Reviews & Comments of uMatrix chrome extension

WOW! For years I've had to tolerate all the GARBAGE Fox News loads on its web pages. With this extension, I was able to eliminate all the parts I DON'T want to see. So no more ads. A lot less images. Just the story and the comments. That's it! The extension is a little complex at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's VERY cool. (And like most people, I didn't read the documentation - so if it was "complex", it could be mostly my own fault!) One thing I'd recommend is a "quick start" example. Put up a sample web page and walk users through how to filter out different parts. But bottom line - this does EXACTLY what I was hoping it would do. +++++

Humbly stating I provide super geek services, I red/blue team, audit and certify HIPAA/HITECH, PCI-DSS 3.2, and SOC II type2. I use three tracker/adblockers. Ublock origin, NoScript, and uMatrix. Ublock doesn't provide a clear interface for exactly what blocking is occurring in the background, while it does provide an interface to show you what sites were pinged, I frequently find I am required to disable it, before the functionality of a website works correctly. No Script is much more simple and fluid, I would recommend for the intermediate tech savvy, you can quickly trust a single tab, or you can "temp trust, always trust, or never trust" each website that the current one connects to such as ad servers and content delivery networks. If set the always temp trust the site you go to, and are willing to toggle a few permissions, you can lock in your choices and export/import/sync with browsers. Import and exports are not cross browser compatible, but are if using same framework (Chrome to MSEdge / EpicPrivacy / Adblock / (Opera / OperaGX are CHINESE OWNED) and Firefox to Firefox_Focus / Brave / TOR_Preconfigured / Waterfox). uMatrix has similar export features and is more fine grained and configurable per-site and domain. Offers ability to use the highest rate block list should you choose to, this is for the more technically savvy who seek fine grain control, all things considered, if you are only going to use one, this is the one I take the time to configure the way I like and it always puts the "ad site / bad sites blocked at the bottom. It also has a greater visibility into what is happening and a much greater fine grained control.

Learning curve is a bit steep, but it seems like amazing tool so far.

概念很棒，但是内置拦截规则不行。开了之后包括Youtube，gmail，哔哩哔哩，pornhub等绝大多数常用网站都无法正常使用。也没有黑名单模式，所以就只能关了吧

A great security app, but a real pain at times. Every time I go a site for the first time I have to make sure I turn off either specific elements or uMatrix as a whole if I trust it, then save it. I also find it's a little too "trigger happy" when I click on a link from an email or site I trust. Case in point, if I have a link to a tracking site regarding an order, if I click the link uMatrix will block it. I have to go into my settings, turn off uMatrix, click the link to track my order then turn uMatrix back on again. Perhaps there's something I've missed in the settings, and I understand why it exists in the first place, but it can be frustrating when I know a link/site is safe.

It just worked! Wow. Seriously impressed. These days extensions overpromise and under deliver. this is the opposite.

If you need help.. great little tutorial here https://proprivacy.com/privacy-service/guides/lifehacks-setup-umatrix-beginners

the best security extension just got a few updates. i do hope it can make a permanent comeback though. thankfully it did get a few maintenance patches. lets hope umatrix can see a reason to keep being alive and well...

If you want pretty, it will cost you. Professionals don't care about looks, we want power and versatility. This thing replaces every other script blocker with less resource consumption than any given one. Feedback: I recommend the developer create some reminder that you're spoofing by default, that seems to be a common sticking point. (Color the button blue/yellow?) You will also eliminate 90% or more of all dissatisfaction with a 5 second graphic showing people how clicking "all" from red to blank to green works. Most of the complaints don't even know why they're using this, let alone how.

Its good, but extremely annoying. I have to disable it a bit on every website I use regularly. Still nice.

The best way to see what a page is doing or hanging on. All browsers should have this by default.

