Here are two feature requests to improve Opera for the specific use case when Opera is accidently closed.

1. Confirm close on exit
A configurable setting, this is present on Firefox and IE 11 and simply asks the user to confirm if they want to close the browser when the user clicks on Opera Menu - Exit or clicks the top right Application Close X icon. It's hugely frustrating having 20+ tabs open and then have the browser close with no easy way to restore lost tabs.

Closing the browser can be intentionally or more often, unintentional. Examples for unintentional closure include:

• Accidently clicking the Application Close X icon by mistake when trying to close other windows or when there is a lag in the operating system.
• Timed logoff sessions when updates need to be applied (often seen in the corporate world when patches / hotfixes are deployed and the PC is set to auto restart).
• Application crashes although I have to say that Opera has never crashed for me and I use it heavily with anything up to 30+ tabs open during a session.
• Accidently pressing Alt-F4 to close the current in-focus app, not realising that Opera is the current in-focus app.

Other Chromium based browsers have this option (e.g. CentBrowser and Slimjet) so it's not a limitation of the Chromium engine.

2. Restore tabs on open
This is also present on Firefox and is an option that lets the user restore all open tabs from the previous session when the browser was closed. This ties in with Confirm close on exit and gives the option to restore all open tabs easily with one click instead of rooting around the history. Restoring tabs also restores any session level data since cookies are not deleted so the user does not have to log back in. Opera already has an option to Reopen last closed tab in the order they were closed but not a one shot reopen everything that was closed.

Here are some use cases of the two feature requests.

Use Case Name:
Confirm Close On Exit

Actors:
Opera User

Triggers:
The Opera browser is closed either intentionally or unintentionally.

Pre-conditions:

• The Opera User has configured the Opera Browser to confirm close action on exit
• Multiple tabs are open in the Opera browser

Post-conditions:
The Opera browser is closed

Normal Flow:

1. The Opera User clicks Opera Menu - Exit or clicks the top right Application Close X icon
2. The Opera browser notifies the Opera user that multiple tabs are open and requests the Opera User to confirm the action to close the browser
3. The Opera User confirms the action to close the browser
4. The Opera browser closes and updates the history with all open tabs

Alternative Flow:

1. The Opera User clicks Opera Menu - Exit or clicks the top right Application Close X icon
2. The Opera browser notifies the Opera user that multiple tabs are open and requests the Opera User to confirm the action to close the browser
3. The Opera User confirms the action to keep the browser open with all tabs intact
4. The Opera browser closes the notification and retains all open tabs
5. The Opera User continues their browsing session with all open tabs intact

Use Case Name:
Restore Tabs On Open

Actors:
Opera User

Triggers:
The Opera browser has been closed and then restarted

Pre-conditions:

• The Opera browser cache / history has not been deleted / cleared since the last session was closed
• The Opera User has not opened any new tabs upon starting the Opera browser
• The default Opera browser home /start page is shown with no other tabs open

Post-conditions:

• All open tabs in the last session are re-opened in new tabs in the background to the right of the home / start page
• Any session level data is maintained (where applicable / possible e.g. logins, form data, etc.)
• The default home page opened when the browser starts remains in focus as the first and active tab

Normal Flow:

1. The Opera User clicks the Opera Menu and chooses the option to restore all tabs open during the last session
2. The Opera browser re-opens all tabs that were opened in the last session with all session level data maintained (where applicable / possible)
3. The focus remains on the home / start page of the Opera browser

The last few versions of Opera (currently using 58.0.3135.79) seem to stopped blocking ads properly. Some sites are completely ignoring the lists and showing ads. For example, if you go to www.dailymail.co.uk and click on any story, it has ads all over the place when previously there were none.

The behaviour is also a little strange; when scrolling down the page, it will start reloading (i.e. the spinner shows) and max out the CPU as all the ads are served. Once stopped, if I scroll again, the spinner fires up and the net result is that it brings an i5 Intel processor to it's knees.

I have all the built-in adblocker lists enabled and think it might be that these are not updating. Is there a way to check if the subscriptions are updating properly or view the actual lists being used to block ads? How often are the lists supposed to update?

Ok, now fixed with the latest Opera 58.0.3135.90 update. Wondering if there was a change to the core browser or if it was just the ad lists not updating correctly.

As mentioned in the first post, is there a way to check if the subscriptions are updating properly or when they updated? How often are the lists supposed to update?

The last few versions of Opera (currently using 58.0.3135.79) seem to stopped blocking ads properly. Some sites are completely ignoring the lists and showing ads. For example, if you go to www.dailymail.co.uk and click on any story, it has ads all over the place when previously there were none.

The behaviour is also a little strange; when scrolling down the page, it will start reloading (i.e. the spinner shows) and max out the CPU as all the ads are served. Once stopped, if I scroll again, the spinner fires up and the net result is that it brings an i5 Intel processor to it's knees.

I have all the built-in adblocker lists enabled and think it might be that these are not updating. Is there a way to check if the subscriptions are updating properly or view the actual lists being used to block ads? How often are the lists supposed to update?

