Block Websites on Google Chrome using Extensions

There are some Chrome extensions that can be used to block websites and all of them are available for free. However, here at this post, I will only pick two of them that I consider to be the most effective and user friendly. Those extensions are Block It and Chrome Nanny

Block It

Block It is a great Chrome extension that can help you to blocking access to some sites. It is very easy to setup. The setting page is very simple and not complicated. To block websites using this chrome extension, all you need is only add the blocked websites address (URL) to the list (one website per line) then click the block button bellow the list and everything is done.

You can also use wild card to completely block all websites without exceptions. Just type “*” (without quote) into the list and all websites will be blocked. However, if you want to add some exceptions, you can type “+” followed by the website address each line below the “*” mark. For example, you want to block all sites except Twitter and Facebook, type “*” on the top of list then type “+twitter.com” on a new line and type “+facebook.com” again in the new line. Don’t forget to click Block button to save the changes. Look at the following figure for detail.

BlockIt also allows you to change the display message when the site is blocked using your own custom message. Type the message into the box the click the Change button. You can also redirect the blocked websites to another website using custom redirection. For example, you can redirect blocked pages to Google or other websites you want.

The great thing about BlockIt is it allows you to protect the configuration page using password. At the first time accessing the configuration page, you will see a login page. The default password is blank at the first. You can change the password later through the configuration page.

If you want to try BlockIt, you can add it to your Google Chrome browser via Softpedia. Makes sure you have an internet connection to install it.

Replacing Notepad.exe

l

You want to use your favorite text editor rather than Notepad.  It seems like you could just rename the exe of your favorite to “notepad.exe” and drop it into the Windows directory.  But it won’t work.

First your favorite text editor may not be composed of just one exe file.  Second Windows regards Notepad as part of its installation and Windows Protection will overwrite your text editor at some point.

But there is a way to do it and here it is:

(I’m using Notepad++ as my example text editor. You can alter the various paths and file names to suite your own situation.)

1. Create a cmd file containing these two lines:

@echo off 
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" %2 %3 %4 %5 %6

Save it in the Notepad++ folder. Call it npplauncher.cmd

2. Open regedit and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\

3. Add a key under “Image File Execution Options”. Name the key ”notepad.exe”.

4. To the key add a string value with the name “Debugger” and the value “C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\npplauncher.cmd”.

That should do it.  Now just double-click a txt file or type “notepad myfile.txt” at the command line and your text editor will open instead of Notepad.