Opera contains hidden features that aren't exposed in its user interface. They’re on internal pages, which you can access by typing Opera: into the address bar, followed by the name of the page.

Exploring the Opera: Pages

Opera doesn’t have an internal page that lists all its internal pages, like Firefox’s about:about and Chrome’s chrome://about pages do. If you want to view a list and explore them yourself, you can install the Opera Internal Pages extension. It adds a toolbar button that lists all the pages.

screenshot_01

You can access some of these pages from the standard Opera menu. For example, the opera:about and opera:help pages are the same as the About and Help options in the menu.

Opera:Config

The opera:config page is Opera’s counterpart to Firefox’s famous about:config page. It contains a wide variety of options and tweaks, many of which aren’t available elsewhere in Opera’s user interface.

screenshot_02

The page is completely searchable, so you can quickly find the option you’re looking for. Unlike the confusingly named options on Firefox’s about:config page, Opera’s Preferences Editor page contains options written in plain English.

screenshot_03

Opera:Plugins

The opera:plugins page displays a list of your installed browser plug-ins. You can click the Disable option to disable a plug-in without uninstalling it entirely.

screenshot_12

The “Enable Plug-ins” check box controls whether plug-in support is enabled browser-wide. It’s the same option you’ll find in Opera’s Quick Preferences menu.

screenshot_04

Opera:History & Opera:HistorySearch

The opera:history page displays a different view of your history -- it’s not the same as the History option in Opera’s menu.

screenshot_05

The opera:historysearch page allows you to search your browsing history. Like the search option built into Opera’s standard History page, it offers full-text search of pages.

screenshot_06

Opera:Cache

The opera:cache page allows you to browse Opera’s browser cache, which caches downloaded content to speed up future load times.

screenshot_07

Select a specific website to view its cached files or save them to your computer.

screenshot_08

Opera:Debug

The opera:debug page allows connections to remote Opera Dragonfly sessions. You can use this feature to debug remote Opera systems over the network.

screenshot_13

To connect to another browser from this page, the other Opera user must launch Opera’s Dragonfly developer tool (Opera -> Page -> Developer Tools -> Opera Dragonfly) and enable remote debugging.

screenshot_09

Opera:Drives

The opera:drives page lets you browse your local file system from a web-page-style interface within Opera.

screenshot_10

Opera:MemDebug, Opera:WebStorage and Opera:WebDatabases

The opera:memdebug page breaks down Opera's memory usage. The opera:webstorage and opera:webdatabases pages list websites using Opera’s Web storage and Web database features.

screenshot_11

Opera’s internal Opera: URLs don’t contain fun Easter eggs like Firefox's or experimental  features like Chrome's, but there are a treasure trove of hidden options for you to explore -- particularly on the opera:config page.