Greasemonkey is one of the most-love extensions on Firefox, so you may have been disappointed to leave behind your favorite website customizations when you switched to Google Chrome. Now you can have the best of both worlds, as Chrome now natively supports user scripts. You don’t have to install an extra extension to use them; in fact, Chrome treats each user script as an individual addon so you can easily manage and remove them. Let’s see how Greasemonkey scripts work in Google Chrome.
Install Greasemonkey Scripts in Chrome
You can download Greasemonkey user scripts from many websites across the net, including the ones listed in the links below. Once you find a user script you’d like to use, simply click Install. You don’t need to download an extension to enable Greasemonkey scripts like you do in Firefox; they work just like a standard extension in Chrome.
You’ll see a download popup on the bottom of the window; click Continue to download the user script.
Once it’s downloaded, click Install in the confirmation window to go ahead and install the script.
Once it’s installed, you’ll see a tooltip from the gear menu letting you know the user script has been installed.
Next time you visit the website that the user script was designed for, you’ll be greeted with it’s new style. Older scripts may not work on sites that have been recently updated, so it’s often good to look at the upload date and recent comments on the script before installing it.
Install User Scripts Manually
If you’d like to write your own user scripts or install scripts you have the code for, here’s how you can install them in Chrome. Simply paste the code into a text editor such as Notepad, and save it with the file extension .user.js.
Now drag and drop the script file into a Chrome window. You’ll see the same installation prompts as before, so accept them and your new script will be installed in Chrome.
Remove User Scripts
If you don’t like your new styles, you can easily get rid of them in Google Chrome. To do this, click the gear button on the top left, and select Extensions.
Your scripts will be listed right along with other Chrome Extensions you may have installed. Click Uninstall under any scripts you wish to remove. Alternately, if you only want to turn it off, you can click Disable so you can use it again easily in the future.
If you’re uninstalling the script, click Uninstall in the popup to confirm that you wish to uninstall the script. Now the website will work like it did before you added the script.
Conclusion
Greasemonkey scripts are a great way to make websites look and work like you want. There are thousands of user scripts available from the sites listed below and more, or you could always code your own script if you’d like. Between extensions, themes, and user scripts in Chrome, you can make your browser experience personalized while still taking advantage of Chrome’s speed and support for advanced web technologies.
If you’d like to use Greasemonkey in Firefox, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Greasemonkey User Scripts in Firefox.
Websites with Greasemonkey Scripts for Download:
Userscript.org
Userstyles.org
Learn More About Greasemonkey at the Greasemonkey Wiki
