Everything Firefox! Info, tips, benefits, feature suggestions, add-ons and more.
Tips/suggestions/corrections/complaints welcome!
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Feature | Firefox | Chrome | Edge | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
History: Customise number of days to keep | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Edge and Chrome are limited to 90 days of retention only |
Picture-in-Picture button | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | In Chrome, you have to right click the video twice to reveal the Picture-in-Picture option |
Picture-in-Picture: Subtitles support | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Picture-in-Picture: full controls | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Including a progress bar, mute, fullscreen and -5/+5 sec jump. Chrome/Edge only have Play/Pause |
Picture-in-Picture: no limits on window size | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Edge has a limit on the PiP window size |
Picture-in-Picture: supported on most sites | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox supports Dailymotion, TikTok and Twitter, among many others. Edge and Chrome lack this. |
Picture-in-Picture: multi PiP windows | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Picture-in-Picture: use arrow keys to jump forward/back | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Video player: Volume controls | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | |
Video player: Speed control | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Video player: Take Snapshot feature | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Multi Account-Containers | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Lets you keep parts of your online life separated into color-coded tabs. Cookies are separated by container, allowing you to use the web with multiple accounts. While some addons/hacks/workarounds exist for Edge/Chrome, none work as well as Firefox's! |
Ctrl+Tab MRU tab switcher | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Allows you to use Ctrl+Tab to switch tabs in most recently used order (MRU) like Alt+Tab/Cmd+Tab in Windows/Mac. Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn can still be used to go next/previous tab too! |
Reader View | ✅ | ⚠ | ✅ | Chrome's Reader feature needs to be enabled first under chrome://flags, and requires a re-launch of the browser to become available |
Reader View: Read aloud/Text To Speech feature | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | |
Block videos from playing automatically | ✅ | ❔ | ❔ | Firefox blocks many videos from auto-playing by default |
uBlock Origin: works best | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox |
LocalCDN: works best | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | "Chromium unfortunately doesn't support all the cool features of LocalCDN." |
Vertical tabs/Tree Style Tabs | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Edge has this built-in, but without the heirachy or customisability of Tree Style Tabs. Half a point to Edge! |
Close push notifications with middle-click | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Edge's notifications can only be closed by clicking the small X |
Tracking Protection: Blocks Fingerprinters | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Tracking Protection: Blocks Cryptominers | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Tracking Protection: Blocks Cross-Site Tracking Cookies | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Tracking Protection: Blocks Tracking Content | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Note - the Do Not Track feature is turned off by default, except for Private Windows. |
Tracking Protection: View stats | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | View short and long-term blocked trackers, fingerprinters and cryptominers at about:protections. I can't find a way to view stats in Chrome |
Tracking protection: View stats since install date | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | This is a small thing, but Firefox shows "number of trackers blocked since " |
Developer Tools: Open immediately using F12 key | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | Edge has a welcome screen prompt - I find this annoying but others may like it. |
Developer Tools: pop out into a separate window easily | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | |
Developer Tools inspector: Search bar | ✅ | ✅ | ⛔ | Edge is awkward about searching HTML |
Developer Tools: show the Domain column in Network tab by default | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | What are they trying to hide?? |
