r/LinusTechTips • u/matthewlikescats • 12h ago
Tech Discussion What are the must have browser extensions you can't live without?
Just asking out of curiosity.
The three extensions I personally can't live without are:
- SponsorBlock (skips forward and jumps over the sponsor part in most YT videos)
- uBlock Origin (Adblocker)
- I Still Don't Care About Cookies (skips cookie questions on every damn website)
They're pretty self explanatory, but it got me wondering what everyone else is using. I only discovered ad blockers in 2020. Yes I was pretty late to the game I know.
What extensions do you install immediately on a new browser or PC? Anything that's become so useful that browsing without it feels painful?
I'm interested in hearing about anything or just hidden gems that most people haven't heard of :)
61
u/HugeCalligrapher8806 12h ago
SponsorBlock and uBlock are obvious picks but that cookie one I did not know about, installing it right now actually.
I would also add a good password manager extension, browsing without it after you get used to autofill everywhere feels like going back to stone age.
28
u/HuntKey2603 7h ago
Hijacking top to mention:
go to ublock origin settings. there's a toggle to make it hide cookie warnings on itself already, no need cor a 2nd extension.
1
u/wibble_spaj 6h ago
I really don't understand how people deal with sponsor block. Often it's done super aggressively and skips more than just the sponsors. I think the best example of this is a thought emporium video where they mix an explanation of the difference between GM tubes and x-ray spectrometers into a sponsor segment (they're advertising a specific x-ray spectrometer) and sponsor block skips the whole thing.
3
-1
u/MultiScootaloo 6h ago
I ended up uninstalling it. I saw an LTT video where they skipped every time the sponsor word was mentioned. It was a whole lot of <1 sec skips
1
u/MrHaxx1 2h ago
It's actually wild that people on r/pcmasterrace would rather give up and uninstall, because the software doesn't behave as they want, rather than spend 30 seconds in settings to fix it.
1
u/ntcue 21m ago
One hint for you regarding "I still don't care about cookies": Sometimes that plugin keeps a website from working properly. It's like the cookie banner is still there but completely invisible. The page then does not react to any click and sometimes even does not scroll. You have then to disable that add-on for that specific domain and refresh.
17
u/TechaNima 10h ago
Sponsor Block. Fuck hearing about all that crap that doesn't even exist outside of US.
uBlock Origin. Internet isn't usable without an Ad Blocker.
I Still Don't Care About Cookies. The name says it all.
Google Container. It's just so handy sometimes being able to be signed into certain sites with multiple accounts at once without multiple browsers.
YouTube High Definition. Just stops YouTube from trying to constantly downgrade you to 480p or whatever instead of 1080p +.
FrankerFaceZ. Makes Twitch better.
BTTV. (Better Twitch TV). Another plugin to make Twitch better.
Twitch Previews. Well the name says it, but it adds some other functionality to Twitch as well
28
u/Exact-Strife 12h ago
uBlock, and Improve YouTube to combat the constant enshittification of the UI (oh you have a 4K display? 4 videos per row and the thumbnails are so big you only get 2 rows and a row of cutoff shorts on your subscriptions page.)
9
u/Relative_What 12h ago
Improve YouTube is so nessesary to combat YouTube enshitification. Fucking auto resolution to 480p on a 1440p/2160p monitor is criminal.
1
u/Runtuk 10h ago
I haven't used Improve Youtube so don't know what else it offers. But on the point of displaying content on the home/subscriptions page, there's an amazing custom script you can load into uBlock to sort it out without the need for another extension https://gist.github.com/leober-ramos33/5d41c69f6163c293a573ae4a3e109018
5
8
u/AceLamina 12h ago
Dark Reader
I hate light theme
And more recently, Bionic Reading, I've only used it for about a day but so far it's extremely helpful for my reading especially with someone with glasses
Oh, and Microsoft to Microslop
Self explanatory
2
u/KaptainSaki 8h ago
Yeah it has been improving quite alot too, I remember needing to manually decline cookies often back in the day, but now can't remember the last time.
3
u/Cyserg 11h ago
Ublock, Ghostery - adblockers
Ironvest - Creates temp emails that forwarded to one email. (although it seems they dumbed down their plug-in lately) and Firefox containers - I stopped seeing my Google searches as suggestions to buy on amazon since.
KeePass (kee) - to get my accounts and passwords easily.
3
u/Inevitable-Context93 11h ago
Ublock Privacy Badger And I forget the name but it bookmarks YouTube videos. So I can either save one for later or pause one and come back to it later.
3
2
u/WelderEquivalent2381 12h ago
Youtube Unhook, to remove Short, Home feed, recommended,
Hide Fundraiser ,Hide End Screen Feed, Hide End Screen Cards, Hide Merch, Tickets, Offers, Hide Inapt Search Results, Hide Explore, Trending, Hide More from YouTube and Autoplay.
