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How do I hide tabs, I want everything to open in a new window

jesterr
jesterr
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I am recently set up Firefox on my mother's desktop. Everything is opening in a new tab. She does not know how to use them, and would prefer everything to open in a new window. I had no trouble doing this on my own computer, but I cannot figure out how to do it on hers. I have already set it to open in a new window, and it is still opening everything in a new tab. How do I set it to open in a new window?

I am recently set up Firefox on my mother's desktop. Everything is opening in a new tab. She does not know how to use them, and would prefer everything to open in a new window. I had no trouble doing this on my own computer, but I cannot figure out how to do it on hers. I have already set it to open in a new window, and it is still opening everything in a new tab. How do I set it to open in a new window?

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox menu button/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

See also:

For links opened via JavaScript you can look at this pref:

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The main setting is on the General tab in Options: Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings. Here you find the checkbox for whether to divert new windows to new tabs instead.

There still are cases where Firefox will use a tab, particularly with internal pages such as the Options page. (!) But that should take care of issues with links inside Firefox that target a new window.

For external links (links from other applications), the same preference should govern, but there is an additional hidden setting if necessary to guarantee a new window is always used. This is about to get a little nerdy...

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the filter box, type or paste link.o and pause while the list is filtered.

(3) There are three similarly named preferences for different scenarios:

(A) browser.link.open_newwindow

3 = divert new window to a new tab (default) 2 = allow link to open a new window 1 = force new window into same tab

(B) browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction - for links in Firefox tabs

0 = apply the setting under (A) to ALL new windows (even script windows) 2 = apply the setting under (A) to normal windows, but NOT to script windows with features (default) 1 = override the setting under (A) and always use new windows

(C) browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external - for links in other programs

-1 = apply the setting under (A) to external links (default) 3 = open external links in a new tab in the last active window 2 = open external links in a new window 1 = open external links in the last active tab replacing the current page