Developer Tools: easily select multiple types, eg Font and Img | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | You have to hold down Ctrl+Click in Chrome/Edge (discovered that by accident) |
Developer Tools: auto size column with double click | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Developer Tools: live variable testing | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Firefox lets you mess with variables in the console live, without having to execute any commands! |
Developer Tools: Edit and Resend | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | |
Developer Tools: Preview images | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | Hover to preview images. Chrome actually goes one better though, images are shown as thumbnails which is nice! |
Granular customisation/configurability | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox's about:config allows users to change hundreds of settings unlike edge/chrome's about:flags |
Context Menu: Access keys | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox underlines access keys in context menus like all apps should. |
SSL/certificate/HTTPS can be permanently excepted/stored | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | On Chrome/Edge you have to choose Advanced, then Proceed each time. |
Certificates: doesn't rely on OS's cert store | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox manages its own certificates, separate from the OS. This means it doesn't rely on OS patches/updates if certs need updating/revoking |
Copy hyperlinked text using Alt + Left click | ✅ | ? | ❌ | In Edge, the only way to do this is by Inspecting Element |
Circumvent sites that block right-clicking | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | In Firefox, you can Shift + Right Click on sites that prevent you from right clicking |
View hyperlink URL instantly on hover | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Edge (and now Chrome) force you to hover over a link for a few seconds to reveal the URL |
Simple homepage config | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | Seriously Edge, how do I turn off all the junk?? |
Keyboard shortcut for Dev Tools: Network tab | ✅ | ❔ | ❔ | Hit Ctrl+Shift+E to open dev tools: Network tab in Firefox |
Send tab to other device function | ✅ | |||
Ability to use your own sync server | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Apparently it's possible! No, I haven't tried it. MS and Google are your only options with Chrome and Edge |
Extensive customisation (eg userChrome.css) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Multiple dictionary (spell checker) support | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Protected from spell-jacking | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Chrome and Edge use an online spell checker, which sends your data to their servers https://geekermag.com/stop-chrome-edge-spell-check-leaking-passwords/ |
Extensions/Add-ons on mobile | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Currently mainstream Firefox on Android supports a limited number of addons, but Firefox Nightly does not have this restriction. As for Firefox on iOS - blame Apple |
Easy on RAM/CPU* | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | I see way too many complaints about RAM/CPU utilisation by Chrome. I'll give a point here to Edge though as it snoozes tabs and seems to handle many tabs well |
Allows blocking WebRequests in Manifest v3 | ✅ | ❌ | ❔ | One of the most controversial changes of Chrome’s MV3 approach is the removal of blocking WebRequest, which provides a level of power and flexibility that is critical to enabling advanced privacy and content blocking features. Unfortunately, that power has also been used to harm users in a variety of ways. Chrome’s solution in MV3 was to define a more narrowly scoped API (declarativeNetRequest) as a replacement. However, this will limit the capabilities of certain types of privacy extensions without adequate replacement. |
Android: Background media play | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox allows you to listen to a videos in the background or with the screen off! |
Screenshot tool built in | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Really shouldn't need this, but on Windows the Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch apps suck |
Open source | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | While Chromium (the engine Chrome and Edge are based on) is open source, the rest of the browser isn't |
Offline translation feature | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | The Firefox Translations addon (WIP) allows offline translation, without relying on Google |