I can't believe this is made by someone from Quebec ! Used it for years with uBlock Origin.

uMatrix is awesome. I have used uBlock for a long time, and it feels like it's functionality has slowly eroded as websites get more advanced at detecting adblockers. uMatrix really brings control back. I'll echo what others say that there is a bit of a learning curve, but after about a day I mostly got it. Basic website functionality usually works right out of the box, with many more advanced / interactive features requiring some permission adjustments. I've grown to really like this though - it really strips out the fluff from most websites.

I love that this extension is available if I ever need it but for now I'll stick to *uBlock Origin* with it's default block lists that auto update from the publishers for those block lists. This is an extremely powerful extension & I always appreciate the ability to install this if I had the need in the future but for now I'm going to remove it & stick with the more basic *uBlock Origin* (but also a rabbit hole in it's own right:) ..

Literally upon adding this extension and testing it on youtube it prevents the videos from loading properly. Removed.

Fully granular information and control. Perfect.

This is a great extension. One thing hope to improve in the future version, add a color theme to support dark mode, currently with dark mode, some text and icon not able to see. thx!

There's a really minor learning curve (much less than it looks like at the outset), but on the other side is a great sense of empowerment over a faster, safer web, with so much of what the browser does "out of sight" now controlled by you, the user, not the sites you're visiting (or the iframes & tag managers they've included!).

This is the best, most ingenious extension ever! Finally you can control your browser instead of the browser controlling you! Choose what data you allow and block what you don't want. No more pages killing your PC, eating up your CPU, memory, hard drive, endangering your security! uMatrix lets you block or allow every element of the page with fine precision! Raymond Hill, you should get the Medal of Freedom for writing this gem!!!

How does this not have more reviews. This is a game changing extension. YOU now have complete control (and can see) everything that is trying to come through when you go to a site. Don't forget to ad Ublock by the same developer.

Amazing extension. I feel like I am in control again.

If it could just sync. I'm using it on Chrome and uni desktops that reset the settings every time. It's unusable for this purpose, MS Office web portal needs so much whitelisting every time that it's just unpractical. I have to remove it.

Excellent, fine-grained way to control what your browser does.

Easy to use and works perfectly. Thanks :D

Its working great! I use NoScript as well for extra options.

top

This is a really great granular tool to stop snooping and malicious websites (and those that carry malware like Google). Although not really needed at ethical sites like Gab, you certainly do on unethical sites like Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest. Privacy is your friend.

For advanced users, but it's the best blocker I've ever found.

Must have chrome and cross-platform extension even though i have yet to use the Firefox version. I'll add that I love NoScript but actually prefer the ui and structure of features in uMatrix.. there is no one config that fits all websites or use cases so you'll need to familiarize yourself unless you want to tweak and toggle it on and off as needed. Would love to see a donate link.

good extension but i dont know how to use this app...my activities and browser has been managed by my organization..please help me

In a word: clean. Clean, elegant design. Clean, fast, and effective. Clean webpages! The ability to customize what is allowed to load on a webpage is something I dreamed about for years, and uMatrix is the realization of the dream. The amount of scripts, tracking sites, etc. that sites bundle in these days is bizarre; you know something is wrong when you hear your laptop fan running fast whenever you visit a news site. Thank you Raymond!!! I am still looking for a way to export my settings for back up and transfer to other devices, since getting the settings right for each site is a significant investment of time. Perhaps a feature that could be added in the future.

Designed for expert users, and provides control for those users

Powerful Tools for blocking unwanted site, GOOD JOB !

Litterally the best extension for blocking everything in your browser-life.

uMatrix is among the extensions/addons I install in all my browsers/profiles. I consider it a must-have when browsing the web. I recommend it for anyone who wants to inspect/control the scripts the run on any web page. And it is FLOSS (free/libré open source software)!

Best chrome extension ever I have full control everything anywhere in web Thanks for making it It will be better if the extension has an option for blocking GIF

OK I have had huge issues with uMatrix abritrarily blocking certain elements in some sites, even if I add all the exceptions or even turn off the filtering for the entire site. I have finally figured out what is going on. If anyone else encounters this, right click the uMatrix icon, and click "Options" to open the uMatrix Dashboard. Now find the option "Spoof HTTP referrer string of third-party requests" at the bottom of the main "Settings" tab, and uncheck it. So far, I have found that doing this has fixed all of the issues I had previously encountered.

all i am trying to do is block a certain annoying element from showing that comes up only as you mouse over thumbnails. by all indication i would think i have the right extension for the job and yet i could not for the life of me get it to do just that.

