Along with HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of three programming languages that can be read natively by browsers. Under this condition, these languages are the pillar of almost all current web pages. However, for one reason or another you may want to disable the latter. Therefore, in this article we will show you how to disable JavaScript in your Safari, Chrome and Firefox browsers. But first, we will analyze the risks that this implies.
Please note this before disabling JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that came to light in 1995 and that, since then, has been evolving and perfecting itself. Thanks to its great versatility, this language is used when creating web pages with Google Sites, WordPress, Draftium and many other platforms, which is why it has become one of the most used languages on the web today.
In fact, according to an analysis by w3techs.com, 95% of current pages use this language and many of them do not have an alternative version that works without these scripts.
For this reason, the execution of content in this language is activated by default in all browsers. If you wish to disable it, whether for security or other reasons, keep in mind that the vast majority of the pages you visit will not display much of its content. What’s more, you probably won’t even be able to scroll through websites properly.
How to disable JavaScript in your browser
With the above in mind, we will now show you how to disable JavaScript in three of the most used browsers today. If you don’t want to make such an extreme decision, you can also install a Chrome extension that helps you better control the scripts that pages run. We recommend ScriptSafe. In any case, if you wish to disable JavaScript, we will show you below.
Google Chrome
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click on the three dots (More) located in the upper right corner. Then select “Settings.”
- Scroll down to the “Privacy and Security” section and select the “Website Settings” option.
- Finally, in the “Content” section, click on the “JavaScript” option and press the blue button to disable it.
Another option is to block web pages in Google Chrome that you don’t want any of your family members to access.
MozillaFirefox
- After accessing the browser, select the icon of the three parallel bars (Menu) located in the upper right corner.
- Click on “Options”. Next, click on “Content”.
- Uncheck the “Enable Javascript” box. If you wish, you can also access the “Advanced” menu to manipulate certain aspects of this type of content.
- To finish, close the configuration page to save the changes.
The above method will be the easiest to disable JavaScript. Now, if for one reason or another you could not access said panel, here we show you a slightly more complicated route.
- In Firefox, go to the following page: “about:config”. If this is the first time you access it, you will get a warning. Uncheck the box so that the warning does not appear again and confirm that you accept the risks.
- In the search bar that appears, type “JavaScript.enabled” and press “Enter”.
- Right click on the result of the same name and select “Modify” or “Toggle”. JavaScript will now be disabled, which you can confirm by seeing the word “Modified” in the “Status” column.
- If you want to activate it again, repeat the same process and click on “Modify”.
These are the two methods that exist to disable JavaScript in Firefox. Regarding the last one, we advise you not to manipulate any other option unless you know exactly what you are doing.
apple-safari
- Enter the browser and click on the “Preferences” option.
- Select “Security.”
- Uncheck the “Allow JavaScript” box.
- Close the settings tab to save your changes.
And that’s how easy it is to disable all the content of web pages programmed in this language, and if at any time it becomes necessary, you just have to re-enable JavaScript in any Web browser. We hope that this tutorial has helped you, not only to disable JavaScript in your browser, but also to learn a little more about how web pages work.