Thanks, I already had a quick look at the various builds and it seems 2 has been implemented thus:

DNA-62990 ‘Recently closed tabs’ in O-menu on win & lin implemented.
DNA-62782 Save recently closed tabs & windows across sessions implemented.

The blog entry also mentions:

• List of recently closed tabs and windows is stored between sessions.
• [Windows, Linux] List of recently closed tabs and windows added to History section in O-Menu.

Not tried the developer or beta builds so am wondering if it has been implemented as a one-shot restore all closed tabs or if you have to go into the list of closed tabs and click each one individually. The latter case is not necessarily less efficient since if a user has 30+ tabs open in the last session, they might only want to restore 20 of those tabs and so could re-open them selectively.

Here are two feature requests to improve Opera for the specific use case when Opera is accidently closed.

1. Confirm close on exit
A configurable setting, this is present on Firefox and IE 11 and simply asks the user to confirm if they want to close the browser when the user clicks on Opera Menu - Exit or clicks the top right Application Close X icon. It's hugely frustrating having 20+ tabs open and then have the browser close with no easy way to restore lost tabs.

Closing the browser can be intentionally or more often, unintentional. Examples for unintentional closure include:

• Accidently clicking the Application Close X icon by mistake when trying to close other windows or when there is a lag in the operating system.
• Timed logoff sessions when updates need to be applied (often seen in the corporate world when patches / hotfixes are deployed and the PC is set to auto restart).
• Application crashes although I have to say that Opera has never crashed for me and I use it heavily with anything up to 30+ tabs open during a session.
• Accidently pressing Alt-F4 to close the current in-focus app, not realising that Opera is the current in-focus app.

Other Chromium based browsers have this option (e.g. CentBrowser and Slimjet) so it's not a limitation of the Chromium engine.

2. Restore tabs on open
This is also present on Firefox and is an option that lets the user restore all open tabs from the previous session when the browser was closed. This ties in with Confirm close on exit and gives the option to restore all open tabs easily with one click instead of rooting around the history. Restoring tabs also restores any session level data since cookies are not deleted so the user does not have to log back in. Opera already has an option to Reopen last closed tab in the order they were closed but not a one shot reopen everything that was closed.

Here are some use cases of the two feature requests.

Use Case Name:
Confirm Close On Exit

Actors:
Opera User

Triggers:
The Opera browser is closed either intentionally or unintentionally.

Pre-conditions:

• The Opera User has configured the Opera Browser to confirm close action on exit
• Multiple tabs are open in the Opera browser

Post-conditions:
The Opera browser is closed

Normal Flow:

1. The Opera User clicks Opera Menu - Exit or clicks the top right Application Close X icon
2. The Opera browser notifies the Opera user that multiple tabs are open and requests the Opera User to confirm the action to close the browser
3. The Opera User confirms the action to close the browser
4. The Opera browser closes and updates the history with all open tabs

Alternative Flow:

1. The Opera User clicks Opera Menu - Exit or clicks the top right Application Close X icon
2. The Opera browser notifies the Opera user that multiple tabs are open and requests the Opera User to confirm the action to close the browser
3. The Opera User confirms the action to keep the browser open with all tabs intact
4. The Opera browser closes the notification and retains all open tabs
5. The Opera User continues their browsing session with all open tabs intact

Use Case Name:
Restore Tabs On Open

Actors:
Opera User

Triggers:
The Opera browser has been closed and then restarted

Pre-conditions:

• The Opera browser cache / history has not been deleted / cleared since the last session was closed
• The Opera User has not opened any new tabs upon starting the Opera browser
• The default Opera browser home /start page is shown with no other tabs open

Post-conditions:

• All open tabs in the last session are re-opened in new tabs in the background to the right of the home / start page
• Any session level data is maintained (where applicable / possible e.g. logins, form data, etc.)
• The default home page opened when the browser starts remains in focus as the first and active tab

Normal Flow:

1. The Opera User clicks the Opera Menu and chooses the option to restore all tabs open during the last session
2. The Opera browser re-opens all tabs that were opened in the last session with all session level data maintained (where applicable / possible)
3. The focus remains on the home / start page of the Opera browser

Been using Opera Browser for Windows now for a few months so here's some feedback. My kit is about 5 years old running Windows 7 64 bit with 4GB of RAM and I'm a power user so the first thing I do after install is go to the settings and tweak it to my liking. I often have 30+ tabs open concurrently for several hours at a time with speed and efficiency being my primary drivers. Extensions are kept to a minimum (max 3-4) and sites I visit tend to be script heavy (e.g.http://www.dailymail.co.uk).

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT OPERA

1. Speed
It's blazing fast. It's fast to start, fast to load, fast to do pretty much everything. When loading http://www.dailymail.co.uk, I can open several pages in the background and the browser does not grind to a halt or freeze momentarily. Speed is my primary driver and Opera delivers.