Glad that the default settings are mild / moderate. It did not seem to be the case a while back when I was testing it the first time. Just broke anything and everything and you had to do the unbreaking. Now it works the other way around and that's the approach I like, but to each its own. Maybe a switch for that one.

Do you enjoy reviewing permissions when installing apps to your smartphone? If not, then use an ad blocker like uBlock Origin instead of uMatrix. Both are published by the same author, but uBlock Origin has a much smoother experience, excellent default filters, almost install and forget. If you know about web development, enjoy complex jigsaw puzzles and cackle quietly when you deny advertisers your computing resources, then uMatrix is ideal for you! When you visit a website, it categorizes every resource requested (cookies, styles, images, media, background requests, etc.) and organizes them in a grid by type and domain. It accepts everything from the visited domain (except if blacklisted), and lets you click the grid to flexibly accept/deny resources from a different domain. If you save your choices, the website will work fine on subsequent visits. Sounds simple, right? WELL, IT ISN'T! Repeat the above for each domain you visit, and get used to unbreak complex websites by unblocking a script, refreshing, noticing that script requested additional resources from yet another domain, unblock something else, refresh... surely it will work now... sigh. You still want to try it? Please do. It is a unique extension and deserves to be seen in action. If you use an ad blocker, disable it while you test so you can see the differences.

It was fine at first while using it, but in time, I realised some legitimate websites, even on client's websites, don't load correctly and I had to disable blocking on each individual websites. It got a little tedious after doing a few times. I wished it had a setting to allow all websites and block individually instead of the other way around.

I absolutely love this extension. Not for everyone but it provides me an unmatched level of, relatively easy, control of what or who my browser communicates with.

I prefer this to uBlock origin. Although it's more geared towards advanced users. With it, you have your own little firewall on every page. Setting up the pages you regularly view with permissions, (or recipes) takes just a few seconds. Save and that's it. You are all set.

thanks keep developing

very nice

LOVE THIS. the granularity vs chrome controls is fantastic. Only thing I cant find an explanation for is the coloured corners of some cells: cookie, css, image, script, frame?

It repeatedly forgot all settings. Super annoying!

excellent

Control each web page to your liking. Honestly this is one of the best extensions.

Best thing ever for manual web control... You dont have to disable Javascript for the whole page, block what ever you want.

I have a love/hate relationship with uMatrix. It blocks everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. I had to disable it just to post this review until I figured out what I needed to whitelist to login to Google. The good news is that this maximizes your privacy and security. The bad news is that you're going to spend a LOT of time upfront using trial-and-error to figure out which elements to whitelist in order to fix websites that uMatrix broke. The interface is very well done, but it can be a time-consuming and fiddly process. And that's assuming you even realize a website is broken, because sometimes it's not obvious, for instance on a page that's supposed to autoload new content when you get to the bottom. uMatrix can block this behavior, and you may not even realize it's happening if it's your first time visiting that particular website. Thankfully you can export your configuration file and easily import it into another browser, or enable the "cloud storage" feature for automatic syncing, but it would be nice if there were pre-made community definitions that could be added as default so that uMatrix would "just work" without the user having to configure everything by hand.

Took a few mins to figure out how to use it, but it's much more powerful than ScriptBlock or other JS blockers I have used in the past. One recommendation - make the "Green" a little brighter to help out us color blind folk.

absolutely outstanding

get rid of FB tracking at all sites

Yes there is some config involved, but I would never be without uMatrix!

Best content blocker currently.

Ruleset wiped for the second time in 3 months.

The best "firewall" for your browser.

