Choosing File > Exit closes all FireFox windows (when 2 or more are open)
I'm curious if this is by design or is an oversight:
When you have 2 or more FireFox version 4.x browser windows open, and if you choose File > Exit (or FireFox > Exit in some cases), then all FireFox browsers are closed.
I expected that only the browser that had focus would be closed (similar to using the "X" in the upper-right corner OR double-clicking the upper-left corner).
Seems surprising that all windows close. Thanks for the confirmation on if this is by design or perhaps an issue.
Thanks ~ pjaxon
All Replies (4)
"Exiting" a program means shutting it down completely. That means closing all windows - what you are calling a "browser."
You are using the word "browser" when you should use "window."
You said ". . . then all Firefox browsers are closed."
There were multiple Firefox windows open, not multiple "browsers."
There is only one copy of Firefox running on your computer. The one copy supports all the Firefox windows you open. When you exit the program, it closes all of the Firefox windows because you are exiting the program, not just closing a window.
The "X" button in the upper right hand corner, is the Close Window button. It closes the window and, if that is the only window for a particular program, closing the window also exits the program.
But, when a program has multiple windows open, such as can be the case with Firefox, closing one window does not affect the others. The program is still running.
But, as you now know, exiting a program with multiple window WILL close all windows.
That is s design decision, but it was not made by the Firefox designers. That is the standard for all Windows programs (I don't know about other operating systems but I would be surprised if they are different.)
"Exiting" any program should result in all windows open for that program being closed as the program exits - stops running.
Stan
Firefox 3.6 and earlier version used to have File > Close Window and File > Close Tab menu items. Those two were removed in Firefox 4 and later versions to cleanup the File menu and because there were other ways to close a window and a tab that were used far more frequently by Firefox users (yep, Mozilla did testing on the use of the various buttons and menu items in the UI).
Use Alt+F to get the File menu with all entries including Close Window (Ctrl+W).
Some menu entries in the main menu bar are hidden if you use the mouse and only appear if you use the keyboard to open the menu (Bug 626825).
You can see the difference if you use Alt+F to open the File menu or Alt+B to open the Bookmarks menu and compare that to what you see if you use the mouse to open the menu after you have made the menu bar visible by tapping Alt or by pressing F10.
Thanks- yes I know the difference between windows and browsers, but was using them interchangeably. Perhaps I should have said windows and program.
In other similar programs that can have multiple instances (ie Safari and Internet Explorer) when you choose File > Exit it closes the active window... not all instances of the program.
No big deal.. just curious if this was by design and it seems that, yes, it is.