How to Identify Desktop Browsers via User Agent

Understanding how to identify desktop browsers using user agent strings is an important skill for developers, testers, and digital marketers. A user agent provides essential information about the browser, operating system, and device type used to access your website. In this guide, we’ll explore how to recognize desktop browsers based on their user agent data, with examples and best practices for 2025.

What Is a User Agent?

A user agent is a line of text sent by a browser or application when it requests a web page. This text identifies details about the software and hardware being used. Every major desktop browser—such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari—has a unique user agent format that websites can use to tailor user experiences.

For example, a website might detect whether a visitor is on Windows, macOS, or Linux, and load features optimized for that system.

Structure of a Desktop Browser User Agent

A typical desktop browser user agent includes these key elements:

Mozilla/5.0 (platform; operating system; details) engine/version browser/version

Here’s an example:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/123.0.6312.86 Safari/537.36

Let’s break it down:

• Mozilla/5.0: A compatibility token used by most browsers
• Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64: Operating system and architecture
• AppleWebKit/537.36: Rendering engine
• Chrome/123.0.6312.86: Browser name and version
• Safari/537.36: Compatibility identifier

This combination helps websites determine the browser and device type accurately.

Common Desktop Browser User Agent Examples (2025)

Here are some of the most common desktop browser user agent strings you’ll encounter in 2025.

Google Chrome (Windows)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/123.0.6312.86 Safari/537.36

Mozilla Firefox (Windows)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:125.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/125.0

Microsoft Edge (Windows)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.6261.72 Safari/537.36 Edg/122.0.2365.59

Safari (macOS)

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 13_6) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.3 Safari/605.1.15

Opera (Windows)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/121.0.6167.85 Safari/537.36 OPR/107.0.0.0

These examples show how user agents can differ slightly between browsers but still follow a recognizable structure.

How to Detect Desktop Browsers Programmatically

You can detect desktop browsers using JavaScript or server-side languages like PHP. Below are simple examples.

JavaScript Example

if (!/Mobi|Android/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
  console.log("You’re visiting from a desktop browser!");
}

PHP Example

$userAgent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
if (!preg_match('/Mobi|Android/i', $userAgent)) {
    echo "Desktop browser detected!";
}

These checks look for the absence of mobile indicators like “Mobi” or “Android” in the user agent string.

Why Identifying Desktop Browsers Is Useful

Detecting desktop browsers has several important use cases:

1. Responsive design: Delivering the correct layout for larger screens.
2. Analytics: Understanding the ratio of desktop vs mobile traffic.
3. Testing: Ensuring features work correctly on desktop browsers.
4. Personalization: Serving appropriate content or downloads based on the user’s device.

Best Practices for Using User Agents

• Always use detection responsibly. Avoid fingerprinting or collecting unnecessary data.
• Regularly update your user agent lists since browsers evolve frequently.
• Use feature detection (e.g., via JavaScript) when possible instead of relying solely on user agents.
• Test across multiple browsers to ensure consistent user experiences.

Conclusion

Identifying desktop browsers via user agent strings is a straightforward but valuable technique for web developers and analysts. With a basic understanding of how user agents work and what patterns to look for, you can improve compatibility, analytics accuracy, and user experience.

To explore more up-to-date user agent examples, visit UserAgents.click, your trusted source for the latest browser, device, and automation user agent data.