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How do I get my home page in a new tab in firefox 13

  • 22 replies
  • 42 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by discooby

anynick
anynick
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So they have locked the thread that relates to this question, on the spurious grounds that FF13 has a new new tab interface. But that new interface actually prevents you getting your homepage in a new tab. I used to use New Tab Homepage add-on, but that hasn't worked for several versions. So I then used NewTabUrl, but now they have decided to break that.

I am thoroughly fed up with firefox continually making me re-learn the interface of my browser every couple of weeks. I have more important things to do than spend hours trying to fathom what some vacuous 'designer' now thinks is a really cute way for me to get to where I want to go.

All I want is a new tab to give me the page of my choice, not some ridiculous irrelevant algorithm devised in a conference room with too many whiteboards and not enough common sense.

So they have locked the thread that relates to this question, on the spurious grounds that FF13 has a new new tab interface. But that new interface actually prevents you getting your homepage in a new tab. I used to use New Tab Homepage add-on, but that hasn't worked for several versions. So I then used NewTabUrl, but now they have decided to break that. I am thoroughly fed up with firefox continually making me re-learn the interface of my browser every couple of weeks. I have more important things to do than spend hours trying to fathom what some vacuous 'designer' now thinks is a really cute way for me to get to where I want to go. All I want is a new tab to give me the page of my choice, not some ridiculous irrelevant algorithm devised in a conference room with too many whiteboards and not enough common sense.

Chosen solution

OK, many hours later: Partial solution 1: do about:config, search for newtab, locate the entry for browser.newtab.url and enter your preferred home page e.g. http://www.google.com

This does ensure you avoid getting the tiled thumbnails, BUT, the focus is in the url bar, not in the google search box. Why Firefox think they are entitled to steal focus in this way is beyond me and drives me crazy - just how likely is it that the first thing I want to do is type an url?

Partial solution 2: Use yet another add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/custom-new-tab. This has an option whether you want the focus in the url bar or not. I disabled my existing NewTabUrl add-on, just in case of conflict.

Now you do get your preferred home page in a new tab, and new tabs have the focus in the google search bar.

But the first home page, when you first open firefox, still steals the focus and puts it in the url bar. At the moment I can find no way of preventing this - clearly the idiots at Firefox know much better than me how I should use my home page. Utterly exasperating.

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All Replies (2)

John99
John99
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Hi anynick, 

 ".... it would take a lot of reinstallation and testing to be certain. .... "

If you do consider testing note it is possible to set up multiple profiles for Firefox.

You may then alter single profiles and switch between profiles to compare the differences. So run Firefox with differing add-ons and plugins installed. (It is also possible to run multiple versions together but I will not complicate matters unnecessarily) see

discooby
discooby
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Thanks to anynick! I took this threads title:

How do I get my home page in a new tab in firefox 13

And replaced 13 with 17 (what I currently installed) and found the solution. If it wasn’t for this thread I’d probably have wasted 4 more hours (I’m new to FF) trying to figure this out! In FF17 the solution seems to be much easier… btw, try searching this problem and coming up with a solution! Again, thanks anynick!

……

I’ve been a IE user up to 9 and then Microsoft lost me… it seems all browsers are following suit to rally around facebook in that, as anynick poetically put it:

“I am thoroughly fed up with firefox continually making me re-learn the interface of my browser every couple of weeks. I have more important things to do than spend hours trying to fathom what some vacuous 'designer' now thinks is a really cute way for me to get to where I want to go."

Cheers anynick!!!

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