How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

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Clueless in Seattle
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How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

I updated from Firefox ESR 52.2.0 (32-bit) to Firefox to Quantum 60.2.0esr (32-bit) and ended up losing many if not all of my most important settings.

I had my old Firefox set so that it booted up with five completely blank and empty tabs.

I've found a web page showing instructions for doing this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/commen ... n_quantum/
  • Go to about:config (in the address bar)
    Search for browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enabled
The problem is that browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enabled doesn't seem to exist in list that appears when I look at about:config. I do see a long list of 40 or more items all beginning with browser.newtabpage.activity-stream. But none matches browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.

Any ideas on how I can get completely blank and uncluttered tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?
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the-edmeister
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by the-edmeister »

That Reddit thread is 9 months old. Quantum was changed in either Fx 60 or 61 with regards to the activity-stream preferences. I don't recall exactly what got changed, but I disable all that crap on the Homepage and use New Tab Tools for the New Tab page.

Check Reddit for a more recent thread from Fx 60 or 61, although on second thought it was probably Fx 60 when that change was made. I have Quantum installed, but rarely use it for much of anything. I stick with Firefox 38 ESR ot Firefox 47.0.1 for most everything I do online. Hell, I probably use Basilisk more than Quantum.


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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by jscher2000 »

Hmm, what is the connection between starting up with 5 blank tabs and the contents of the new tab page??

Startup => Home page > Custom URLs
At startup, Firefox usually will show your home page. If you want 5 blank tabs, you can set your home page accordingly:

about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank

Of course, that also will affect each new Window you open using Ctrl+n. Not sure if you do that often.

New Tab Page
Firefox 62 (and I think Firefox 61) has a section of the Options page called Home where you can assign New Tab Page to Blank Page. Before that, I think you had to just turn off all the data sources for the page, or use the New Tab Override extension.
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Clueless in Seattle
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

Hmm, I already tried that.

Here's what I set under Home:

about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank

But when I start Quantum, it only opens a single tab.

However I did manage to get that single tab to display as blank by selecting "Show a blank page" so I'm half-way there.
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therube
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by therube »

about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank
Working here.

Set Home Page to 'Blank Page'.

Change your desktop shortcut to:

Code: Select all

 .../firefox.exe  -url "about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank|about:blank"
Fire 750, bring back 250.
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Clueless in Seattle
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

What are the steps for setting the Home Page to 'Blank Page'?

Here's what my settings look like now:

https://flic.kr/p/28bW4Cy

I don't know what to change.

As for a desktop shortcut, I'm not sure I have one. Quantum runs automatically when I boot up my PC.
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

Back in September I finally gave up trying to get my updated Firefox to run with five blank tabs, and instead just resigned myself to having to manually open the extra tabs with mouse clicks each morning when I booted up my computer.

But this morning as I was yet again clicking the "Open a new tab" button four times, I asked myself: "Is this really how computers are supposed to work? I mean, I had it working before the update, why should an update disable a function I've had in place for years"

So, here I am, back again trying to see if I can just get Firefox to work the way it used to before I cluelessly clicked the "Check for updates" button.

Therube suggested I change my desktop shortcut, and posted a string of code beginning with "..." I'm afraid I don't have a clue how to use that code.

Here's a link to screenshot of the Firefox shortcut I have in my Windows 7 Startup folder (I don't know how to embed an image in a reply):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150056224 ... ed-public/

Maybe therube (or anyone else for that matter) could explain to me how to add that code to my shortcut.
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by dfoulkes »

You know... if what's been suggested so far doesn't work out for you, you can always create a folder up there on you bookmarks bar and have it all the way on the left (easy to see that way) ... then open up a blank tab and left-click (hold down on that button) and drag the blank tab into that folder ... 5 times and you should now have 5 blank tabs in that folder... now left click on the folder and click on Open all in tabs.

Post if it works for you. And I was just curious...what's the need for starting with 5 blank tabs?

EDIT
Here's a link to screenshot of the Firefox shortcut I have in my Windows 7 Startup folder (I don't know how to embed an image in a reply):
Over the years I'm sure that you knew... but we all forget stuff... you can't 'embed images' here, you have to provide a link to a host site... just like you did. =D>
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

Hi dfoulkes! Yes, over the years I've become more and more forgetful. I'm disabled by multiple chronic ailments one of which impacts my circulation and deprives my brain of blood flow whenever I'm upright, such as right now while I'm sitting up at my PC. And that lack of blood results in cognitive impairment that worsens the longer I'm upright. So, you got that right. I had completely forgotten that this forum doesn't allow inserting images into messages.

As for why I want FF to open with five blank tabs: That's a good question. It's just habit I guess. It's the way I've been doing it for years. And you know what Simon and Garfunkel sang: "Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages."

In the meantime, this morning after reading your post, I did try that trick you suggested and it worked! Many thanks!

