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How to temporarily allow the installation of third-party userscripts in Chrome for Mac OS X

A Chrome window I ran into some trouble recently trying to update a userscript in Chrome. They have disabled third-party installations, instead forcing you to use the Google Chrome Web Store… which doesn't host userscripts. With a little bit of research I discovered how to circumvent this inconvenience. If you want to install userscripts from other websites follow the instructions below!

  1. Make sure your copy of Chrome is not open and open the Terminal. (To open the Terminal: Press Command + Spacebar, then type 'Terminal' and press Return.)
  2. When the terminal appears you will have to type the address of the app along with a special parameter to allow third-party installs.

    For Google Chrome: You can simply copy and paste the code below. /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install Simple, right? You may now continue to Step 3!

    Other Versions of Chrome: If for some reason the example above did not work or your copy of Chrome is located in a different location, do not fret! To find the location of the app simply right click on it from the Applications folder (press Shift + Command + A in the Finder), now find 'Google Chrome'. Hold Control and click the icon, now select "Show Package Contents" from the context menu. From there you will want to open the "Content" and then "MacOS" folder, drag the file you see there to the Terminal. Terminal should automatically fill in the file's address. Now simply add the parameter below preceded by a single space.Enable third-party userscript installations parameter for Google Chrome: --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install

  3. Press Return to run the command. This will launch Chrome. While Chrome is running in this state you will not be able to close the Terminal window. Once Chrome open, navigate to the third party script website, such as http://userscripts.org and install.
  4. When finished installing scripts, close Chrome. After you have done that you can close the Terminal app. The next time you open Chrome it will be just as it was before–locked down from third-party script distributors. If you want to install more scripts later, just follow this procedure again.
Aug 27, 2012
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