Not for the faint-of-heart, but an incredibly useful and powerful tool for helping reduce massively proliferant web tracking analytics. On a personal note: thank you so much for updating the Google AdServices blocking page to include various variables like "adurl"... which now contains a hyperlinked version of the non-molested URL I was intending to go to in the first place!!!

Thank you very much for nice and very-very useful program

Can't live without this now. Less invasive and more intuitive than NoScript. Thanks Mr Hill!

Excellent tool to deal with internet we live with. Easy and convenient way to control privacy.

The UI unexpectedly changed, it looks ugly, is confusing, looks like a weird graphical glitch.(Which for the last few days i assumed it was until i realized there was a method to the madness)

uMatrix is an invaluable tool for anyone who cares about privacy. It's both amazingly simple and easy to use (go with the defaults that provide maximum privacy) and customizable (if the defaults break a page, it's very easy to adapt the settings to work with a page). A great aspect of uMatrix is that you can see what a site is trying to do to you. My one and ONLY complaint is that it isn't HTTP Switchboard. This, of course, isn't really a complaint. It's a tip of the hat to what Mr. Hill has done and to say that I can't wait for HTTP Switchboard to be available for Chrome.

uMatrix is an outstanding extension and will always be a part of my arsenal for viewing web content along with New Tab Direct and Adblock +. No, it is not the most user friendly in terms of 'ease-of-use' to the casual user but it will reward those users, with the time and patience to learn, with a very capable tool. Many thanks to Raymond Hill and team (if any).

This is by far the best ad blocking solution I've tried since AdMuncher. Definitely a keeper. It would be even better if you could have the filters stored in the cloud and by creating an username and signing into the extension would sync your filters throughout all your browsers used on different computers and platforms.

solid

An amazing app that seems overpowered at times (only because of my ineptitude) 5/5

up-to-date and fine grained content blocking extension

takes some time to experiement and learn what everything does.. but you will learn quickly.. works wonderful with ublock origin and scriptsafe for complete privacy control

Excellent!

A bit of a learning curve, but a truly exceptional product.

I swear sometimes I hate this extension so much... But it's not its fault, it requires loads of patience and extensive configuration per site... The feature that blocks loading some webpages is the one that annoys me the most, and it's hard to pinpoint which setting is blocking it.

Pretty Amazing tool!I must admit I do not know what everything is, and sometimes its a try this nope not that unblock this trial and error for me.. But that said having complete and total control over what is allowed dis great! I wish it had a better UI, some training or details on things for non coders like me, and also I do not have the Statistics page in options i'd really like..

uMatrix can't even disable the script THIS website (the animated slide shows in Chrome Web Store). I am so damned frustrated with Google, and disappointed with this extension. Is there NO WAY at all to stop animated / visually dynamic web content on a case-by-case basis? Google sure as hell doesn't care about users with crippling ADD. Google has gotten just as bad as their competitors, allowing their advertisers to shove ads down our throats, at the expense of the users. Time to dump Chrome and google all together, and move to Firefox (which has the built-in ability to disable animated gifs, for starters!)

It's NoScript for Chrome. Just what I needed.

THE web browser filter. once you get used to the interface (little difficult, but doable without instruction) you will agree. best interface out of anything i've ever seen, once i got used to it. now i thoroughly enjoy using it.

Many thanks to the developer! A must for secure browsing.

Very good! Albeit always room for improvement and thinking outside the box - uMatrix and uBlock Origin are what every internet browser should use.

Exceptional extension, once you get used to it and understand what everything means. Below you have 10 easy steps to import NoScript's Whitelist into uMatrix (especially if that list is long - like mine was, since I came to Chrome from Firefox): 1) export NoScript's Whitelist to a text file, from within NoScript (if you didn't do that already) 2) edit that textfile using Notepad++ 3) select all with CTRL+A 4) click Search/Replace from the menu and tick Regular Expression 5) type "\n" for "Find what:" textbox and " * allow\n* " for "Replace with:" textbox (without quotes, but including spaces) 6) click Replace All, close the dialog, modify the first and the last line in the list to match how the other lines look, then copy the modified contents of the text file again, using CTRL+A 7) go to My Rules tab within uMatrix's Options (Dashboard) 8) click Edit in the Temporary Rules column 9) paste the text you copied at step 6) at the end of the already existing temporary rules 10) click Save, then Commit in the Temporary Rules column That's it - now you have the whitelist from NoScript into your uMatrix extension. You can then make any further modification to the settings in that list on an individual basis, which is much easier than having to rebuild that list from scratch all over again...

