profile folder from one machine you can use the content of the folder to overwrite the profile folder on the new machine.

This will take over settings, bookmarks, speed dials and extensions to the new computer which basically removes the task of setting up the browser. All you need to do on the new machine is to create the profiles in Vivaldi, close the browser and then replace the content of the profile folder (copy and paste in and say yes to overwrite existing files).

Delete Specific Cookie in the Vivaldi Browser

Vivaldi BrowserI recently wanted to delete a specific cookie from the Vivaldi browser and it took me a few minutes to find the place to do it, so I thought I’d document in case I need to do it again and don’t remember where.

Open the Settings page from the menu and select the Privacy and Security tab; click the (highlighted) Show Saved Cookies button:

Privacy and Security page

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Vivaldi Browser No Longer Asking for Folder When Adding Bookmark

Vivaldi BrowserA recent update to Vivaldi browser changed the behaviour when adding bookmarks. Prior to this change, when a bookmark was added, a dialog was displayed which allowed you to select a folder to which the bookmark would be added.

Following the change, all that happens is a small notification in the address bar that the bookmark had been added:

Bookmark added notification

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Re-order Extensions on the Vivaldi Toolbar

Vivaldi BrowserI use Vivaldi as my main browser on desktop PC, tablet and mobile phone. I typically install the same extensions on each of them (excluding mobile which I don’t think supports extensions), but have sometimes installed them in a different order which means they end up in a different order on the toolbar (I regularly use about four computers and one tablet).

I have Google Translate installed on all of them as I listen to a lot of German music and my German is still rudimentary, although I am actively learning.

I prefer Google Translate to show up in the left-most position, but it is only there if I install it first.

Extensions can be reordered:

  • On a touchscreen tablet you need to press and hold and then drag to the new position.
  • On a traditional desktop a lot of online resources say to hold shift down and drag and drop, but this does not work; you actually need to hold down the control key while you drag and drop.

Enable Extensions in Vivaldi Private Mode

Vivaldi BrowserI don’t use browser private/incognito modes very often, but sometimes when I do I also want some of the installed Extensions to be available. My browser of choice is Vivaldi and it does allow you to enable extensions, on a per extension basis, in private mode.

To do this, open the Extensions page from the menu or using Ctrl+Shift+E and click the details button on the plugin you want to enable in private mode.

At the bottom of the window which opens, click the Allow in incognito toggle to enable:

Extension's details page

The next private window you open will have the extension enabled.

Vivaldi Active Tab Darker Than Other Tabs

Vivaldi BrowserI started using Vivaldi browser while it was still in beta test and have seen a number of iterations over the years. Most of the changes have been neutral or beneficial, but one of the latest I’ve found very annoying. I first encountered this in April and forgot to post about it, but I’ve been creating some new VMs and have had the same issue again recently so thought I’d post as a reminder.

The issue is that the active tab is darker than the active tabs when you’re using a dark theme. While I like dark themes, I prefer the active tab to be lighter than inactive ones. The previous version of Vivaldi did have a lighter active tab:

Lighter active tab

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Hide Chrome Download Bar

Chromium logoI’ve been using Vivaldi as my main browser since v1 was first launched (and used the beta before that), but sometimes need to use a second browser.

Vivaldi have made extensive changes to the UI (written their own and used the Chromium renderer?), but all of the other Chromium browsers I’ve tried all have very similar UIs which suggests they aren’t deviating much from the default. This Include Microsoft Edge and Brave.

One of the things which really annoys me is the download bar which appears at the bottom of the screen whenever you download a file and which cannot be switched off; Vivaldi has a sidebar which appears when you download a file, but this is easy to switch off.

The stock answer seems to any UI issue with Chromium based browsers, is to download an extension. I looked at a handful of extensions to disable the download bar and finally selected Disable Download Bar as one which worked reasonably well.

I do much prefer the Vivaldi approach, which is why this remains my default browser on every machine I use and on which I have install rights.

Vivaldi browser releases V3

Vivaldi BrowserMany years ago I discovered the Opera browser and found it was much better than the other browsers around. Leading edge it usually had features in advance of other browsers and I especially liked the speed dial (a landing page you could add your favourites to for quick access).

Unfortunately, the last version of Opera using their own engine was version 12 released in 2012 and killed in 2013 when they switched to Chromium; in this swtch they removed almost all functionality, including bookmarks! Gradually through time, they re-introduced these features as they hemorrhaged users with me being one of them.

I made the switch to Vivaldi while it was still in beta and have nejoyed using it ever since. Founded by one of the original founders of Opera, it follows a similar approach to flexibility and features of Opera 12.

Vivaldi has, today, reached version 3 which includes a built-in tracker- and ad-blocker in both the desktop and Android versions:

Vivaldi browser version 3 released

Once I’m out and about again, I look forward to giving both of these a try (especially the Android version), but that may have to wait a while.

Full details of the new release are here.