Most useful Mozilla Firefox about:config tweaks
The about:config page in the Firefox browser is a feature that gives access to advanced settings, hidden under the browser. These hidden configuration settings aren’t available in the browser’s standard options window. Let’s take a look at some of the most useful Firefox about:config tweaks.
How do I get to about config in Firefox?
To access Firefox’s advanced settings, simply type about:config into the browser’s address bar and press Enter. Thereafter, you should see a warning page. Hit the ‘I’ll be careful, I Promise’ button and proceed towards tweaking Firefox about:config settings.
How do I use about config in Firefox?
In Firefox, about:config refers either to an internal address like about:preferences (the Options page) or about:support (the Troubleshooting Information page). Let’s see how we can use about:config in Firefox.
Useful Firefox about:config tweaks
Since its inception, the Firefox browser and has remained highly customizable. You can change its default behavior by changing the browser preferences under the about:config page. Check out our list of useful Firefox about:config tweaks.
Open New Tabs at EndPreview Tabs When SwitchingDisable Prefetch of Webpages Increase Network PerformanceTurn off the URL greyingMake Firefox’s Spell Checker More UsefulAdd More Rows and Columns to Firefox’s New Tab PageSelect all text when clicking on the URL barDisable Compatibility Checking for ExtensionsDisable Animations for New Tabs
1] Open New Tabs at End
Normally, every new tab appears adjacent to the current tab, however, if you would like the tab to open at the end of all the tabs, do the following.
Look for browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent and change the value to False. The default value is set as True.
2] Preview Tabs When Switching
To enable the Previews feature in Firefox, go to browser.ctrlTab.previews and change the default False value to True to view previews.
3] Disable Prefetch of Webpages
An ingenious feature to help pages load faster but the problem encountered consumes a large part of the bandwidth. As such it is best to keep it off when you have a slow Internet connection. How do you do it?
Look for network.prefetch-next and switch to FALSE value.
4] Increase Network Performance
For enhancing the network performance, search for network.http.max-connections. It manages maximum network connections the browser can make at one time to any number of Web servers.
The latest version of Firefox supports 900. If you find the same value, do not change. If not, change it to the defined value.
5] Turn off the URL greying
Assuming you have about:config Page opened, search for – browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled.
Double-click it to change it to False. Now, you should find the URLs displaying the address in black text. Also, Firefox hides ‘HTTP’ in URLs so that they are easier to read.
If you do not like it and would like to unhide the “HTTP” portion of a URL, search for browser.urlbar.trimURLs and Double-click the setting to change it to False.
That’s it!
6] Make Firefox’s Spell Checker More Useful
To enable Firefox Spell Checker in all text boxes, search for: layout.spellcheckDefault and set its value to 2. Now, to make those lines more noticeable, change their value as follows.
0 for no highlighting1 for a dotted line2 for long dots3 for a single straight line4 for a double underline5 for the default squiggly line
7] Add More Rows and Columns to Firefox’s New Tab Page
Simply move to about:config and search for: browser.newtabpage.rows. Then, browser.newtabpage.columns and set each to the value you want. You will now be given the choice to accommodate more sites on that new tab page.
8] Select all text when clicking on the URL bar
Head to browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll and Modify value.
False – place cursor at the insertion pointTrue – select all text on click
If you want the zoom level to remain the same for every website you visit via the Firefox browser, simply toggle the value of browser.zoom.siteSpecific from True to False. The default value is set to True.
9] Disable Compatibility Checking for Extensions
Open about:config and right-click on an empty space. Choose New > Boolean and create a new setting called: extensions.checkCompatibility.
Set its value False.
10] Disable Animations for New Tabs
To disable animations for new tabs, Firefox’s “Tab Groups” feature, find and set the first two of these to False
browser.tabs.animatebrowser.panorama.animate_zoombrowser.fullscreen.animateUp
That’s all there is to it! Did I miss some useful tweak? Do add it in the comments and help out.
These Firefox tips and tricks may also interest you.