Change Firefox 3.6’s Tab Behavior

Feb 2, 2010 by Matt | Posted in Software & Scripts 9 Comments

Firefox 3.6 was released at the end of last month, bringing with it speed and RAM usage improvements and the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. However, it also brought a small UI change that some people may not like. When opening opening a link in a new tab, Firefox now uses the Chrome/IE school of thought, inserting the tab beside the one you are currently viewing. The old behavior was for the tab to open on the far right of the stack.

Want the old tab behavior back? There’s a simple about:config fix.

Open a new tab (:P) and type about:config into the address bar. You should end up in the configuration key editor. Paste browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent into the “Filter” field. This should narrow down the listing to a single item. Simply double-click the row to toggle the setting from “true” to “false.” You can then close the tab and go back to your browsing.

  • Aranka

    Thanks a lot for this wonderful tip, it was annoying me greatly!!

  • http://research.praveentech.net/ Praveen Kumar

    Hey, FF does this great thing, why don’t people like this? I was expecting such kinda change till now. I was using Next Tab plugin, n now it’s not needed. :)

  • Czech Hunter

    Wow, thanks a lot!

  • Linden

    Thanks, Matt! I like to have predictable tab order, and this update had been really frustrating me. It’s nice to have the solution so easy to find. :)

  • kevin

    thanks for this i dont understand firefox. i love it but everytime they update it they make some kind of stupid annoynig changing like this that most people hate. STOP FIXING WHAT ISNT BROKEN FIREFOX!!!!

    • jack annable

      we agree!!!! I liked fire fox 3.6++ with color tabs and skipper. why change something that works so well…I want to change back or find another browser…not happy that you made these without my approval
      jack annable

  • Max

    Mozilla stop acting like Microsoft changing things on us and making us lose our time for finding fixes to waht was not broken!

  • dynamite

    Thanks a ton! It was the first annoying feature that I have ever come across with FF in several years of usage – and it was oh so simple to fix it. MSFT, now you know why ppl love FF?

    • http://www.webmaster-source.com Matt

      That’s my favorite feature of Firefox: the ability to customize it. Extensions, about:config settings, etc. I’ve yet to see a browser that you can change so much from the default.