Doesn't clutter Alt+Tab dialog with browser tabs | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | This is annoying, and the setting to disable it is misleadingly in Windows' settings, not in Edge's settings (To disable, "Choose what windows appear when pressing Alt+Tab" > "Pressing Alt+Tab shows" - Select "Open Windows Only") |
Community to request features | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Vote for, comment and suggest new features here: https://connect.mozilla.org |
Total cookie protection | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-rolls-out-total-cookie-protection-by-default-to-all-users-worldwide/ |
Re-open closed browser windows | ✅ | ❌ | Use Ctrl+Shift+N. Note: in Edge, while you can re-open the site from the previously closed window, itopens in your current window instead | |
Re-open a closed Private/incognito tab | ✅ | ❔ | ❌ | This can be achieved by the standard Ctrl+Shift+T in Firefox |
Ability to disable DRM | ✅ | ❌ | ❔ | |
Blocks CNAME cloaking | ✅ | ❌ | ❔ | https://thehackernews.com/2021/02/online-trackers-increasingly-switching.html |
Removes tracking parameters from URLs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | As of version 102, Firefox removes parameters from URLs automatically when these may be used to identify and track users. |
Advanced JSON viewing | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Edge and Chrome only show very basic info, eg compared to Firefox: |
Better font/Image rendering* | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Down-scaled images are blurrier in Chromium browsers: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37906602/blurry-downscaled-images-in-chrome . Anecdotetally, people mention that fonts are sharper in Firefox, although I don't have evidence to back this up |
Able to run portably/from USB | ✅ | |||
"View page source" available in context menu | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | |
Address bar at bottom (Android) | ✅ | ? | ? | Address bar can be set to top or bottom |
HTML table subsections selection / Select HTML tables by column | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | In Firefox, Ctrl+Click to select multiple cells of a table |
Easily opt out of telemetry | ✅ | |||
Incognito/Private mode that doesn't track you | ✅ | ❌ | Source: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-chrome-incognito-mode-privacy | |
Can place bookmarks on the address bar | ✅ | ❔ | ❔ | |
View source: shows the 'raw' HTML/CSS/JS as it was sent… and highlight syntax errors in red and describes what went wrong in the tooltip | ✅ | ? | ? | |
Sidebar | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Address bar: always show 'www' | ✅ | ❌ | ? | Some (crappy) sites don't work without www. Chrome hides this so it looks like a "different" URL |
Address bar: hightlight top level domain | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Chrome makes it harder to spot deceptive sites in the address bar |
Address bar: "Switch to tab" using Enter | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | If you hit Enter in Chrome/Edge, they open a new tab of one you already have open (otherwise you need to use the mouse |
Smooth scrolling | ✅ | ? | ? | You can also customise the scroll behavior on about:config |
Tor browser based on it | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Tags in bookmarks, which makes more sense than using directories. | ✅ | |||
Ability to override system proxy | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox allows you to configure proxy settings independently of the limited Windows settings |
Access to a vast array of settings through about:config | ✅ | |||
Reader view available on mobile (Android) | ✅ | ? | ? | |
"Switch to" option when opening a link in a new tab (Android) | ✅ | ❌ | ? | Chrome opens a new tab in the background but without any notification/option to view it immediately |
Search for whole words (Ctrl+F) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Context menu: show extensions | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Edge doesn't always show ublock origin for example in context menu |
Better SSL certificate viewer | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox uses a modern, full page view that shows more info, and doesn't lock up the tab while you view the cert |
Option to set image as desktop background | ✅ | ❌ | ❔ | |
Choice of search engine for every search | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox lets you choose an alternative search engine from the address bar |
Add custom search engines while browsing | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Sites that implement OpenSearch can be added as a search engine by clicking the magnifying glass with green plus icon from the address bar or search bar |
