Can the "New Private Window" setting be triggered accidentally?
I'm in big trouble. My wife keeps seeing the "New Private Window" icon in the "customize" drop box, but I didn't put it there or apply that setting. She drags it out of the box, and then a few days later when she opens Firefox again, she sees that icon in there again. She thinks I am using this setting to secretly look at porn, but I wasn't even aware this "New Private Window" setting existed until she showed me. Is there a way this could be getting activated randomely? It might have been on an outdated version of Firefox, and not the most current. I need an plausible explanation or my marriage could be in jeopardy. Seriously.
Thanks for any help.
All Replies (3)
Firefox stores the toolbar customization in the browser.uiCustomization.state pref.
Is that the only icon that keeps reappearing?
Note that there is still the "New Private Window" item in the File menu (press F10 or tap Alt), so even if you would remove this button then you would still be able to open a PB mode window with a few key presses (Ctrl+Shift+P).
Note that PB mode can still be useful if you shop for a present or if you access a bank site to prevent storing data in the cache or history.
There is software like Advanced SystemCare with its Surfing Protection feature that can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.
You can check for problems with preferences.
You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
I tried opening the "New Private Window" item in the file menu, and also the Ctrl+Shift+P key sequence, but those just open the new window. They don't add the icon to the "customize" drop down box. However, I just updated Firefox and restored the defaults yesterday. Is it possible in a previous version that opening this through the file menu would have added the icon to the drop down box? And in previous versions, did it open up an obvious page stating that it's a New Private Window, like it does now? Perhaps she was opening these by mistake instead of clicking "New Window" and not realizing it. Also, I think the "printer" icon was also in the customize drop down box. She said there were a few, but doesn't remember which ones.
It's possible that the customization preferences were corrupted, such that they would keep reverting to the same state after closing and opening Firefox. It shouldn't be possible to have the new private window button add itself to the menu- unless it was manually added at least once (perhaps accidentially) and then kept getting re-added automatically due to corrupt customization preferences. This seems unlikely, but plausible.
That said restoring to defaults should fix this. If it doesn't, a full clean install can. Let me know if restoring to defaults fixed the issue or not.