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How to make download window open to front

  • 4 replies
  • 12 have this problem
  • 32 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

trevdowell2
trevdowell2
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When I download a file, how can I make the download window automatically come to the front?

When I download a file, how can I make the download window automatically come to the front?

Chosen solution

Try the following.

  1. Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter.
  2. Press the big button to bypass the warning.
  3. Set the value of the browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting preference to true
  4. Set the value of the browser.download.manager.focusWhenStarting preference to true
  5. Restart Firefox.

Starting with Firefox 20, downloads are displayed in a small panel connected to a navigation toolbar icon:

If you want to disable this feature in favor of the old downloads window, set the browser.download.useToolkitUI preference to true

Read this answer in context 👍 19

All Replies (4)

Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Man
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Chosen Solution

Try the following.

  1. Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter.
  2. Press the big button to bypass the warning.
  3. Set the value of the browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting preference to true
  4. Set the value of the browser.download.manager.focusWhenStarting preference to true
  5. Restart Firefox.

Starting with Firefox 20, downloads are displayed in a small panel connected to a navigation toolbar icon:

If you want to disable this feature in favor of the old downloads window, set the browser.download.useToolkitUI preference to true

desinia
desinia
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THANK YOU! I don't know which idiot thought of removing the downloads window in favor of that ridiculous menu but I've been tearing my hair out trying to fix it. The old window has everything you need in one easy window while the menu requires multiple steps to check EACH download. I was ready to drop release 20 and go back to 19.

Badaboom11
Badaboom11
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I swear what I really want to do is to find the moron who thought this crap up and break his fingers so that he can NEVER push a keyboard button again.

The STUPIDEST of all recent "changes". WHOSE imbecilic idea was it to put the downloads together with the history and favorites and all other rarely used stuff? WHY was this change made?

Listen, Mozilla, for the past year you idiots have lost a third of your faithful population. Your market share plummeted from 34 to barely 20% (and keeps falling!!!). And it all began when you started thinking you're Microsoft and can do whatever the hell you want. I swear, one more surprise like that and I'll throw your stupid browser out of the window. ENOUGH!

Additionally, the stupid person who implemented this "change" made me lose the list of ALL downloads I had in that window. Thank you very much! *sarcasm*

Language edited due to cursing - Moderator

Modified by NoahSUMO

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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This is not a recent change.
The Downloads folder in the Library is there since Firefox 8 (2011).
Only now that the new Download Manager that uses this folder has been enabled its presence is now quite obvious.

  • Bug 564934 - (DownloadsPanel) Implement new Download Manager UI for browser
  • Bug 726444 - Implement the Downloads Panel
  • Bug 675902 - New Downloads view for Places Library

(please do not comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)