Search Bookmarks, Open Tabs and History from the address bar | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | In Firefox, type the * , % or ^ symbols in the address bar to search your bookmarks, tabs and history |
Themes: easily build your own | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Build themes online or with the Firefox Color extension |
Themes: utilise backgrounds/images | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | While Edge supports themes from the Chrome store, it only displays theme colours, no images |
Themes: preview a theme without installing it | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Themes: higher coverage/more customisable | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox themes the main menu, and has many elements that can be themed |
Themes: gallery/store is non-political | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | The Chrome web store is pushing political themes, instead of good themes (Edge shares Chrome's theme store) |
Themes: override OS theme (eg dark/light) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | I can't find any way to manually set dark mode for Chrome, even with addons. Edge has this feature |
Show/hide bookmark bar easily | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Firefox and Edge let you use Ctrl+Shift+B or right click to toggle the bookmark bar. Chrome has no easy way to disable the bar (on a new tab, for example) |
Doesn't start/run in background | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | Startup boost keeps Edge running in the background with minimal processes, so it will start more quickly when launched. |
Highest number of extensions/add-ons | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox has over half a million add-ons available! |
Doesn't link browsing history, usage data and locations to users | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | "Unlike Safari, Edge and Firefox, Chrome says it links all harvested data to devices and individuals." |
Easy toolbar customisation | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Chrome doesn't allow you to customise the toolbar (at least not easily, like FF/Edge) |
Extensive toolbar options | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox lets you add more stuff to the toolbar, eg Zoom, Full Screen and Email Link. Zoom is very handy to have |
Easily deploy settings | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | You can drop/edit a user.js file to set most Firefox settings. I can't find a good way to export/import Chrome/Edge settings (except GPO), as they use an indecipherable file for their settings |
Doesn't try to log you into the browser by default | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | I don't remember actively logging into Edge, but it's logged me in anyways |
Browser account that's not tied to your digital identity | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Edge and Chrome tie your browser to your google/microsoft account and can be/is used for tracking/advertising. Kinda creepy. Firefox account is purely for syncing your data. |
Built independently of Google's Chromium browser engine | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Highlight text without any popup menus | ✅ | ? | ❌ | |
Addons - keyboard shortcut to access | ✅ | ? | ❌ | |
Facebook container addon | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Dedicated search field | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |
Autoscroll - option to disable | ✅ | ? | ❌ | This prevents middle clicks (to open link in new tab) from accidentally scrolling the page wildly if you're not 100% accurate on clicking a link |
Native Eyedropper/color picker | ✅ | ❌ | ? | |
Add-ons: Install extension in private mode | ✅ | ? | ❌ | |
Add-ons: Install extension using keyboard | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Firefox allows you to use Alt+A |
Add-ons: Easily allow addon to run in private mode | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Firefox asks you during install. Edge doesn't ask at all, you have to manually enable after the fact |
Mute tabs easily | ✅ | ? | ❌ | |
Visit a site directly instead of searching for it | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | When typing a local FQDN (eg on a domain), Edge and Chrome require you to add the HTTPS:// or HTTP:// prefix otherwise they search the web. Firefox goes straight to the site |
Mute individual tabs in one click | ✅ | ❌ | ? | Chrome can mute entire sites, but not tabs |
Saved Logins: Monitor and notify of breached logins | ✅ | ⚠ | ❌ | Firefox alerts you if one of your saved logins had their site breached. Chrome has this feature, but it's manual and you have to sign in with your google account |