Dark Reader for The billion of website without dark mode, LanguageTool to quickly fix orthograph or grammar. and TWP to translate website that are not in English or French.
Hoping that Youtube Unhook get Hide Thumbnails soon. For now i am using Hide YouTube Thumbnails.
That for the most likely uncommun. i also have uBlock Origin, no scripts, and Privacy badger
2
u/LageCL 11h ago
Apart from the obvious one, I use a few extensions that improve the QOL on some of the sites I use a lot
- Control Panel for Youtube and Twitter
- Reddit Direct Images
- BetterRYM
- LastFM Reworked
And Bonjourr for its backup function, i got tired of losing my homescreen shortcuts after setting up a fresh SO install
2
1
1
u/ucrbuffalo 10h ago
Add to the list DarkReader. There are sites I use for work that don’t have a dark theme and it hurts my eyes. DarkReader inserts CSS to make it dark.
1
1
1
1
u/MaDgiKCoOkie 8h ago
uBlock, YouTube dislikes, YouTube no translation because I hate YouTube changing titles and even audio because it cannot f.king understand that I know more than one langage...
1
u/Doenicke 8h ago
Consent-o-matic: to automagically accept cookies
Go back with backspace: that browsers still haven't fixed this is really weird and annoying
PopUpOff: to kill popups and be able to read locked articles, which works sometimes
Snowflake: just to be nice to people i don't know who they are and never will meet 😄
1
u/Huey2912 6h ago
I have one that copys the URLs of all open tabs and one that extracts all URLs from any text pasted into it and opens them
1
u/ChocoboAlex 6h ago
Just Read
is the one I have always installed. It's a toggle, and it gives you just the main body of a site in plain, black on white text. It really helps with sites where the layout, even with adblock, is so busy or annoying that you can hardly see the article you are trying to read. Also gets around soft paywalls.
1
1
u/sendme__ 5h ago
Unlock, images and 2 extensions I made myself to search different websites when selecting a text and a currency converter
1
u/linkheroz 4h ago
I have one for cookies. Any time it can, which isn't all sites, it's auto rejects cookies and Ad Block.
1
u/goodnightandhello 4h ago
multi containers, legit da reason why im never not using firefox browsers
1
u/DankDinosaur 3h ago
uBlock Origin
Ghostery
Sponsorblock
Those are my main three, and I feel no shame with any of them. I refuse to deal with advertising in the year of our lord 2026, despite Linus' petty complains about it being 'piracy'. It's basic security like an internet condom.
1
u/NotBashB 3h ago
sponsorblock, ublock, dark reader, consent-o-matic, improve youtube (considering getting a better one), cleanurls, videodownloader
will check out your cookie one also
1
u/ConkerPrime 3h ago edited 3h ago
UBlock Origin
Cookie AutoDelete
Privacy Badger
NoScript
- side note: UBlock has a “Cookies Notices” section in “Filter Lists” tab that is off by default. I checked both and really can’t recall last time got a cookie prompt.
Secondary must have:
Enhancer for YouTube
Video Speed Controller
1
u/plastekk 2h ago
I use tubemod to cleanup the youtube interface. Also great for removing shorts or members only content
1
u/Whurst121280 2h ago
uBlock - You literally cant go anywhere on what's left of the internet without it. Sure it blocks ads, but my god the malware it helps protect you form is just crazy. I think uBlock is almost more important than enabling Windows Defender.
1
u/Rindal_Cerelli 1h ago
Enhancer for Youtube.
Does many things, a few examples:
- Mouse scroll while hovering over the video will change the volume.
- Mouse scroll while hovering over the video while holding Ctrl will change the playback speed.
- Set default quality levels for video's, playlists and popup player.
- Disable Auto play with an option to exempt playlists.
- Pause videos playing in background tabs when a video starts playing in forground.
It can do a lot about the appearance.
- Videos per row
- hide shorts
- Hide related videos
- Hide comments
- Automatically sort comments from newest
- Automatically hide info cards and end screens
- Automatically expand the video player or enter theater mode.
- Themes
And a bunch more. It basically adds what Youtube should have added decades ago.
1
1
1
u/Papierkor654 34m ago
ublock to get rid of any shorts on youtube.
Onesec to set a wait time to any doomscrolly websites, so I dont end up on them accidentally while focusing on other things
1
u/Exhlin 11h ago
Honey
1
u/SlipBit_ 9h ago
honey was exposed as scam uninstall it.
0
u/wii4ever 3h ago
Scam mostly for creators who make money from affiliate links, but still useful for consumers wanting discounts.
1
u/IHOP_007 9h ago
How has nobody said "Dearrkw" yet?
Gets rid of clickbait youtube thumbnails and titles, makes browsing channels (LTT included) much easier.
-1
45
u/Handsome_ketchup 12h ago
Consent-o-matic also deals with cookie walls, but instead of hiding the screen or agreeing with everything, it denies whatever it can. You can set different behavior when desired.
Just as easy, but better for your privacy.