Firefox et al. with sites requiring windows?

[Sean]

I'm happy to say that I use Mint about 95% of the time now. But recently I've encountered several websites that seem to absolutely require another operating, for whatever stupid reason. I get various messages telling me to upgrade to a more recent version of Firefox, IE, and sometimes even Opera or Netscape are suggested. Of course I use Firefox and Opera already and have tried Seamonkey and Konquerer, though these sites are so poorly configured that they won't give me access unless I switch to a winblowz computer and use Firefox or Internt Exploiter. This is a pain.

The question: what can I do to make Firefox or Opera (or whatever else runs on Mint, I don't care) report that my computer is running windows or OS X? This has become a major pain, since a couple of sites I want to use will not take my word for it that my browser will work. Any solution that doesn't involve me using a MS product or hacking my way into the sites and fixing them will suffice.

(Now as I typed that, the idea of running XP in a VM came to mind, which I suppose should work, but I'd still rather not do that if there is another answer.)

Thanks for any help, I know there must be a way to do this.

[garda]

You can override the user agent ID string with these simple steps:
1. Enter "about:config" (leaving the quotes) in Firefox address bar.
2. You may get a warning, just answer it by clicking the button that says "I'll be careful, I promise".
3. A page showing a long sheet of available setting entries should then appear.
4. Right-click on the page, and choose New > String.
5. A dialog box will pop up. Enter general.useragent.override and press Enter.
6. Another dialog box will pop up, asking you to enter a value. Paste one of these user agent ID strings, depending on your need:

Firefox 3.0.5 on Windows XP:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008121621 Firefox/3.0.5

MS IE 8 beta on Vista 32-bit:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SU 3.1; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Tablet PC 2.0; .NET CLR 3.5.21022)

MS IE 7 on Vista 32-bit:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SU 3.1; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Tablet PC 2.0; .NET CLR 3.5.21022)

MS IE 7 on Windows XP:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30)

Firefox 3.0.5 on Linux Mint 5 32-bit:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008121621 Linux Mint/5 (Elyssa) Firefox/3.0.5

If you want your Firefox be seen as though it was an IE 7 on Windows XP, for example, paste the fourth UA ID string into the input box.

Please note that the change only lasts for the current session. Your browser user agent ID string will be reverted to its default value once all Firefox windows are closed.

[Sean]

Thank you!
I found a simpler solution before reading your reply, thanks to a helpful person on the Firefox forum. The User Agent Switcher plugin accomplishes the same thing but with only a couple of clicks to switch or switch back the info. Very nice, and did exactly what I needed.

Sean