Saved Logins: Shows icons of sites | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Firefox makes it a bit easier to identify entries |
Sync: use any email address | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Chrome and Edge require google and Microsoft accounts exclusively to sync your data |
Extensions: more lenient towards addons | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Addons like removeddit violates Chrome's web store policy, but not Firefox's addon store |
Address bar: match history for partial words | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Eg when typing a partial URL like "tube" instead of "youtube", Edge/Chrome does not return any matches from history and treats it like a new search. Firefox's address bar does wildcard searches and matches ANY part of a word |
Welcome screen that's not hostile | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | I've seen Edge's welcome screen where you have no way to close or even Alt+F4 it! |
Notification Permissions - better UI | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Firefox allows you to search sites and remove all sites from sending notifications easily |
Dark about:blank page | ✅ | ? | ❌ | |
Add private/incognito browsing shortcut to taskbar | ✅ | ? | ? | |
Block cookie banners* | ✅ | ? | ❌ | Firefox now clears these annoying cookie banners on your behalf. We’ll always hit "Reject all" if we have that option though in absence of a "Reject all" we’ll do what you’d do otherwise and hit "Accept all" |
Find-as-you-type | ✅ | ❌ | ? | Hit / to enter quick find. Useful for quick searches will disappear after a few moments. |
Quickly search for (and navigate) links | ✅ | ❌ | ? | Hit ' to search for links, and Tab or Enter to follow them |
Better "Find" functionality | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Firefox provides options like Highlight All, Match Case, Match Diactritics, Whole Words when using Find Ctrl +F |
Open APIs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | https://0x65.dev/blog/2019-12-17/why-we-forked-firefox-and-not-chromium.html |
Against the use of idle detection API | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | "We are concerned about the user-surveillance, user-manipulation, and abuse of user resources potential of this API, despite the required 60 second mitigation. Additionally it seems to be an unnecessarily powerful approach for the motivating use-cases, which themselves are not even clear they are worth solving" https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#idle-detection-api |
Address bar - * indicator for suggested favourites in drop-down |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Pretty sure Edge used to have this... When you start typing a URL, Edge/Chrome show suggestions (including from your favourites) but without the * indicator. Therefore you can't distinguish between your history/favourites from the address bar dropdown. |
Context menu: "Bookmark link" option | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Weird one not to have. Vivaldi has it. Even IE has it! |
Still supported on Windows 7/8/8.1/2012/2012R2 | ✅ | ❌ | 🟡 | Note that Edge will still get security patches (only) on these OSes til October 2023. IE is still supported as long as the OS is in support 😂 |
PDF reader on Android* | ✅ | ❌ | ? | *Exists in Firefox Nightly, coming soon to mainstream Firefox |
Total Cookie Protection (Android)* | ✅ | ❌ | ? | Roll out has begun and will be completed mid April. Google has delayed its move from deprecating third-party cookies on Chrome — now set to roll out sometime in 2024. |
Android app: more robust* | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | *In my testing on Android virtual machines (VMs) - both Android 7 and Android 9 . Chrome crashes often, and Edge won't even launch on either VM. Firefox runs normally |
Bookmarks/History | Show last visit time/date, date added, visit count fields (which are also sortable!) | ✅ | ? |
Because googling for extensions is a minefield of useless, outdated and inaccurate recommendations.
Essential? | Icon | Name/Link | What | Why | Tips |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Imagus-Mod | (Imagus replacement) Enlarge thumbnails, and show images/videos from links with a mouse hover. | Set to enabled when holding Ctrl (otherwise it gets annoying by enlarging everything you hover over) | |||
✅ | uBlock Origin | Best ad-blocker, see below for additional recommended filter lists | |||
✅ | LocalCDN | Emulates remote frameworks (e.g. jQuery, Bootstrap, AngularJS) and delivers them as local resource. Prevents unnecessary 3rd party requests to Google, StackPath, MaxCDN and more. | Faster browsing, less reliance on having to download 3rd party (eg Google) resources | ||