cant over lay block

Very good script blocker and easy to use. It even has a helpful colour-blind mode which has a good colour-schematic

Does exactly what is expected, does it better than Not Script ever did, and is much easier to use than No Script for Firefox. -- Browsing the unknown with this Application Firewall provides a level confidence that you cannot put a price on.

BEST . it exactly did what scriptsafe could not.

Overall this app works as stated, but there is no (or no obvious) element chooser to allow us to identify what elements we want on or off on the page and where they match up on the uMatrix chart. Without that, and considering the ever-increasing functionality websites provide for users, this app is more paranoid than useful.

This changed my web live. Thanks!

One of my tech savvy friends recommended this extension along with Ublock as opposed to Adblock and I enjoy both. My one complaint is that sometimes the dropdown takes a few clicks before it actually shows.

This worked well immediately after installing. If your browsing is more casual and you don't feel the need for all of uMatris's features then try the uBlock by this same author. uMatrix makes browsing much safer. I can use the Internet with confidence again.

I've been using this AWESOME extension alongside uBlock Origin for quite a while. uMatrix definitely isn't made for those who aren't tech savvy because it requires a lot of user input that can be confusing for those who aren't familiar with what it does. In my opinion, this combination is essential for browser security and better overall browsing in general. Thank you for your awesome work, Raymond!

Noscript tag are not taken into account when js is blocked. I don't like it.

Works great. Once you understand the interface it's pretty easy to make quick changes to what you want to allow or block on each webpage individually or globally.

I use wowhead.com a lot, like many other WoW players and needed something to stop the junk that would run on the site. This extension was recommended and after installing and figuring out what was absolutely needed, MUCH better and cleaner. Simple but powerful interface that was easy to figure out. Red = bad, green = allow.

Simply brilliant. I love the control it gives me, while being actually easy to handle.

Especially in these days where half of every website is trying to force feed video adds down your throat and justify it by saying "hey, at least we don't auto-start them with the volume on full blast", this should be a feature in all browsers instead of an extension that you have to discover and add yourself.

Great app for advanced users that want precise control over their web footprint. It takes a bit of time to get a good rule set together, but the time invested feels like it really pays off after the first few weeks of use. Even if you choose not to be selective in what 3rd party connections you allow/disallow, it is eye-opening to see the interconnections that are being made with every page load, and where your personal information is potentially going. Thanks for making such a powerful and useful app!

Best there is in JS control. But requires some learing, and may scare or annoy inexperienced users.

Garbage. Uninstalled.

Awesome!

This is a great app if you want to save on bandwidth. there is a learning curve but once you learn it, this is an amazing extension

I have used NoScript in Firefox and use uBlock Origin in Chrome for Ads. I tred uMatrix but found it was far too frustrating to use. I spent more time allowing scripts for websites to function properly than I actually spent visiting them. I just keep allowing scripts etc to run to get a website to run properly. Too much granularity.

Sorry, this would be a great extension, except that about 80% of the time, the interface bugs out. I'm not sure how to describe it other than that it glitches so that you can only see the bottom of the list, and you don't have access to any of the controls. What a shame. Its functions were exactly what I was looking for, but the glitching makes it a pita.

When i switched from Firefox to Chronium, really missed the NoScript addon. NoMatrix, while different, is pretty close to it. The way it works is very convenient and in some way much easier to sue than NoScript. But what i would love to see, is a more in-depth setting, esp. for scripts. The on/off setting is sometimes not sufficient as it blocks some scripts required to work.

YouTube's flash player goes blank