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Win7, Firefox 31.0: Now when I open a new tab, besides thumbnails is "Wikipedia", a search box, and a search button -- a HUGE waste of space I want to remove.

  • 2 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 60 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

RixonsWest
RixonsWest
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Running Windows 7, Firefox 31.0.

Now when I open a new tab, I see the thumbnails of the sites I often use -- webmail, phonetics, remoting into work, etc. I want to keep these. I do NOT want a blank page, or a page that defaults to something.

What I also see is "Wikipedia", a search box, and a search button -- a waste of space that I want freed up. That space would be better used for thumbnails of more pages I frequently go to.

This has nothing to do with toolbars, and I've looked high and low in "about:config" and spent hours using search engines to find a solution to this.

I'm conservative about add-ons, plug-ins, etc. I didn't add anything for Wikipedia, which I tend to avoid.

Sorry, but your green "automatically add" button doesn't work -- Firefox prevents it! And the "manual steps" link just gives a copy of this page I'm already using.

-- Rixons West

Running Windows 7, Firefox 31.0. Now when I open a new tab, I see the thumbnails of the sites I often use -- webmail, phonetics, remoting into work, etc. I want to keep these. I do NOT want a blank page, or a page that defaults to something. What I also see is "Wikipedia", a search box, and a search button -- a waste of space that I want freed up. That space would be better used for thumbnails of more pages I frequently go to. This has nothing to do with toolbars, and I've looked high and low in "about:config" and spent hours using search engines to find a solution to this. I'm conservative about add-ons, plug-ins, etc. I didn't add anything for Wikipedia, which I tend to avoid. Sorry, but your green "automatically add" button doesn't work -- Firefox prevents it! And the "manual steps" link just gives a copy of this page I'm already using. -- Rixons West

All Replies (2)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
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Install Stylish - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/

Then install this UserStyle - https://userstyles.org/styles/103765/fx-31-about-newtab-hide-the-search-bar

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
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See also:

Note that you can also do this without an extension by creating a userContent.css file and placing code in this file to hide the search bar. 

@-moz-document url(about:newtab){
#newtab-margin-top, #newtab-search-container {display:none!important}
}

The customization files userContent.css (websites) and userChrome.css (user interface) are located in the chrome folder in the Firefox profile folder.

  • Create the chrome folder (lowercase) in the <xxxxxxxx>.default profile folder if this folder doesn't exist
  • Use a plain text editor like Notepad to create a (new) userContent.css file in the chrome folder (file name is case sensitive)
  • Paste the code in the userContent.css file in the editor window
  • Make sure that the userChrome.css file starts with the default @namespace line
  • Make sure that you select "All files" and not "Text files" when you save the file via "Save file as" in the text editor as userContent.css. Otherwise Windows may add a hidden .txt file extension and you end up with a not working userContent.css.txt file