FeedBro | Advanced Feed Reader - Read news & blogs or any RSS/Atom/RDF source. | Handy for reading twitter feeds, and even can be setup to alert on keywords/new posts | |||
Tab Count Icon | Shows number of open tabs on the toolbar | Tried a few of these, this one seems best. Easy to read and it can be set to any colour. | |||
QR | Generates a QR code for the current page | ||||
✅ | Everything Metric | Converts yankee/imperial units to metric! | |||
Dark Reader | There's so many dark mode add-ons and they all have pros and cons. This one's a good all-rounder | ||||
SponsorBlock for YouTube | Easily skip YouTube video sponsors. When you visit a YouTube video, the extension will check the database for reported sponsors and automatically skip known sponsors. You can also report sponsors in videos. | ||||
Tree Style Tab | Show tabs like a tree. | I disable animation effects and turn off Tree Behaviour > "When a new tree appears, collapse others automatically" and "When a tab gets focus, expand its tree and collapse others automatically" | |||
WebMail Ad blocker | Remove advertising clutter from web-based email. Expand viewable area by blocking and removing ads on the right-hand side of the screen when using Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail. | ||||
Link Status Redux | Shows an indicator on a popup panel next to the link address when the mouse cursor is over a link to a page you have bookmarked or visited before, or if the link is currently open in a browser tab. | ||||
Linkificator | Converts text links into clickable hyperlinks | Handy for forums that don't allow proper links | Recommend setting this to On Demand, as it can slow down browsing and isn't often required. | ||
Reddit Enhancement Suite | |||||
Custom Top Sort for Reddit | Allow Reddit's top sort to use other time durations than the default ones. | ||||
Redirector | Automatically redirects to user-defined urls on certain pages | ||||
✅ | Old Reddit Redirect | Redirects all reddit links to the old Reddit | |||
✅ | Don't track me Google | Google Search results are converted to an ugly link upon click. This link enables tracking for Google. This addon removes Google's link-conversion/tracking feature. This speeds up loading search results and allows you to normally copy links. | |||
LibRedirect | Redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and more to privacy friendly alternatives. | This is a bit hit and miss for me, but if you're hardcore about privacy it's worth trying | |||
Auto Tab Discard | Increase browser speed and reduce memory load and when you have numerous open tabs. | ||||
Jump Cutter | Skips silent parts in videos, in real time. | ||||
Multi-Account Containers | Allows you to assign sites to always open in specific containers. Why is this not built-in!? |
View your uBlock filters here:
moz-extension://9ef2f22a-45d0-48fd-b0b3-5a47fd2b1a02/dashboard.html#3p-filters.html
Filter (click to subscribe directly) | Description | Comment |
---|---|---|
© uBlock Origin Dev Filter | Filters to block and remove copycat-websites from DuckDuckGo, Google and other search engines. Used to be specific to dev websites like StackOverflow or GitHub, but it currently supports others like Wikipedia. | |
🍪EasyList Cookie | gets rid of cookie alerts/popups. Also saves having to install other addons (like "I don't care about cookies") | You can also enable it in uBlock filter settings under Annoyances, EasyList Cookie |
📚Bypass Paywalls Clean | Replaces the BPC addon that has been taken down | |
➗Legitimate URL Shortener | Removes junk and tracking parameters from URLs. Gets rid of Google AMP links, UTM parameters etc. | Replaces NeatURL, CleanURLs etc addons |
📱 Fanboy's Mobile Notifications list | Gets rid of "Open in App" annoyances |
⚠ These extensions are either superseded, outdated, redundant, obsolete or even malicious - yet they're still being recommended online (even by Mozilla themselves!). Fake news! ⚠
Extension/Addon | Reason |
---|---|
Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy | You can bypass right-clicking restrictions by using Shift+Right Click |
Adblocker Ultimate / adblock / adblock plus / AdGuard AdBlocker / AdNauseum / AdBlocker for Youtube (or any non-uBlock Origin ad blocker) | uBlock Origin is king. |
Allow Right-Click | You can bypass right-clicking restrictions by using Shift+Right Click |
au-revoir-utm | Use uBlock Origin with Legitimate URL Shortener filter list |
Behind The Overlay / Behind The Overlay Revival | uBlock Origin's annoyances filter list sorts out most sites, otherwise you can use the uBlock Origin zapper |
