Get started with Firefox - An overview of the main features
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Welcome to Firefox! We'll show you all the basics to get you up and running. When you're ready to go beyond the basics, check out the other links for features you can explore later.
Table of Contents
- 1 New Tab page: great content at your fingertips
- 2 Search everything with the unified search/address bar
- 3 Page actions menu: Bookmark, snap, save or share
- 4 Private Browsing with Tracking Protection: browse fast and free
- 5 Keep your Firefox in sync
- 6 Home is just a click away
- 7 Customize the menu or the toolbar
- 8 Set or change your home page
- 9 Search the web
- 10 Bookmark a website
- 11 Find everything with the Awesome Bar
- 12 Private Browsing
- 13 Customize the menu or the toolbar
- 14 Add features to Firefox with add-ons
- 15 Keep your Firefox in sync
- 16 Get help
New Tab page: great content at your fingertips
By default, Firefox gives you access to great content every time you open a new tab. Customize this page by hovering over the sections and thumbnails or click the gear icon for more options.
Search everything with the unified search/address bar
Whether you know the exact web address or just searching, the unified Awesome Bar handles it all. Firefox's URL bar gives you suggestions based on your existing bookmarks and tags, history, open tabs, and popular searches. How's that for Awesome? Just start typing in a search or url and watch the magic happen.
Page actions menu: Bookmark, snap, save or share
Find a really great web page? Save or share them. The Page Actions menu in the address bar lets you bookmark web pages, copy or email links, take screenshots, and send pages to your phone or to your Pocket list so you can read them whenever and wherever you want.
Private Browsing with Tracking Protection: browse fast and free
Browse the Internet without saving any information on your computer about which sites and pages you’ve visited. Firefox will also block creepy trackers that follow your behavior across the Web.
- Click the menu button and then click right-clickcontrol + click on a link on a web page, then click .) . (Tip: You can also
Keep your Firefox in sync
Set up Firefox Accounts so you can take your browsing information with you wherever you go. Click the menu button , choose
and follow the instructions to create your account. Then sign in to the newly-created account on your other devices and that's it!Home is just a click away
Choose the page that opens when you start Firefox or click the Home button.
- Open a tab with the web page you want to use as your home page.
- Drag and drop that tab onto the Home button .
Customize the menu or the toolbar
We've streamlined the toolbar with the most popular features but Firefox has even more features tucked away. Take a peek!
- Click the menu button and choose .
- Drag and drop the features you want onto your toolbar or the panel on the right.
- When you are done, click the button.
Set or change your home page
Choose the page that opens when you start Firefox or click the Home button.
- Open a tab with the webpage you want to use as your home page.
- Drag and drop that tab onto the Home button .
- Click to set this as your home page.
More options can be found in the home page article.
Search the web
Pick your favorite search engine with Firefox's built-in Search bar.
- Just start typing into the search bar and pick the search engine you want.
Learn more search tricks with the Search bar article.
Bookmark a website
Save your favorite sites.
- To create a bookmark, click the star in the toolbar. The star will turn blue and a bookmark for the page you're on will be created in the Unsorted BookmarksOther Bookmarks folder. That's it!
For more information, see the bookmarks article.
Find everything with the Awesome Bar
We like to call Firefox’s address bar the "Awesome Bar" because it quickly finds places you've visited before.
- Start typing in the address bar and you'll see a list of pages from your browsing history and bookmarks. When you see the page you want, just click on it.
To learn more tricks, see the Awesome Bar article.
Private Browsing
Firefox’s Private Browsing feature allows you to browse the Internet without saving any information on your computer about which sites and pages you’ve visited.
- Click the menu button and then click
Learn more about how Private Browsing works.
Customize the menu or the toolbar
You can change the items that appear in the menu or your toolbar.
- Click the menu button The image "new fx menu" does not exist. and choose
- A special tab will open which allows you to drag and drop items in or out of the menu and the toolbar.
.
- When you are done, click the green button.
Learn more about customizing Firefox.
Add features to Firefox with add-ons
Add-ons are like apps that you can install to make Firefox work the way you want.
- Click the menu button , click and select .
- To see more information on a Featured Add-on or Theme, click it. You can then click the green
- You can also search for specific add-ons by using the search box at the top. You can then install any add-ons you find with the
button to install it.
- You can also search for specific add-ons by using the search box at the top. You can then install any add-ons you find with the
- Firefox will download the requested add-on and may ask you to confirm that you want to install it.
- Click if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart.
- Click the menu button , click and select .
- To install a featured add-on, click the grey toggle button, which will turn green. To uninstall an add-on you just installed, click the toggle button again.
At the bottom of the list of featured add-ons, there's a addons.mozilla.org where you can search for specific add-ons.
button you can click. It will take you toTo learn more about add-ons, see Find and install add-ons to add features to Firefox.
Keep your Firefox in sync
Access your bookmarks, history, passwords and more from any device.
- First create a Firefox account:
- Click the menu button and choose and follow the instructions to create your account.
- Then just sign in to connect another device.
For detailed instructions, see How do I set up Sync on my computer?
Get help
If you have more questions or ever need help with Firefox, you're on the right website.
- This site has hundreds of articles that cover nearly every Firefox question you might have.