• 25
  • Oct

Firefox 2.0 Closing Tab Hack

First of all I’d like to say that Firefox 2.0 is a great improvement as far as I can see.
But there’s a little annoyance that’s still bothering me after using 2.0 for 2 days. The developers changed the way you close the tabs. I was used to the nice and shiny X on the far right side of Firefox 1.5. But they thought it would be better to move the close button to the active tab.

I found an easy way to change it back to the way it was.

1. Type about:config in your address bar and hit the enter button

Close Firefox Tab button

2. Look up browser.tabs.closeButtons , as you can see the value right now is 1

Close Firefox Tab button

3. You’ve got to double click on the 1 and change the value to 3

Close Firefox Tab button

That’s it!

7 Comments

  1. Davo Says:

    Yes I was annoyed, Thank you!

  2. crorwmagus Says:

    Many thanks for a most useful hint. Works like a charm and am back to the best way to close tabs.

  3. Brian Says:

    I personally like the new interface for the tabs. Now I can close tabs directly without switching to them first.

    Sure, it may take a few times to get used to it, but once the habit is formed it is a much more efficient system.

    Nonetheless, if you like it the traditional way, then go right ahead and change it.

    Maybe tab X’s should be a user configurable option in the settings window without having to go to the FF config file.

  4. Matt Says:

    I like the new way personally. I found myself searching for it the way it used to be positioned, but now when I look at the tab and it’s right there. To each his own I guess :)

  5. patrickrhett Says:

    This was the only thing I didn’t like about 2.0, and now it’s fixed. Thanks!

  6. sean Says:

    I wonder if there is a way to have both at the same time….?

  7. Phil Says:

    That WAS one of the things about Firefox 2 that was annoying me. I like the old location better, too. Thanks for the info!

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