Supermium does not support installing extensions outside of Chrome Web Store

[EgorKuzevanov]

Why Supermium, unlike the Chinese Chromium-based browser "360 ​​Extreme Explorer", does not support installing extensions outside of Chrome Web Store (including from https://www.crx4chrome.com)?:

[XakerTwo]

not sure it even should do that. Supermium is a chromium interspersed with chrome, both, as i know, allow installing extensions only from Web Store. This is for security reason and to avoid suspicious garbage from installing into your browser and accessing your private info (except google and their 3rd party for sure :trollface: ).

Sure you can do it - to install extension from crx, zip or unpacked you must open extensions management page, enable DevMode(toggle in right top corner, that also required for TM with MV3) and drop crx-file right on extensions page (puzzle icon should appear).

Chinromium is ... at least not a gold standard

[Vangelis66]

unlike the Chinese Chromium-based browser "360 ​​Extreme Explorer"

... Google and their Services are blocked in mainland China, 360EE doesn't bundle any Google-imposed limitations on the origin of CRX files...

The CRX files archived in crx4chrome were scraped from CWS initially, so they should be already properly signed - to install from there, first download the CRX file to disk and then, as already instructed above, open up chrome://extensions (Dev Mode enabled) and drag-n-drop there; you should then see a prompt to install the extension...

On a fresh Supermium profile, you may have to jump some hoops in order to circumvent Google's restrictions on files they deem "unsafe for your device", but it can be done:

[EgorKuzevanov]

unlike the Chinese Chromium-based browser "360 ​​Extreme Explorer"

... Google and their Services are blocked in mainland China, 360EE doesn't bundle any Google-imposed limitations on the origin of CRX files...

The CRX files archived in crx4chrome were scraped from CWS initially, so they should be already properly signed - to install from there, first download the CRX file to disk and then, as already instructed above, open up chrome://extensions (Dev Mode enabled) and drag-n-drop there; you should then see a prompt to install the extension...

On a fresh Supermium profile, you may have to jump some hoops in order to circumvent Google's restrictions on files they deem "unsafe for your device", but it can be done:

Developer mode in Supermium is not suitable for me for two reasons:

• firstly, after enabling developer mode and installing unpacked extensions, every time you launch the Supermium browser, a pop-up warning appears about disabling extensions in developer mode, and it is very inconvenient to click on the cross in this pop-up window every time;
• and secondly, launching the Supermium browser with the command line parameter --enable-automation, which permanently disables the pop-up warning about disabling extensions in developer mode, leads to the inability to pass Cloudflare DDoS protection on all sites, where she is present.

[Vangelis66]

Developer mode in Supermium is not suitable for me for two reasons:

firstly, after enabling developer mode and installing unpacked extensions, every time you launch the Supermium browser, a pop-up warning appears about disabling extensions in developer mode, and it is very inconvenient to click on the cross in this pop-up window every time;

... With respect, this isn't what I suggested above :wink: ; as I wrote, the CRX files (*.crx, not *.zip) downloaded (locally) from crx4chrome are ALREADY PROPERLY SIGNED; when you drag-n-drop such a signed CRX file (NB: I didn't say "unpacked extension") onto chrome://extensions and the installation is successful, this is a permanent installation, that won't trigger the "disable extensions in Dev Mode" message once you restart the browser; after the local CRX file has been already installed, you can toggle Dev Mode back to disabled (the default), restart the browser and the extension previously installed (VM in my example) will STILL BE THERE, inside chrome://extensions...

OTOH, if you don't want to be (occasionally) annoyed by Google-related "protection" warnings, you can fully disable Google Security (chrome://settings/security), so that you are not "protected" by Google form "potentially harmful extensions" (among other things) ...

I have been running Supermium myself (Vista SP2 32-bit) for the latest months and all signed CRX files I have installed manually (downloaded previously from the CWS before they were removed, GitHub, crx4chrome etc.) continue to serve me well :wink: ...

[XakerTwo]

• every time you launch the Supermium browser, a pop-up warning appears

I personally remember this issue but don't remember how i got rid of it...

Also, according to few sources, and as mentioned by Vangelis66, this warning appears only when you added really unpacked extension. If there no button it does not mean there no function :smile: crx or zip(of proper structure) can be simply drag-n-drop-ed to extensions without unpacking and further warning.

But even so right now i have three UNPACKED extensions and no warning at start. Additionally i just tested all three types of installation source and no any warning appears. Supermium was cleanly installed few day ago on VM with vanilla+ Win7 SP1 and completely reset right before this test (User Data deleted).

And that is what i have right after startup (source of installed extension from right of browser window)

 ^{btw StyleBot was installed as unpacked-signed - its id match real one}

for you info

- _crx file_ - always signed and will be installed as regular extension. Web store do exactly crx installation, but from trusted source. Local is untrusted so dev-mode should be enabled for installation (can be disabled after) - _zip file_ - can be installed as "signed" and as unsigned, but always as unpacked. Unsigned is often, while "signed" case require certain data and can turn regular extension to unpacked on such update. Dev-mode should be enabled for installation and working, when disabled all such extensions will be removed - _folder_ - same as zip files, but have additional restricts/jokes for internal structure

[win32ss]

I removed pop-up warnings by default on the basis that users would be aware of the flags and switches they are using.

But I don't see the need to allow third-party sources by default, at least not at this time. In the future, Google will remove all MV2 extensions from CWS, but I think the remaining MV2 users will be fine to use the alternative methods