But for some reason, setting up that bookmark folder as you suggested triggered an idea in my poor tired old brain. It occurred to me that I still have an older version of Firefox (52.2.0 ESR) running on another PC running Windows XP. And it crossed my mind that perhaps if I looked at the settings in that version, I might find a clue as to why version 62.3.0 esr on my Windows 7 PC won't open with multiple blank tabs.

And Bingo! I found the problem!

Under "When Firefox starts" the "Show a blank page" radio button was selected, when it should have been "Show your home page." I made that one simple change, shut down and restated FF, and voilà! FF reopened with a row of blank tabs.

So, it seems that when I accidentally upgraded to version 62, the radio button setting got changed. Or, perhaps, after the upgrade I started monkeying around in the settings trying to get things back the to the way they were before the upgrade and clumsily changed the radio button setting. I just learned today that such a thing can happen. It turns out that even with the mouse pointer all the way over well into the white space to the right of the radio buttons, if you click the left button, it will select the radio button on the left side of the screen. I discovered this because I have a Parkinson's-like tremor in the index finger of my right hand, and surprised myself when I spontaneously changed the radio button setting while just sitting and staring at the screen.j

So it looks like this problem is finally solved.

Which only leaves me with trying to figure out how to center my bookmarks toolbar and get back the split window feature that I used to have in my old Firefox. But I'll leave those problems until next year.

Thanks for rattling my cage and nudging me toward the solution to this problem.
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lasardo
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by lasardo »

To "center" or at least move the bookmarks toolbar, you might be able to: go to the three lines menu, click customize. In the window toolbox that opens, one of the items you can drag around is "flexible space." It reproduces, so once you drag one, another one appears and you can drag another one. Dragging them to one side of something to move it one way, or the other side to move it the other way. Then click blue done button when you are done to go back to normal mode. You certainly can wait until the new year to try it out though. If you have spaces you added that didn't help, go to customize and drag them away from your bars and back into the toolbox to get rid of them.
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by dfoulkes »

Will
Which only leaves me with trying to figure out how to center my bookmarks toolbar and get back the split window feature that I used to have in my old Firefox. But I'll leave those problems until next year.
If what you mean about 'center bookmarks toolbar' is what lasardo suggested then it works fine....tried on my test profile and it centered the bookmarks on the bar. As for 'split window' ... not sure what you mean.

You are in Seattle and mentioned Parkinson's-like tremor and that brought to mind... my uncle Charlie lived in Seattle and had Parkinson's but it affected much more that a finger... and his was attributed to head-injuries from WWII. He was on a troop train in France heading north to go into battle and his train was bombed by Germans...anyway, that was a lifetime ago.
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

I used to have an add-on that allowed Firefox to open two or more tabs in the same window. I forget what it was called. It got disabled and/or deleted when I upgraded. It could split the window vertically, horizontally or in many different combinations of the two.

I'll wait until after the holidays to try out lasardo's fix for centering the bookmarks toolbar. Right now I've got end-of-year paperwork to cope with.

My doctor say's my tremor is called "pill-rolling." "A pill rolling tremor is the most common tremor associated with Parkinson's disease." My brother, my mother's brother, and my mother's father all had Parkinson's. I've been lucky so far to only have this minor tremor.

Thanks for the help! I'm grateful to all of you who volunteer to help out us slow learners. ;o)
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by LIMPET235 »

Hi,
I seem to remember? that there was an extension called "Split Screen" or similar but cannot find it on the Addons site.
See if this extension suits...
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... t-resizer/
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Win-10-H/64 bit/500G SSD/16 Gig Ram/450Watt PSU/350WattUPS/Firefox-115.0.2/T-bird-115.3.2./SnagIt-v10.0.1/MWP-7.12.125.

(Always choose the "Custom" Install.)
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Re: How to get blank tabs in Quantum 60.2.0esr?

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

Thanks, LIMPET235! I just added the "Window Layout Resizer" extension to Firefox. But I haven't a clue what to do next. So I began searching the web for a user manual and stumbled on a web page that explains why my old split screen add-on no longer works:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... e-tabs-we/

It was called "Tile-Tabs," and has been replaced by something called "Tile Tabs WE." Here's what the developer says:
Tile Tabs WE works differently to the original Tile Tabs because of changes that Mozilla is making in Firefox 57.

The original Tile Tabs was developed using technologies that are no longer available in Firefox 57.

Firefox 57 and later versions will only support add-ons that have been built using the new WebExtensions API's (which are the same as the Chrome extension API's).

Using the new WebExtensions API's, it is not possible to display multiple pages simultaneously within the same browser window. This is why Tile Tabs WE has to move each tiled tab into a separate window.

It is hoped that Mozilla will provide a new WebExtensions interface that will allow a new add-on to be developed that is more similar to the original Tile Tabs.
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