Introduction
You may find it helpful to be able to set a custom User Agent string in your browser for various reasons. Some of which may include:
- Adding a custom identifier to your user agent string so that you can quickly and easily identify your requests when reviewing the access logs of a site
- Updating your user agent string to either reproduce a problem with security software such as mod_security, or to bypass a block that might be created by such security software
Procedure
- Navigate to the website in Google Chrome
- Right click anywhere on the page
- Click "Inspect", or "Inspect Element"
- In the upper right corner of the Inspector that appeared, click on the icon of the three vertical dots. This icon is between the the cog icon, and the X icon.
- Hover over "More Tools"
- Select "Network Conditions"
- This will create a new tab within the "Console Drawer". If you have the console drawer squeezed all the way to the bottom of the inspector it may be less apparent that the new tab was added there. In that case drag the console drawer edge up to resize it and make it visible.
- Within the Network Conditions tab of the Console Drawer, uncheck "Use Browser Default"
- You may optionally select one of the official User Agents from the drop down, and then freely modify it to make your own.