Extensions and Chrome features
OpenArch runs on Chromium, and every tab is a real Chrome tab. So what you know from Chrome works as in Chrome: extensions from the Chrome Web Store with their buttons, popups and side panels, the password manager, Chrome’s settings and other pages, DevTools, find, printing, downloads and Chrome’s permission prompts. OpenArch adds its sidebar, spaces and command bar around it.
Chrome’s toolbar
Section titled “Chrome’s toolbar”Above the page, each tab shows Chrome’s toolbar: the address field, your extensions’ buttons, the downloads button and Chrome’s menu (⋮). Chrome’s profile button is not there, because in OpenArch the space decides the profile.
To hide the toolbar in every tab, press ⇧⌘D (Ansicht › Chrome-Toolbar ein-/ausblenden) or turn off Settings › Allgemein › Tabs › Chrome-Toolbar in Tabs. Peek cards never have it. In Little OpenArch it is hidden until you click the puzzle piece in its bar.
Extensions
Section titled “Extensions”Installing
Section titled “Installing”- Open the Chrome Web Store: Extensions › Chrome Web Store in the menu bar, or “Chrome Web Store” in the command bar.
- Find the extension and add it, as in Chrome.
An extension goes into the profile of the space you are in. Spaces with another profile do not have it; install it there too if you want it in them. Each profile keeps its own extensions and their settings.
Extensions › Extensions verwalten (or “Extensions verwalten” in the command bar) opens Chrome’s extensions page, where you turn extensions off, change their options or remove them.
Using them
Section titled “Using them”An extension’s button sits in Chrome’s toolbar. As in Chrome, the puzzle piece there lists all of them, and you can pin the ones you want to see. A click on a button opens the extension’s popup. Extensions with a side panel open it beside the page, inside the tab.
These work too:
- Tabs an extension opens (
chrome.tabs) open as OpenArch tabs, in the window you used last. Popup windows that an extension opens stay windows of their own. - Content blockers built on
declarativeNetRequest. - Native messaging, with which extensions talk to an app on the Mac, such as 1Password, Google Drive or Apple Passwords. At every launch, OpenArch copies the connections that Arc and Chrome have set up (from their
NativeMessagingHostsfolders) into its own, so these extensions find their app without setup. A connection OpenArch already has is left as it is.
Your extensions from Arc
Section titled “Your extensions from Arc”There are two ways to bring them over:
- The full import from Arc (Alles übernehmen) takes your installed extensions along, with their settings.
- Extensions › Extensions aus Arc … (also Settings › Import › Extensions aus Arc › Ordner anlegen) makes a pinned folder Extensions aus Arc with one Chrome Web Store link per extension, if you would rather install them fresh. Open each and add it.
The OpenArch extension
Section titled “The OpenArch extension”Chrome’s extensions page lists one extension you did not install: OpenArch. It is part of the app. It tells the sidebar which tabs play audio or video and what, for the player at the bottom of the sidebar, and which tabs share the screen.
Passwords
Section titled “Passwords”Chrome’s password manager saves and fills passwords as in Chrome. Each profile has its own, so a space with another profile has other passwords. To see them, choose Verlauf › Passwörter or “Passwörter” in the command bar. The import from Arc brings your saved passwords along.
Chrome’s own pages
Section titled “Chrome’s own pages”Chrome’s pages, such as chrome://settings or chrome://history, open in a tab like any page. In OpenArch’s own places, the command bar and the sidebar, they are shown as openarch://: openarch://settings is chrome://settings. You can type either. Chrome’s toolbar in the tab keeps showing chrome://.
| Page | Menu item | Command bar | Key |
|---|---|---|---|
chrome://settings |
Extensions › Browser-Einstellungen | “Browser-Einstellungen” | |
chrome://history |
Verlauf › Verlauf anzeigen | “Verlauf” | ⌘Y |
chrome://downloads |
Verlauf › Alle Downloads | “Downloads” | ⌥⌘L |
chrome://password-manager |
Verlauf › Passwörter | “Passwörter” | |
chrome://extensions |
Extensions › Extensions verwalten | “Extensions verwalten” |
Chrome’s history page shows the history of one profile, the one of the space you are in. The command bar searches all of them.
Chrome’s About page (chrome://help) opens OpenArch’s own Über OpenArch window instead, which shows both OpenArch’s and Chromium’s version. Settings › Info shows them too.
Chrome’s menu and shortcuts
Section titled “Chrome’s menu and shortcuts”OpenArch’s own shortcuts come first, as in Arc: a page or Chrome cannot take ⌘T, ⌘L or ⌃Tab. When Chrome’s menu or one of Chrome’s shortcuts asks for something OpenArch does its own way, OpenArch does it its way: a new tab, the address field and tab search open the command bar, and bookmarking the tab pins it. Chrome’s menu has no items for new windows; use OpenArch’s (see Windows).
Video and audio
Section titled “Video and audio”OpenArch’s Chromium is built with the codecs that the standard Chromium Embedded Framework builds leave out: H.264, AAC and HEVC. Videos and audio in these formats play as in Chrome.
Sandbox
Section titled “Sandbox”Pages, the GPU process and the network service run in Chromium’s sandbox, as in Chrome. Every helper process of OpenArch starts the sandbox before it loads Chromium.