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Google Chrome: Reenable backspace to go back in OS X #

While there are a lot of extensions for restoring backspace (delete on Mac keyboards) to its former glory, why trust an extension when this simple command line argument works?

--enable-blink-features=BackspaceDefaultHandler --test-type

Under Windows, this is as simple as changing the shortcut Target from

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

to

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --enable-blink-features=BackspaceDefaultHandler --test-type

Here are two methods for passing the argument to Chrome under OS X:

Bash: open -b com.google.Chrome --args --enable-blink-features=BackspaceDefaultHandler --test-type

AppleScript: do shell script "open -b com.google.Chrome --args --enable-blink-features=BackspaceDefaultHandler --test-type"

Save either command and run in lieu of Google Chrome.app to restore backspace functionality.

On a related note, here is how to find bundle identifiers / bundle IDs (CFBundleIdentifier):

• Find bundle identifier for Google Chrome.app:
  • $ mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -r /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/
    com.google.Chrome
  • $ mdls /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app | grep kMDItemCF
    kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = "com.google.Chrome"
• Find the application associated with "com.google.Chrome" bundle ID:
  • $ mdfind kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = "com.google.Chrome"
    /Applications/Google Chrome.app

/mac | Aug 28, 2016

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