Speed Dial customization + general questions

lodestone

lodestone

Hi!
I have still been using 12.14, but noticed YouTube doing strange things suddenly, so I'm thinking of stepping over to the latest Opera version.
I saw aome YouTube video showing that this happens now as YT changed the page lay out.

In 12.14 I have always disabled the speed dial, keeping the whole page blank, except for the search bar.
My questions:

Is it possible to do the same thing in the latest Opera version?
Does YouTube work fine in the new Opera?

lem729

lem729

@lodestone

I just checked my YouTube on Opera 21 and it's working fine. Now on YouTube, if you have the latest version of Flash, and don't by mistake activate Off-Road mode in Opera 21 (make sure it's off) it should work for you. If for some reason it's not working, go in the Opera 21 browser to the Adobe flash website, and see if you can update.

On disabling the speed dial, a few choices here. You might want to:

(1) use the speed dial as your home page, but set up no links on it) (that page comes with a Google Search bar, and you could set up at least one link/tile (since YouTube can be viewed as an extension in the Speed Dial) https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/youtube-speed-dial-extension/?display=en
You could add a nice theme from the Opera website to that page. opera://themes/ Or make wallpaper on your own computer a speed dial background, or right click on any image that you see on the internet, that's a jpg, and make it wallpaper. So then, I see you'd have one speed dial item that you want anyway (YouTube), a search bar, and nice wallpaper.

or (2) instead of using the screen dial select something other than the speed dial as your home page, and something other than the speed dial as your next tab page. For example if you go to the Opera Menu in Opera 21 (Alt P gets you there too), and click on opening a specific page or set of pages, you can then set a page to the search engine that you want. (As to making the page blank with just a search engine, since I don't know how to do that, I was thinking that you find a page on the internet that you can live with that is close to that as you are comfortable with). On a new tab, Opera 21 defaults to the speed dial, but you can short circuit that by downloading an extension from Opera store called, "Custom New Page Page," https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/custom-new-tab-page/?display=en That's an Opera extension, so you just click that you want it and you have it.

If at any time you want to look in the Chrome store for extensions (there are more there than in the Opera store), the Opera 21 browser can use almost any Chrome extension as long as you have the Opera extension, called, "Download Chrome Extension." https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/download-chrome-extension-9/?display=en

In general Opera extensions are at: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/?ref=menu (you can get there by just clicking on Get Extensions in the main Opera menu.

Chrome Extensions are at their web store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions?hl=en-US

lodestone

lodestone

Thank you so much. I will use that information if I ever need to change to the latest Opera version and that work around would still be needed for what I want.

But just a few minutes ago this happened: I tried to remove Opera 12.14 using Revo Uninstaller, but it did not work, something about no Admin rights. So I did it in safe mode with Revo.

Then in Firefox I surfed to the Opera download page, and after watching the promotion video clip saw a link below that: "Download Opera 12".
http://www.opera.com/nl/computer/windows

I figured Opera had a latest version now also called Opera 12... although I did not understand why they would call it that.

I downloaded it, and again could only install it in safe mode. I'm using it now posting this, and it turns out to be 12.17 and works fine with YouTube I just found out. (I might have just messed something up in 12.14.)

As I saved the setting of 12.14 when I uninstalled it -using only the default uninstaller mode- it looks just like I like it, identical to my previous 12.14.

I'm glad the weird looking YouTube behavior has changed to normal now. It would for example play the same video again even though I had clicked on another one already and the title of that new one appeared, but under playing clip of the previous one. Only after refreshing the page would the new clip actually play. Also half blank pages... weird.

All solved now.

Thanks again,
Lode

PS:
I tried to edit my first above post, but instead a second post appeared with quotes. : )

lem729

lem729

You have to click on the cog to edit, not the quote mark, but since they're close together a mis-hit can happen. One final thought. You can download Opera 21 and it will go into a different directory than Opera 12. You can then operate them side by side, if you chose. That way you could use both. keep Opera 12 as your default, but play around a bit with Opera 21, get more familiar with it.