2. Tab Management
Absolutely spot on. See that little down arrow at the top right of the browser window? Click that and you immediately get a list of all open tabs and even recently closed tabs. Better still, enable "Show tab previews" in "Settings" and you can hover over a tab to see the page without switching to it thus easily toggling between two views in a flash. Genius! Right click a tab and ditch all those other tabs, all tabs to the right or just the current one. Press Control+Tab to cycle through tabs starting with the most recent. Utterly awesomne. Be A Tab King Master and Feel The Power.

3. Integrated Ad Blocker
One less extension to worry about and the built-in ad blocker works great with a nifty little indicator in the address bar showing how many ads have been stopped. The ad blocker can be a little temperamental though. For example, on the Google homepage, I always see the sponsored Google ads for a split second before they disappear. On other PC's, the Google sponsored ads always show even if the ad blocker is enabled. This does not occur with a third party extension like uBlock Origin.

4. Download Manager
Simple, effective and right where it should be without getting in the way. Amazing how even the basics can be messed up by the current most popular browser by market share.

5. Start Pages
Start Opera with a specific set of pages so that my most common websites are all ready and waiting for when I fire up the browser. So much nicer than having to rely on bookmarks and shortcuts. Combined with tab management, the tab preview makes this feature very slick.

6. Cookie Management
Only allow session (non-permanent) cookies and prevent third party cookies being set. Exactly what the browser doctor ordered.

7. Search Box
I like having separate address and search boxes. It means I can keep my search terms visible when going to a web site and more accurately control which search engine I'm using.

8. Themes
Being able to select a theme or background for my spped dial page is real nice. Makes for a far more agreeable user experience. I like the default leaf background.

9. Search Settings
Go to "Settings" and a search box appears with focus letting you enter a search tearm to find that elusive setting. If it exists in more thsn one place, all instances are shown. This is so much easier to pinpoint a particular setting rather than having to bumble around trying to find it, I nearly always use search now to make config changes.

10. Speed Dial Sidebar
I don't know what that left hand sidebar thing on the speed dial page is called but it's bloody useful. Is there a way to have this permanently on every page for quick access?

WHAT I CURRENTLY DON'T LIKE ABOUT OPERA

1. Sync Button
No way to get rid of that damn button. I will never ever use Synchronisation and the button just takes up valuable space on the toolbar.

2. Search Engine Management
I understand Opera has to make money but the default set of search engines cannot be changed or removed. Including Yahoo for example is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Yahoo couldn't even find whiskers on a cat let alone act as a half decent search engine. Unfortunately, I can't get rid of it from the list.

3. No Confirm On Exit
I often have 30+ tabs open so accidently closing Opera, which happens at least once a week when I have a load of other programs open, means I lose everything. Yes, I know I can restore history but this is pointless as those lost pages often have secure logins or form filled data which cannot be recovered. A work around for now is using www.maki-chan.de/preventclose.htm as a page that is open on startup and prevents accidental closure via Javascript.

4. Cache Management
Or lack of it. Have to use a command line hack to set the disk cache size for Opera otherwise it could grow to 1GB. I keep my browser caches to about 200-300MB tops as I simply have no need to store 1GB of web data. Clearing a small cache is also considerably quicker than having to empty a 1GB cache.

5. Ad Block Management
It's a little temperamental as mentioned above and it'd be great if users could provide a URL to auto update the blocking list. Currently, you can only manually enter a text list of blockers and have to manually update this as required.

6. Search Box Auto Select
A frustrating one this. Click into the address bar and the whole address bar is auto selected so you can simply start typing and it will overwrite the existing URL. Not the same behaviour in the search box though. Click once and the cursor will appear wherever you click without replacing anything. Click twice and it'll highlight the word. Click three times and only then does it auto select all text in the search box so you can start typing to overwrite the existing search term. That's 200% more clicks than is necessary. Annoyingly, if you use the address box for searching, you only need click once. Don't know whether to file this under "bug" or "works as expected to annoy users".

7. Search Box Default
If you want to change the default search engine in the search box, you have to go to the settings and do it there instead of where you'd expect to which is in the actual search box itself. Again, the same does not occur when using the address box, you can search in there and choose the required search engine although it doesn't set it as a default. Seems the thinking here is that users willl not often change their search engine so no need to make it easily changeable on the fly.

8. Toolbar Spacing
Seriously, you could park a bus in the space between each icon / shortcut on the toolbar and bookmark bar. What's that in aid of? Let's provide the option to condense the space so you can fit more and not waste the real estate.

9. Customisable Toolbar
No options to customise the toolbar to add or remove icons or even change the length of the address and search boxes. Plus, holding down control and then clicking back or forward does not open the link in a new tab like you would expect it to.

10. Find As You Type
There is no find as you type like there was with the old Opera. You can enable the "Find in page" bar (control F) and then start typing in that which works spendidly (and I love the counter of matches) but once you click out of it, you have to click back in the find box to activate it again. Plus, the bar takes up a whole row which is a real waste of screen estate.

Overall though, Opera is easily my default go-to browser. Keep up the good work guys and well done on a stellar product.