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I made the screen too small (using about:config) and lost address bar and all menus. How can I restore the screen display to a usable size?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 82 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

PaulaBob
PaulaBob

I changed the screen display size using about:config, as instructed in other Help responses. After using a value of 1.0, as recommended, I experimented with other sizes, since it seemed to small. I must have entered a large number, by accident (a typo), and made the display so small that only a bug could read. And I lost all functionality: address bar, menus, house, favorites, settings icons.

I uninstalled and re-installed Firefox, thinking that this would fix it. But the new installation displays the same way: unreadable and no functionality.

I found instructions for resetting to factory defaults, but can't perform this task because I have to be able to access menus to do it.

I changed the screen display size using about:config, as instructed in other Help responses. After using a value of 1.0, as recommended, I experimented with other sizes, since it seemed to small. I must have entered a large number, by accident (a typo), and made the display so small that only a bug could read. And I lost all functionality: address bar, menus, house, favorites, settings icons. I uninstalled and re-installed Firefox, thinking that this would fix it. But the new installation displays the same way: unreadable and no functionality. I found instructions for resetting to factory defaults, but can't perform this task because I have to be able to access menus to do it.

Chosen solution

hello PaulaBob, did you change the layout.css.devPixelsPerPx value? - you can perform the following steps to change the value again "blindly":

  1. open firefox and press ctrl +L (this will put the focus into the location bar)
  2. type about:config
  3. press enter twice
  4. type devpix
  5. press the tab key
  6. press enter
  7. type 1.0
  8. press enter again & hopefully you should be back to normal visibility now
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All Replies (3)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator

Chosen Solution

hello PaulaBob, did you change the layout.css.devPixelsPerPx value? - you can perform the following steps to change the value again "blindly":

  1. open firefox and press ctrl +L (this will put the focus into the location bar)
  2. type about:config
  3. press enter twice
  4. type devpix
  5. press the tab key
  6. press enter
  7. type 1.0
  8. press enter again & hopefully you should be back to normal visibility now
ideato
ideato

Hello PaulaBob, go to safe mode (to access reset firefox) from command line :

use one of the next commands :

  • firefox -safe-mode
  • "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -safe-mode
  • "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -safe-mode

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Command_line_arguments

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode


thank you

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

You can also delete or edit the prefs.js file in the Firefox profile folder and remove the layout.css.devPixelsPerPx line.

You can edit the prefs.js file in the Firefox profile folder with a plain text editor like Notepad and remove the line with the layout.css.devPixelsPerPx pref or change the value to 1.0

  • user_pref("layout.css.devPixelsPerPx", "1.0");
  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

The "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K and the "AppData" folder in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and later versions are hidden folders.

Alternatively you can create a file user.js and place the above posted user_pref() line in the user.js file and start Firefox once to reset the pref.

After having done this and have restarted and closed Firefox you can remove the user.js file because otherwise you can't make changes to this pref that will last.