Bypass Paywalls Clean | This has been recently removed from the Addons store. You can use uBlock with the BPC filter above to replicate most functionality |
DontBugMe | No longer works |
Bypass Twitter login | Deprecated by author |
Cookie AutoDelete | This functionality is built-in to Firefox |
CanvasBlocker / Smart Referrer | Obsolete due to privacy.resistFingerprinting being enabled and hardening XOriginPolicy (among other such changes) |
Clear Cache | You can do this manually or even use Ctrl+F5 (or developer tools) to disable cache when loading a page |
Clear Browsing Data | Only useful if you need a button instead of going through about:preferences#privacy |
ClearURLs | uBlock Origin can do this especially when you enable Adguard URL tracking protection filter in ublock Origin and subscribe to DandelionSprout's Legitimate URL Shortener |
Consent-O-Matic | For most situations, using uBlock Origin with the EasyList Cookies filter will do the same thing |
Clear Browsing Data | Only useful if you need to constantly and easily delete your browsing data. Otherwise, just do this within Firefox |
Cycle Last Used Tabs | Enable Firefox's native Ctrl+Tab MRU option instead |
Custom Titlebar Text | No longer actively developed. Intended functionality has been superseded by KeePassXC-Browser add-on and KeePassXC software. |
Decentraleyes | Discontinued, superseded by LocalCDN |
Disable JavaScript | uBlock Origin can do this |
Disconnect | use uBlock Origin instead |
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials | uBlock Origin covers most of its feature set |
Enhancer for YouTube | Firefox can block autoplay, and uBlock blocks YouTube ads |
FastForward | uBlock Origin can do this using the uBlock Filters - Annoyances and AdGuard Annoyances lists |
Firefox Translations | Feature has been integrated into Firefox |
FoxClocks | On Windows at least, you can natively add 2 additional clocks/timezones |
Emoji addons | Most OSes can insert emojis natively, eg Win + . opens the emoji panel on Win10 and newer |
Facebook Container | "The containers feature was introduced before ETP started isolating third-party cookies and site data by default. You only need to use containers now if you want to do things like logging in to multiple accounts on the same site at the same time." |
Full Web Page Screenshots (FireShot) | The built-in screenshot tool should cover this |
GIPHY for Firefox | Most web platforms (or keyboard apps on mobile) have ways to insert GIFs. For example, Facebook Messenger and Outlook/Hotmail can do this |
Ghostery | uBlock Origin is more powerful and is open source unlike Ghostery. More reasons here |
History Cleaner | You can likely achieve the same functionality using Ctrl+Shift+H (Show all history) and going from there |
Honey | Use at your own discretion. Note the warnings about privacy "Beware: Honey invites users to install its custom filter list in uBO without warning how it broadly disables privacy-protecting filters in uBO; i.e. google-analytics, taboola, pixel trackers, and so on. Mind this broad undermining of privacy protection if you import Honey's list." |
HTTPS Everywhere/Smart HTTPS | Firefox has a HTTPS-Only mode built-in |
I don't care about cookies | This has been acquired by Avast . For most situations, using uBlock Origin with the EasyList Cookies filter will do the same thing |
I Still Don't Care About Cookies | For most situations, using uBlock Origin with the EasyList Cookies filter will do the same thing |
LastTab | Appears to be completely redundant |
NanoDefender | Discontinued, and can conflict with uBlock Origin |
Neat URL | Use uBlock Origin with Legitimate URL Shortener filter list |
NoScript Security Suite | Use uBlock Origin instead |
PDF print/save/edit addons/Adobe | Most OSes can save as (aka Print to) PDF. Firefox also supports basic PDF editing nowadays |
PopUpOFF | uBlock Origin can do this stuff, although you may need to enable the right filters |
Privacy Badger | Use uBlock Origin instead. Firefox also blocks many trackers |
Remove FBclid and UTM | Use uBlock Origin with Legitimate URL Shortener filter list |
Remove Link Tracking | Use uBlock Origin with Legitimate URL Shortener filter list |
Tranquility Reader | Use Firefox's Reader Mode instead |
YouTube downloaders | youtube-dlp is better (although it's a separate application and requires some tinkering) |
Undo Close Tab | You can use Ctrl+Shift+T (or History, Recently Closed Tabs) instead |
Sort Bookmarks | Appears to be redundant |
Tab Session Manager | Firefox should be able to do most or all of what this does natively |
Unhook: Remove YouTube Recommended Videos Comments | With minimal skills, you can achieve the same results with uBlock Origin |
Simple Translate | Try Firefox Translations first |
uMatrix | Archived by developer |
