How to fix Firefox?

J

jim preston

Joined
Jul 22, 2007
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I love IE- I like it a whole better than Firefox, but it was screwing up, and so I finally went to the dark side of freeware.
As much as I don't like Firefox, there is one thing I hate more than the rest put together- the tabs. IE 8 had tabbed browsing, but when you clicked a link, it would open a new window, With Firefox, it just opens a new tab. I hate this because:
1. You can't minimize it. I like to be able to hit the _ button in the top-right, and proceed from there. Switching between tabs just isn't natural.
2. You can't X out of it. The X to close out of the tab is next to the little tab flag, not in the top right, as it should be. You also can't use Alt + F4 without closing all tabs.
So, how do I set Firefox to default open a new WINDOW, not a new tab, and to never, ever, ever, open a tab period.
I'm running Vista Home Premium and the latest version of Firefox.
 
jim, check out avant browser. a friend who swore by firefox finally switched over and said he wished he had switched sooner. i have been using it since 03-o4 and i like it. it has a lot of options and its easy to figure out.
 
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click the link with the middle/wheel button (instead of the left button) and it will open in a new tab
 
I personally think that you are crazy for hating the tabs, but that is my opinion. I love the tabs, and hate Internet explorer. I would go crazy if I had to use IE because I open everything in tabs and don't have to constantly have to switch between widows or hitting back.

My question is to you, why do you open tabs at all?
 
jim preston said:
So, how do I set Firefox to default open a new WINDOW, not a new tab, and to never, ever, ever, open a tab period.
I'm running Vista Home Premium and the latest version of Firefox.
Click to expand...

Tools> Options> Tabs> Open in new window. It's that easy. :thumbup:
But 'one man's meat...' :p I added an applet (called 'TabMix Plus') that allows me to open as many tabs as I want, stacking them in rows so I can see them all at one time, and a memory function to reload them all if I close unexpectedly or need to leave work in progress. I use that all the time, especially when reading the forums. I might have twenty different posts open before I even read the first one!

Stitchawl
 
And once you turn it off, you can right-click to open a link in a tab.

I usually have at least three windows full of tabs open while browsing. This way, each thing I'm browsing gets its' own window.
 
Alright, it's fixed.
Most people think I'm crazy for hating tabs as well. It's just that the top of your page gets too visually "busy" for me- I'm an IE guy at heart, but it isn't great performance wise. I like having windows at the bottom of the screen, and being able to close stuff with Alt+F4.
 
I know you said you hated tabs, but I am now using Chrome by Google. Love it, the tabs are at the very top of screen. If you want to open a link and not leave traces of visit, you can right click any link and it will open in what they call an incognito window, no browser history kept, no cookies accepted. It will import all your FF3 bookmarks and is really nice. I have been using it about a month now and have found nothing about it I do not like.
Jim
 
Tabs, windows, all have their place. I open a few windows, each of which has its own mix of tabs. My bookmarks save that mix, so I can load the window with one or more or all of them, for my start window or my gear window or my art window, whatever.

They are tools. Learn their benefits and use them, they all help organize the desk.
 
jim preston said:
Alright, it's fixed.
Most people think I'm crazy for hating tabs as well. It's just that the top of your page gets too visually "busy" for me- I'm an IE guy at heart, but it isn't great performance wise. I like having windows at the bottom of the screen, and being able to close stuff with Alt+F4.
Click to expand...

I was like you when I first went to Firefox, I was a serious anti-tab guy, and I disabled tabs.
Now I just can't live without tabs! You are used to having few windows opened or lots of trash in your taskbar, but if you ever get used to tabs you won't go back to multiple windows.

a few tips if you want to try the tabs anyway (I'll understand if you choose to ignore me, I would have done exactly that, back when I thought tabs were a useless waste of screen)
- use ctrl+W instead of alt-F4 for closing a tab instead of a window.
- use ctrl+page up / ctrl+page down instead of alt+tab / alt+shift+tab to switch between tabs instead of windows (good side: you can switch between applications faster since you only have 1 Firefox opened for 20+ tabs, and if you want to switch between your tabs you don't have to browse through other opened apps)

I can't help you on the minimizing thing, I never minimize my windows, or I minimize all of them with the desktop icon in quick launch bar, when I have to click a desktop icon.
 
choubbi said:
- use ctrl+W instead of alt-F4 for closing a tab instead of a window.
- use ctrl+page up / ctrl+page down instead of alt+tab / alt+shift+tab to switch between tabs instead of windows (good side: you can switch between applications faster since you only have 1 Firefox opened for 20+ tabs, and if you want to switch between your tabs you don't have to browse through other opened apps)

I can't help you on the minimizing thing, I never minimize my windows, or I minimize all of them with the desktop icon in quick launch bar, when I have to click a desktop icon.
Click to expand...

While we're on shortcuts, try Win+D to show desktop. Works exactly the same as the button.

Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab work similarly to the Page Up and Page Down versions.
 
carrot said:
While we're on shortcuts, try Win+D to show desktop. Works exactly the same as the button.

Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab work similarly to the Page Up and Page Down versions.
Click to expand...
Thanks for those ones! I didn't remember the ctrl-(alt)-tab ones, but I think I never used the win+D.
 
Check out Opera too. You can make it do pretty much whatever you want.
 
I've been using Firefox for some time now; have gone through all the updates and versions. I find that when I run my various spybot/adaware programs, I get almost nothing.
With IE, it would be dozens of entries each time.
I don't have any problems with tabs, because that's not how I surf.
When I'm on my various forums, I just keep one tab open for reference purposes, so I can look stuff up regarding a post.

I keep all my bookmarks in different folders by subject, and sometimes use the "open all in tabs" feature. However, there's almost always at least one that will sit there and load forever, so I don't do that as much.
 
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