Change your operating system to fool websites

[Zlain]

I need to do some online test and its such a ****ty tests because it won't let you do the test unless you have a compatible operating system / browser. I have Windows 8 and tried Chrome, IE 10 and firefox and nothing works.

Anyone know how to trick a website into thinking you have Windows 7? I tried user agent string but that only fools it into thinking you have a different browser and also causes different problems...

SSSSOOO frustrating wth..

[+BudMan MVC]

Just run whatever OS you need to test with in a VM, that is prob your best option for testing with a "compatible" OS ;)

But the OS is included in the useragent string - so you should be able to change it to "trick" the website - does not mean what your testing will work if your not really on that OS, etc.

There are a few addons for firefox that let you easy change the useragent string.

[Zlain]

Just run whatever OS you need to test with in a VM, that is prob your best option for testing with a "compatible" OS ;)

But the OS is included in the useragent string - so you should be able to change it to "trick" the website - does not mean what your testing will work if your not really on that OS, etc.

There are a few addons for firefox that let you easy change the useragent string.

None of the add-ons let appear to let me change the OS, only the browser. Which add-on you referring to?

Yeah, its so annoying, its just some online test for a job and they are making it incredibly difficult to even start the test...

EDIT: I've managed to get it working using the user agent string in chrome. How do I save the setting permanently though so I don't have to keep the developer window up?

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Like BudMan said, it's probably a user agent string check. You should just be able to install an addon for Firefox or Chrome that will create a fake one for you that will tell the site you're running Windows 7 or IE9. I'm pretty sure you can set the user agent to whatever you like in Internet Explorer too by editing the registry. I don't know how up-to-date this article is (It talks about Firefox 2 and IE7), but it might help: http://whatsmyuseragent.com/SwitchingUserAgents.asp

When you've done the test, email the webmaster and tell them to use feature detection instead of browser sniffing. Every time a UA-string is parsed, god kills a kitten.

[+BudMan MVC]

"UA-string is parsed, god kills a kitten."

dude if that was the case - there wouldn't be any kittens

This a simple report on different UA hitting web fiitering for 1 customer I support, and they are not even that big ;) for just today!!

I would have to lookup an exact addon - but you can see in this example from couple of lines in the report

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; MS-RTC LM 8)

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; MS-RTC LM 8)

That OS is included in the UA

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

"UA-string is parsed, god kills a kitten."

dude if that was the case - there wouldn't be any kittens

I didn't mean just storing it, I meant parsing it as a way of determining if a browser is capable of running a website. Websites that "forbid" certain browsers usually do it (in my brief experience) because of IE-specific features that were added later in other browsers, or vice-versa :p

Incidentally, poor browser sniffing practices are the whole reason that all web browsers start with "Mozilla" :)