1. Install Classic Theme Restorer and restart Firefox when prompted.
2. Open the Add-ons Manager (Ctrl+Shift+A; Mac: Command+Shift+A), then the Extensions category.
3. Next to Classic Theme Restorer, click the Options button.
4. On the Main tab, make sure "Movable back-forward button", "Star-button in urlbar" and "Hide urlbars stop & reload buttons" are checked. You might also want to check "Combine stop & reload buttons". Close the options window when done.
5. Right-click an empty area of the tab bar and choose Customize.
6. Drag the Back/Forward, Stop, Reload and Bookmarks buttons onto the navigation toolbar.
7. Click the Exit Customize button in the lower right corner when done.
8. Restart Firefox for the change related to the ★ Star Icon to take effect.

xesolor wrote:

can you PLEASE ALLOW MORE CUSTOMISATION?

This is a support forum, where volunteers try to help you out with whatever issue you're having. If you have comments or suggestions to send to Mozilla, click the ≡ Menu Button, then the Question Mark icon, then choose Submit Feedback.

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xesolor wrote:

So why are all the back/forward, history, bookmark/favourite amongst other things all LOCKED in their annoying little modules?

Feel free to read the discussion on the following bug report, but please don't add any comments to it. See the Bugzilla etiquette page.

• Bug 755598 - Merge back/forward, URL bar, reload/stop/go into one toolbar item

I was going to comment on an earlier thread, but it has been locked; then I was going to start a new one but was referred to this, so, if it's not quite in the right place, it will have to do.

A while back, I was happily using 28, which I had finally got the way I needed it (minimum vertical space wastage), when some crazy decided to include version 29 in a 'security' update, and I had to try 2 system restore points to get my version back. Then I turned off updates altogether: Mozilla simply cannot be trusted with them any more.

So that is super irritant #1) We are forced to accept new layouts and lost customisability that we NEED to operate the browser in the confines of our particular equipment (mine is a narrow letterbox screen, and all that huge expanse of wasted space above the nav bar was just total madness), because Mozilla refuses to separate security fixes from pointless interference with the layout and style.

Next comes the utterly ghastly new 'customisation' window, which gives us a mere handful of options in the right panel, in place of what used to be a large menu of settings and tools (And no: Classic Restorer has ignored this change.) The main 'customisation window, has almost nothing in it, and some of my most useful add ons don't work with 29 and up, so I can't even put them into the box. The handy little expandable space thing has gone completely. My most important add ons: Nav Bar on Tiltle Bar, Movable FF button, and Unsorted bookmarks to top, all don't work in the new setting; nor does the very handy Split Browsing Window.

Nevertheless: to try and make a silk purse of the new sows' ear that is now up to version 31, I downloaded it into a sandbox, and have spent a week playing with it (I tried Nightly at first, but it kept crashing and wouldn't let me watch video. (Even with 31, I can't work out where video goes when you play it in the sandbox.))

It was a real struggle without the simplicity of Nav Bar on Title Bar (What the F do we need a title bar for anyway? Or menu bar come to that.) and the movable application button, but with a combination of Classic FF and several other major config screwing add-ons, I got it nearly as clean looking as FF28. Space is still wasted, by a now greyed FF button (Which appears still to have some controls in the drop down but most don't actually work.), and the fact I've needed an extra button to get at the unsorted bookmarks, which for some utterly insane reason, Mozilla has always stuck right down at the bottom, off the screen. As my Split Browsing Window button no longer exists, I suppose I've not lost that much really, but, if only I could get rid of that waste of space button with its three grey lines, and go back to my simple movable, square FF button, with all my settings links in one neat and tidy drop down from it!

One little plus with Classic Restorer, is to get smaller window buttons, but they aren't very stable, and I've lost the top of the browser a couple of times for no obvious reasons. It is infuriating, not to be able to drag either the url pane or the search pane to whatever size one wants, and also irritating not to be able to drop buttons into the url pane. (And woe betide if you should happen to try dragging the url box into the customisation pane to adjust it: it totally disappears!) With much fiddling they can still be pushed with the couple of spacer options we are still given in the 'customisation' box. Making these work in the add on bar was a nightmare, with icons determinedly jumping back to the right, no matter how often they were moved to left according to function.

So, my impression from all this, is simply that developers have decided to ditch everything that made FF the best browser for practical use, in the pursuit of a 'brand style' that cares not a jot about functionality or space saving to match the needs of modern portable computers. I would like to say that the customisation add on makers have done a good job trying to give us back some functionality, but we now have to use so many major add ons that my version of 31 is now too slow, and rather unstable, and is not ready to come out of the sandbox yet. Maybe the makers of the Nav Bar on Title Bar, and movable FF button will come to the rescue with updated versions: I sure hope so!

So FWIW, here's what I think FF needs to look like for narrow screens: First with FF28 (may the lord preserve it from unintentional updates!); and second, from my sandboxed FF31, which now has the right vertical width, but is still a bit untidy and unstable: