How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank page

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I do My Own Stunts
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How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank page

Post by I do My Own Stunts »

I don't know what genius thought that up but it stinks.
Not only does it usually show yesterday's newspaper articles, but sometimes it shows sites I don't want others to see.
My computer at work is open to anyone passing by who just demands to check their email before a meeting - How
can I refuse? So they pop open a window and see what I've been looking at instead of working.

Naturally I backed out to a prior level, but I hate to lose bug fixes if I can just turn off that feature.
Is there an About:Config item for it? Or an Add-on to change it?
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smsmith
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by smsmith »

In the upper right corner of the new tab page is an icon that looks like 9 tiles in a grid. Click it to go back to using a blank page.
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Night Wing
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by Night Wing »

Since I also like a blank page, I did mine this way.

1) Type in "about:config" (without the quotes) in the browser address bar and then press enter.
2) Click on the warning "I'll be careful, I promise" and on the next page, type "newtabpage" (without the quotes) in the search box.
3) Double click on browser.newtabpage.enabled preference to change to False.

That's it. The New Tab Page will be disabled in Mozilla's FF browser. From now on, you'll be greeted with an empty blank page whenever you open the New Tab.
Last edited by Night Wing on June 5th, 2012, 6:07 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by Guest »

browser.newtab.url

Change the value (url) from about:newtab to about:blank

See following Firefox Help article for details.

New Tab Page – show, hide and customize top sites | How to | Firefox Help
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new ... b-page-off

Alternatively, use TabMix Plus which includes options to control this.
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James
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by James »

Night Wing wrote:Since I also like a blank page, I did mine this way.

1) Type in "about:config" (without the quotes) in the browser address bar and then press enter.
2) Click on the warning "I'll be careful, I promise" and on the next page, type "newtabpage" (without the quotes) in the search box.
3) Double click on browser.newtabpage.enabled preference to change to False.

That's it. The New Tab Page will be disabled in Mozilla's FF browser. From now on, you'll be greeted with an empty blank page whenever you open the New Tab.

Why do it the hard way when the easy way is click on the little nine squares button on top right of new tab page for the exact same result as this is what that preference toggles.
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Night Wing
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by Night Wing »

James wrote:Why do it the hard way when the easy way is click on the little nine squares button on top right of new tab page for the exact same result as this is what that preference toggles.


Because I want to make sure the New Tab Page by default......never comes back especially when I update. I'll explain.

Clicking on "check for update" for a new version of FF automatically enables the Silent Maintenance thingy, which I hate, since I have "never check for update" and I did a custom installation setting for FF 12 just to keep SM off my computer. I like to check out what the FF developers are putting on the newest version of FF by default before I decide to update or stick with the last version of FF I like if I can't disable a default setting. I now have to manually uninstall FF, then use the FF installer and use the custom setting to keep the SM thingy from getting on my computer because "check for update" puts SM back into the newest version of FF. I know I could delete SM by the Uninstall/Install in Windows 7, which I had to but, as far as I'm concerned, SM shouldn't be allowed to install itself when it's not been allowed to install in the older version when "check for update" is clicked.

I figure the New Tab Page works the same way and it's there by default. By clicking on the little nine squares, since SM is installed when I don't want it on a new update, I figure those nine square settings which toggles to a blank page, would be over ridden as well when "check for update" is clicked.

Since other people use this computer, I want to make sure a blank page comes up without having someone click on those nine squares and sees where I've been especially when I've been doing online banking or accessing medical records. This is why I disabled the New Tab Page the way I did.

This may be the "hard way" in your line of thinking, but in my line of thinking, it's the "safe way".
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smsmith
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by smsmith »

The preference you toggled is the exact same preference that gets flipped when you click the icon in the new tab page.

If you never want Firefox to be able to reset a preference, use user.js as it is much more effective at it. The preference will be changed by Firefox in your prefs.js file, but then it gets overriden by whatever is in user.js.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/User.js_file

And in your method, the icon is still there for people to click. The method guest describes does more of what you want. But just toggling a pref to disable the newtab page isn't going to hide your history from anybody. It shows the same contents that they could see by clicking the arrow in the address bar. Or opening your history window.

This may be the "hard way" in your line of thinking, but in my line of thinking, it's the "safe way".

Ok, but the icon is still there for anybody to click.
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Night Wing
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by Night Wing »

smsmith,

I'll try Guest's method (browser.newtab.url) because I have to delete the icon.
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by DVB »

I raised the same question (viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2483477). I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is a really, really stupid feature with serious privacy implications.

James: clicking the toggle is not the solution because that simply hides it, and it can easily be toggled back on again. But going to about:config actually gets rid of it.

Does anyone understand the mindset of FF developers?
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Night Wing
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by Night Wing »

I just tried Guest's method and it hides (kills) the icon completely. I'm now a happy camper. :D
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trolly
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by trolly »

DVB wrote:I raised the same question (viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2483477). I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is a really, really stupid feature with serious privacy implications.

James: clicking the toggle is not the solution because that simply hides it, and it can easily be toggled back on again. But going to about:config actually gets rid of it.

Does anyone understand the mindset of FF developers?

Unless you disable and clear your history the new tab page simply shows the most used items of your history. The data was already there (and still is when you disable only the feature).
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by DVB »

trolly wrote:Unless you disable and clear your history the new tab page simply shows the most used items of your history. The data was already there (and still is when you disable only the feature).

So you're saying that for anyone who clears their history automatically on leaving FF, or daily, or with regular use of a program like CCleaner -- all of which are regarded as good security and house-keeping practice -- the new tab page doesn't show anything? Sillier and sillier...
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by Frank Lion »

Night Wing wrote:I just tried Guest's method and it hides (kills) the icon completely. I'm now a happy camper. :D

Well, a happy something for sure.

Seriously, what do you guys get up to that makes you so ashamed for anyone to see your 9 most viewed websites. You're going to have to come up with something a lot more convincing than 'on-line banking' !
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smsmith
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by smsmith »

DVB wrote:
trolly wrote:Unless you disable and clear your history the new tab page simply shows the most used items of your history. The data was already there (and still is when you disable only the feature).

So you're saying that for anyone who clears their history automatically on leaving FF, or daily, or with regular use of a program like CCleaner -- all of which are regarded as good security and house-keeping practice -- the new tab page doesn't show anything? Sillier and sillier...

I believe it shows nine blank tiles. Try it with a blank profile.

You know, you can also tailor this thing to your own sites. You can "pin" the ones you want to see. You can also drag a bookmark to one of the tiles and then pin that. And, you can click the "close" button on the tile and that site won't be shown any longer and gets replaced by your next visited site (or you can drag a bookmark over that). So it doesn't have to just show your most visited sites.
Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.
I like poetry, long walks on the beach and poking dead things with a stick.
Please do not PM me for personal support. Keep posts here in the Forums instead and we all learn.
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Re: How can I turn off the New Tab pictures? I want a blank

Post by DVB »

I'm afraid I still fail to see the point of it. If I need to go back to a site I was on a few hours ago, and the tab isn't still open, I can find it through History or Recently Closed Tabs.
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