In any event, best of luck! Glad things have worked for you. YouTube is, for sure, an essential.

lodestone

lodestone

Yes, I saw somewhere someone write he got the classic and the new version side by side.

Just for play I'm going to try it, but since I use the browser integrated mail client of 12.17, I will probably keep using that version. Especially because I run Opera in Sandboxie by default, so that includes the mail client.

I don't see any advantage in using the new Opera, on the contrary, but to be fair I'll try it out next to the classic one.

I'll utilize your tutorial for hiding the speed dial blocks in the new version.

Thanks.

lodestone

lodestone

I was able to make the bookmark bar appear and put StartPage on it. Now I first get the speed dial page (sorry, not my taste, even having the minimum of 2 columns on it) but at least I can hit the SratPage button right after that on the bookmark page and get the same nearly blank page I also get in 12.17: https://startpage.com

I'll keep the classic one for mail at least for now. The new Opera seems a bit faster. We'll see...

lodestone

lodestone

Wanted to correct " SratPage" in the above post, but clicking on the cog only made it change to dark gray, not further action.

No biggie.., ; )

lodestone

lodestone

PS:
Even better... I made StartPage my real start page; only it appears when opening the browser of Opera 21. No speed-dial page appears anymore.

Settings > Open a specific page or set of pages > Set pages > https://startpage.com/do/search

: )

lodestone

lodestone

YouTube is still behaving weird in 12.17. I have to refresh the page to get the next video clip I already clicked on. Otherwise it plays the same clip I saw, even thought the title of the new chosen one appears under the previous clip that is being played again.

No biggie. I'll use 21 sometimes because it seems a bit faster. But otherwise I seen no advantage.

lodestone

lodestone

In 21 the adds show on YouTube even though I have AdMuncher on. This does not happen in 12.17. But in 12.17 YouTube behaves weird, as mentioned.

I'm beginning to wonder which Browser to make my default... maybe FireFox?

Hmmm...

lodestone

lodestone

12.17 was making YouTube behave weird yesterday. But I checked just now, and the YouTube page looks different than it did before, but it's not too bad. A left panel appears taking up space, but it's possible to click that away.

lodestone

lodestone

Still I hear the sound of the video I was watching even though I have changed to the page with all the video small thumbnails, including the one of that video. But that video is not showing. Yet I hear it playing. Weird.

lem729

lem729

Why don't you see how YouTube works in Opera 21. Do you have the same problem with it?

lodestone

lodestone

With the 21 YouTube works fine. But the adds still appear even with AdMuncher. This does not happen in the 12.17

In the mean time I chatted with AdMuncher about this, and they told me the're working on a next version (v5) which will solve this problem.

Maybe after that little anoyance is fixed, I'll use only Opera 21. But since I've been using the browser integrated email client, I would lose that. I would have to start using the stand alone Opera Mail client, see if I can run it in Sandboxie and MailWasher.

Through Mailawasher I can send spam to SpamCop, who in turn informs the spammer's ISP.

Still I don't see any advantages to 12.17 in 21. Therefore I would gladly give a donation to Opera for further service to the 12 versions...

lem729

lem729

@lodestone

I wrote Ad muncher and they provided no help, said it was working on Opera 21 when it was bad. So I downloaded the extension Adblock Plus, which is quite good. And then added the Disconnect extension. (Which increases the power of the ad blocking). Both are in the Opera add-on store, and together they are terrific on blocking ads in Opera 21. I believe you can set AdMuncher to not work in Opera 21. What I did was just set up AdBlock Plus in my other browsers (Opera 12, Chrome, Firefox, and Disconnect where it was available), and stopped using Admuncher, even though I'd paid for it years ago. Good luck on getting Opera to work on Opera 12 ;). I don't think it's gonna happen, but I understand your mail situation. It's a complicating factor. I use Thunderbird, and it's quite good. And gmail, which can open in Opera 21 tabs, so mail-wise it's going okay for me.