As the modern web continues to evolve, one lucky trend we are witnessing is the widespread adoption of the HTTPS protocol. This wasn’t the case a few years ago when most websites didn’t enforce HTTPS by default. Previously, we had to rely on browser extensions like HTTPS Everywhere to make sure we browse websites securely. But now, with HTTPS Everywhere enters maintenance mode next yearThis article will teach you how to enable HTTPS-only mode in popular desktop web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
Enable HTTPS Only Mode in Your Browser (2021)
Enable HTTPS Only Mode in Google Chrome
- Open Google Chrome, click the vertical ellipsis menu in the top right and choose Settings from the list of options that appear.
2. Switch to ‘Privacy and security‘ tab from the left sidebar and Click on ‘Security’ in the right panel.
3. Next, scroll down until you find Advanced settings and Enable the ‘Always use secure connections’ toggle. This way Chrome will try to redirect all websites you visit to HTTPS. This toggle is available in Chrome 94 and newer.
4. If you are using an older version of Chrome, you can: enable HTTPS-only mode via a Chrome flag. Visit chrome://flags, enable ‘HTTPS-First Mode Setting’ and restart the browser. You can directly access the flag by pasting the following URL into Chrome’s address bar.
chrome://flags/#https-only-mode-setting
5. After enabling HTTPS only mode, you will see a warning similar to the image below when you visit unsafe HTTP websites. If you trust the website and still want to visit it, click ‘Continue to site’. Clicking the ‘Back’ button will take you to the previous page.
Enable HTTPS Only Mode in Firefox
1. If you are a Firefox user, you must first click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner and select ‘Settings’ to view the Firefox Settings.
2nd. Look for ‘HTTPS Only Mode’ under the Privacy and Security section. Once you are there Select the ‘Enable HTTPS Only Mode in all windows’ toggle.
3. You even have the option to set exceptions for specific websites. Click on ‘Manage Exceptions…’ and add the URLs to the allow list and hit the ‘Save Changes’ button to confirm the list of websites you want to browse in HTTP.
4. If you don’t want to add exceptions manually, always Click the ‘Continue to HTTP Site’ button To access the HTTP web page from a trusted source.
Set HTTPS Only Mode in Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge’s HTTPS-only mode is not widely available yet. Instead, it’s hidden behind an edge flag, and in this tutorial we’ll show you how to access the feature right away.
1. First, visit edge://flags, Enable ‘Automatic HTTPS’and restart the browser.
edge://flags/#edge-automatic-https
2. After enabling the flag, click on the horizontal ellipsis menu and navigate to visit Edge’s Settings page.
3. From the left sidebar, switch to ‘Privacy, search and services’ and Enable ‘Automatically switch to more secure connections with HTTPS’ choice. Also, select the toggle ‘Always switch from HTTP to HTTPS (connection errors may occur more often)’.
4. Now, when you see a connection error for an HTTP website, you can choose to click the HTTP link directly to access the page. Otherwise, Microsoft’s native browser will load secure HTTPS websites going forward.
Turn On HTTPS Only Mode in Safari
Unlike Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, Safari doesn’t have an HTTPS-only mode. However, what he has is automatically switch sites from HTTP to HTTPS if available. This feature is enabled by default with Safari 15 on macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina.
Browse Securely in Your Favorite Web Browser with HTTPS Only Mode
While most websites have switched to HTTPS protocol in 2021, some websites remain a thing of the past with HTTP. If visiting such websites is not something you do often, we hope this tutorial helped you enable HTTPS-only mode in your favorite web browser. To further enhance your privacy, you might consider using a VPN service. Do you have any doubts or questions on the subject? Let us know in the comments section.