We have been recently asked frequently about a listing of the hidden system, analytics and configuration URLs that reveal some options and information about the inner workings of a browser. Here we go.
All browsers support several local URLs that can be entered in the location bar to access some additional information of features. While this information may be rather boring for casual users, enthusiasts and developers can use those URLs to retrieve core information about their browser. We will start with Chrome and follow up with all other major browsers within a few days.
Chrome’s best known configuration URL is about:flags, which provides access to all experimental features (there are even more available via switches), but there are several more, which I will list below. Please note that Google recently replaced the about: prefix with chrome://, which means that you can access the flags now via both about:flags as well as chrome://flags (the same goes for all remaining URLs). I only list currently functional URLs.
chrome://appcache-internals
Details about the application cache (particularly useful, if you would like to know how much memory a certain web app occupies). Size, creation/access/update times. You can also delete the cache for certain apps.
chrome://blob-internals
Analytics about binary large objects (blobs).
chrome://chrome-urls and chrome://about and about:about
List of all Chrome URLs.
chrome://crashes
Crash reports are functional, if crash reporting is enabled.
chrome://credits
There is a lot more going on in Chrome than you might think. This page lists all the external features, the license and link to the owner’s website.
chrome://dns
DNS analytics. This page also lists the URLs of DNS prefetches during future Chrome startups.
chrome://flags
Access to all public experimental features.
chrome://flash
Information about the installed flash version, graphics card and driver version.
chrome://gpu-internals
Hardware acceleration data (all graphics features should be accelerated), installed driver and GPU/display features and support. There is also a profiling feature with a record/save/load function.
chrome://histograms
Feature metrics.
chrome://net-internals
This is one of the most useful tools that provides clues about your connectivity. Among others, it provides information about SPDY connections to Google servers, the browser’s http cache, http throttling support, a recently upgraded feature to force secure HTTPS connections to certain servers, as well as information which pages have been pre-rendered by Google.
chrome://plugins
List of all installed and running plugins.
chrome://settings
Quick access to the settings page.
chrome://sync-internals and chrome://sync
Detailed information about the background data sync progress.
chrome://tcmalloc
Statistics of the most recent page reload.
chrome://terms
Terms of service.
chrome://version
Lists browser version, as well as core engine data, including V8 and Webkit versions.
chrome://conflicts
All modules loaded by Chrome
chrome://crash and chrome://kill
Crashes the current tab (for debug purposes)
chrome://hang and chrome://shorthang
Hangs or briefly hangs the current tab (for debug purposes)
