Apple: Make Safari Pretend to Be Firefox, Opera, or Even Internet Explorer

It doesn’t happen often anymore, but once in a while I’ll surf to a page that won’t open in Safari, and I get a message saying something like, “Sorry, you are using a browser that isn’t supported. Please use a supported browser.” I’m using Safari, if that matters. Should I just stick with Chrome or Firefox all the time?

If you like Safari, you can still use it and just trick the uncooperative websites into thinking you’re using a supported browser. First you need to enable the Develop menu in Safari. This used to require a Terminal command, but now it’s right in Safari > Preferences > Advanced; just check the box for “Show Develop menu in menu bar.” Boom, there it is--magical. Stunning. Phenomenal. (Okay, not really.)

You can ignore the Develop menu for now. But the next time you get an error message like that, pull down the Develop menu to User Agent, and select a different browser from the list that pops out. You can try Firefox, an older version of Safari, Opera, even Internet Explorer 10, 9, or 8. Once you make your selection, the page automatically reloads, but it’ll think you’re using that other browser, even though you never left Safari. The User Agent submenu even lets you pretend to be surfing on a Windows machine, in case you run into any Mac-hating sites out there.


Reference:
How To Make Safari Pretend to Be Firefox, Opera, or Even Internet Explorer
http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_make_safari_pretend_be_firefox_opera_or_even_internet_explorer