Real Desktop Browser

[UdiBerry]

I'm looking for a browser that will display the desktop versions of sites, and will "trick" sites to believe I'm browsing from a PC.
The 'Desktop Mode' of most browsers is hit or miss and usually doesn't work.
So far I've tried Firefox, Chrome, Desktop FullScreen, Puffin, Samsung Internet, Dolphin, Opera - non of them worked.

When I had an iPhone there was an app called Desktop Browser by Spicy Apps and it worked perfectly (especially with my bank and credit card websites). Unfortunately they don't make an Android version
Any suggestions for a similar app?

 

[Rukbat]

I run both a desktop and a phone version of my site, detecting which kind of browser connected. Firefox always gets the proper site. So I suspect that your problem is something other than the browser not identifying itself properly. (The only thing the browser can do is send a header to the site identifying the browser - there's no magic. Maybe the fact that you just can't use some sites in desktop mode on some phone screens is what's causing your problem. [This site, in Firefox as a desktop browser, is just about totally unusable. That's not the fault of the site or Firefox, it's the fault of trying to pour a quart of milk into a pint bottle.])

 

[chanchan05]

Mercury Browser claims to be able to spoof user agents between Android/Desktop/iOS. So maybe you can try it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ilegendsoft.mercury&hl=en

It seems to have not been updated in a while though.

You can manually change the user agent on some browsers though. You can do it on firefox. There are instructions this LINK. Just scroll down to option 3.

 

[UdiBerry]

@Rukbat
Thanks!
Yeah, the "problem" is that websites detect the screen resolution and "know" that I'm browsing from a mobile phone. I want to bypass this detection...
The iOS app I mentioned above did it perfectly.



@chanchan05
Thanks!
I've downloaded Mercury, but it's not working unfortunately...
The other option might work, but if I understand correctly it'll change the agent permanently, and because Firefox is my main browser I'd prefer to avoid it.

 

[chanchan05]

You can have two instances of Firefox. One is the beta, then the other is regular Firefox. Just download both then set one to be desktop and the other as mobile.

 

[UdiBerry]

That's a great idea @chanchan05 !
I'll give it a try!

 

[mlblack16]

I'm looking for a browser that will display the desktop versions of sites, and will "trick" sites to believe I'm browsing from a PC.
The 'Desktop Mode' of most browsers is hit or miss and usually doesn't work.
So far I've tried Firefox, Chrome, Desktop FullScreen, Puffin, Samsung Internet, Dolphin, Opera - non of them worked.

When I had an iPhone there was an app called Desktop Browser by Spicy Apps and it worked perfectly (especially with my bank and credit card websites). Unfortunately they don't make an Android version
Any suggestions for a similar app?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser

Try Dolphin

I've used it for years

 

[UdiBerry]

I've tried every suggestion in this thread, but still no go...

Any other ideas?

 

[HalexK]

I've tried every suggestion in this thread, but still no go...

Any other ideas?

None. But I want to clarify that the problem is not in avoiding the browser opening the mobile version of a website, but making sure what you see on the mobile screen is 1:1 the same as what you see on the desktop of comparable screen resolution. E.g on Amazon the desktop shows 4 columns of content. On a mobile phone even in the landscape QHD only 3...

 

[towardsdawn]

The best solution I've found is as follows (thanks to this StackOverflow thread)

1) Download Firefox beta or nightly
2) go to about:config
3) set devPixelsPerPx to 1, turn on desktop mode

This spoofs the resolution and also spoofs the user agent, works for most sites