How can I change the user agent in Firefox to switch to IE7?

Asked by erichw1504 (26453

) January 21st, 2010

So, at work they have blocked access to the internet with Firefox and now I have to use the awesome Internet Explorer 7 for all of my browsing. I know how to change the value of “general.useragent.extra.firefox” through about:config, but when I try to change it to IE, I still can’t access any website.

I have Firefox 3.5.6 and Internet Explorer 7 installed on my desktop. Now, would I have to use the user agent that IE7 is currently using on my computer or can I use any IE user agent? The user agent that IE7 is using right now is: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022). Do I just copy that and use it as the user agent in Firefox?

How can I make this work???

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9 Answers

Try this.

noyesa (2517

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@noyesa The problem is I can’t access the internet with Firefox. So, how am I supposed to install an add-on for it?!

erichw1504 (26453

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you can do it manually…

- Type “about:config” into your address bar (without quotes)
– It may ask if this is really what you want to do (blah blah) say “yes”
– Right click and select “new” then “string”
– Enter the following (without quotes) in the text box “general.useragent.override”
– Now you can enter the user agent of your choice!

drClaw (4452

)“Great Answer” (3

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BTW the IE7 string I believe is…

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0b; Windows NT 6.0)

drClaw (4452

)“Great Answer” (2

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Right click the “add to firefox” in noyesa’s link and save to disk. Do this in IE. Now open the .xpi file in Firefox and it will prompt you to install the extension.

jrpowell (40562

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@johnpowell When I do that, it’s a .html document.

erichw1504 (26453

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@EVERYONE Thanks for all of your help. I got it to work by using the override string like @drClaw mentioned. Case closed.

erichw1504 (26453

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Out of curiosity. Are you selecting “Save page as” or “Save Link as”?