Browser Tamer

Why

Do you have multiple browsers or browser profiles on your machine? Do you want to open different links with different browsers or profiles without switching manually? If yes, then you need Browser Tamer! Browser Tamer is a smart and powerful tool that acts as a browser proxy on your machine. It catches the links you click and redirects them to a browser or browser profile of your choice. You can set up rules based on the link’s domain, protocol, file extension and more.

Are you tired of bloated software that slows down your computer and drains your battery? Do you want a simple and elegant solution that does everything you need without compromising your privacy or the environment? Then look no further than Browser Tamer, the smallest and fastest browser chooser in the world!

Browser Tamer is so tiny that it fits in a floppy disk (remember those?) and runs on any device, even your grandma’s old PC. Browser Tamer is also completely free, so you don’t have to pay a dime for its amazing features. And best of all, Browser Tamer is eco-friendly and never uses more than 0% CPU or any CO2 (makes it good for the 🌎). It works on green energy and even recycles its own code. Plus, Browser Tamer does not track you or sell your data to anyone. It respects your privacy and lets you enjoy the internet without worries. So what are you waiting for? Download today and experience the difference!

Installing

You have a few options:

• direct download (.msi installer or portable)
• with winget: winget install IvanG.BrowserTamer
• with scoop: scoop install bt

IMPORTANT: If you’re upgrading from v2, both versions will co-exist so you may want to uninstall v2 first. Configuration is not preserved between v2 and v3, so you might want to back up bt.ini from v2.

Your antivirus software most probably will report BT as a virus, because BT discovers browser installed on your machine and this operation is wrongly considered “credential stealing”. BT never steals credentials or track you in any way, which can be validated with VirusTotal an other tools. Since v3 BT’s installer is re-done as .msi which seems to be more antivirus friendly.

Change log can be accessed from the program itself (Help menu) or downloaded here.

Optionally (but recommended) if you want this project to improve, do this:

Preparations

Once launched, Browser Tamer will perform a quick self-check and warn you which actions need to be performed by you for links to be properly proxied by it.

Health status is also available in the bottom status bar (green and red heart).

Configuring

Default Browser

By default, BT takes the first browser it finds and opens all the links in it.

You can change this from Settings->Default Browser menu which lists all the detected browsers and profiles hierarchically.

Rules

All the links that do not match any configured rules will open in the default browser, however, that’s not very interesting and not why you installed this utility in the first place.

To open a link in another browser, you need to create a rule.

A rule is a single line in the Rules section. It simply says that if a link contains the text you’ve typed in, then open the specified browser. It is case insensitive so a line mydomain will match mydomain.com, MyDomain.com or https://blabla.mydomain.com.

You can keep adding as many rules as you want, they are always case-insensitive and match any part or the URL.

Picker

Picker is a visual prompt that asks which browser you want to open a link in specifically, instead of matching a rule. It’s invoked in the following situations:

• There is more than one browser matching a specific rule. You may have a duplicated rule in several browsers, or an URL is matching different rules in different browsers. Picker will be displayed to resolve this conflict.
• Buttons ctrl and shift were held when clicking a link (this can be configured in settings). In this case, the picker will display all of the browsers registered on the system to pick from.

Simply clicking the browser you want closes this window and opens the desired browser.

The list of browsers is sorted by popularity i.e. how many times you have chosen this particular browser in the past (red square).

As a convenience you can add a rule by tapping the “add rule” button before a browser is selected - this will persist without the need to open the configuration dialogue.

You can also just press “copy & cancel” to close this window without opening any browsers and copying the URL into the clipboard instead.

Starting from v2.9.12 you can also switch off the picker completely, or force it to always appear:

Visual Themes

As of 2.9.0 themes are properly supported. The default theme is “Follow OS” which switches to dark or light mode depending on OS settings (available in Windows 10 and 11).

Supported Browsers

All the browsers known to the world are supported. Out of the box, Brower Tamer detects:

• Mozilla Firefox. Including private mode and profiles.
• Microsoft Edge “Edgium” (Windows 10/11 default). Including profiles and incognito mode.
• Google Chrome, including profiles and incognito mode.
• Brave, including profiles, incognito mode and Tor Mode.
• Vivaldi, including profiles.
• Opera.
• Tor.
• Other browsers based on Chromium or Firefox may be autodetected as well, as they register themselves in the system in a similar way. Users have reported successfully using Slimjet, Avant, Chromium as well but I suspect the actual list is way longer.

And if that’s not enough, you can always add your custom browser if it’s not discovered or installed in an unsupported way (like a portable install). Note that scoop is famous for screwing up browser installations, so most probably you will need to customize it in some way.

Firefox

Firefox has several options to manage profiles - classic and “containers”. One is not better than the other and is more suitable for certain needs. BT supports classic profiles very well, and automatically discovers them on start. If you have Firefox installed, you should see extra buttons to open and manage profiles:

In addition to that, you can create rules specific to Firefox profiles so link can be opened directly in a profile you want.

If you have created a Firefox profile but it’s not showing up in BT, you need to re-open BT app.

Browser Extensions

You can optionally install an extension for Chrome or Edge. that help to redirect links from inside the browser to local instance of Browser Tamer. Those links can also be found in the Help menu from the app itself.

Beware!

Microsoft Edge will sometimes ask you to set itself as a default browser, because Browser Tamer is. If you press “Confirm” Browser Tamer will stop redirecting all URLs, therefore just cancel this dialog.

FAQ

Export/Import Configuration

Starting from v2.7.2 configuration is stored alongside bt.exe in bt.ini file. You can back it up and restore on the same machine or with some luck on a different machine.

Prior to v2.7.2 configuration was stored in the Windows Registry. If you have to export current configuration to a file for memories or just to back it up, you can still do that:

reg export "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Browser Tamer" backup.reg

reg is standard command, that will create backup.reg file you can import elsewhere or just open in text editor. To import later use reg import.

Are there signed executables available?

No. This is a hobby project and code signing certificate costs around $100/year + hidden notary fees + a lot of paperwork. I don’t have time of money for this kind of bullshit (honestly tried to!).

My company wants to use BT but won’t allow unsigned executables

I feel sorry for you! The only solution would be to sponsor the purchase of the signing certificate + time to move this forward.

Is source code available?

Yes, but not publicly. Unfortunately I don’t have time to properly manage source code hosting and accept contributions, this is a considerable amount of work. If you are concerned about security, use sandbox validation tools freely available on the internet.

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