Userscripts and Firefox

Greasemonkey is an extension for Mozilla Firefox, an open source Web Browser. Most userscripts are written for Firefox & Greasemonkey (although some work in Opera, Safari and even Internet Explorer).

For this guide I will assume you are using Firefox, if not you should install Firefox first.

Userscripts run via Greasemonkey

Now that you have Firefox, you need to install Greasemonkey. After installation (which requires restarting your browser), you are now ready to install userscripts.

Now clicking on a .user.js link triggers Greasemonkey to pop up the script installation panel. Greasemonkey shows you a list of what sites the script will run on and ask if you want to install the script.

Now loading a web page results in additional code (the userscript) being run.

Other Browsers

User scripts can be used in browsers other than Firefox, but the scripting APIs and browser JavaScript support vary.

Opera userscripts: Opera has it's own UserScript API with different functionality than Greasemonkey's. However, it does recognise Greasemonkey scripts. and many scripts on this site do work in Opera. See here for a guide to installing scripts in Opera and here for details on which Greasemonkey scripts are likely to work.

Be Careful

Anyone can upload scripts to this site. Community features such as reviews and forums are provided to help protect the site and public. Exercise judgement when installing source code. If you don't know how to read it, check who has reviewed, favorited and discussed it. Decide if you find them trustworthy by reading their other reviews. The admins cannot guarantee that "evil" scripts will not be listed on the site.

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