Universal Bypass | Discontinued. Use FastForward instead |
UTM Eraser | Use uBlock Origin with Legitimate URL Shortener filter list |
UTM Remover | Use uBlock Origin with Legitimate URL Shortener filter list |
Zoom Page WE | Probably/unlikely needed anymore |
Vote for and suggest new features here: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/idb-p/ideas
- Automatic Picture in Picture (PiP
- Prevent sites from detecting use of Dev Tools
- Make Find results easier to see
Esc
key should stop pages loading properly- 🆕 Bookmarks: Include DAY in date column
- 🆕 Auto PiP when changing tabs/scrolling
- 🆕 Return focus to webpage from address bar after hitting
Esc
- ✅ Allow Find function on addons page Due to land in v112
- Enable right click and Alt+D on Android
- 🆕 Publish a Firefox feature roadmap
- 🆕 Split-screen/view two webpages at once
- Bring back progressive web apps (PWAs)
- Native vertical tabs
- Full controls for picture in picture (PiP) windows
- Built-in dark mode for websites
- Form autofill
- Private browsing in tab instead of having to open a window
- Bring back menu icons
- Task manager
- ✅ Improved PDF Editing: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/improve-pdf-editing-functionality/idi-p/250
- Dark mode for PDF viewer: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/dark-mode-for-embedded-pdf-viewer/idi-p/4932
- ✅ "Reveal password" option like every other browser / https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1779279
- ✅ Native Windows Notifications Note: You can also set
alerts.useSystemBackend
toTrue
inabout:config
to enable this before it goes live - Wokwi.com performance issues compared to Chrome/Edge/Safari
- MS Teams support
- Suspend inactive tabs automatically (like Edge does)
- Make GIFs click to play
- Native QR code generator: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/include-a-qr-code-generator/idc-p/9378
- Make the library tab-based (instead of a window): https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/make-the-library-tab-based/idi-p/1162
- Print preview - scaling broken: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1711659
- JPEG-XL support
- WebRTC: tab audio sharing and facetime
- WebRTC E2EE
- WebGPU
- Site specific extensions
- Built-in translator
- Multi profiles support
- Built-in ad blocker privacy features
- Support CTAP2 (FIDO2)
- Speech Recognition API and bug
- Service Workers
- Global Media Control(s) like Chrome:
- Elastic overscroll
- View page source
- In-browser printing
- Dark mode for web contents
- Enable about:config
- Pull to refresh ⬇🔄 (currently available in Firefox Nightly)
- Allow users to backup Firefox settings/data
- Allow more addons in Firefox Android
- Fission
- Multi-Account Containers
- Show protections stats (eg trackers blocked) like Brave
- Use Alt+D or Ctrl+L to focus the address bar Type '*' in the address bar to limit results to your bookmarks Type '^' in the address bar to limit results to your history Type '%' in the address bar to limit results to your open tabs
- Disable sites from hijacking the right click menu (WIP)
- Force a crash using this tool:
- If you bookmark and tag a page you want to get back to, all you have to do is type * in the address (URL bar), followed by a tag, and it'll 'suggest' the sites that share that tag.
- How to highlight/select linked text or part of a table
Settings that I configure from the get go
Setting | about:config | Comment |
---|---|---|
Disable suggesting well-known domains in address bar | browser.urlbar.autoFill.adaptiveHistory.enabled |
|
Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order | browser.ctrlTab.sortByRecentlyUsed =true |
|
Disable autoscrolling | general.autoScroll = false |
This prevents mis-middle clicks that start scrolling the page instead of opening a tab in a new window |
Open previous windows and tabs at startup | ||
Disable "Recommend extensions as you browse" | browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.asrouter.userprefs.cfr.addons = false |
|
Disable "Recommend features as you browse" | browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.asrouter.userprefs.cfr.features = false |
|
Use your operating system settings for <your locale> to format dates, times, numbers and measurements | intl.regional_prefs.use_os_locales = true |
|
Remove the "Inspect Accessibility Properties" context menu item | devtools.accessibility.enabled = false |
Does anyone actually use this?? |
Prevent the Downloads panel opening every time a download finishes | browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel = false |
|
Enable elastic overscroll effect for touchpad/touchscreen | apz.overscroll.enabled = true |
|
Disable Pocket | extensions.pocket.enabled =false |
|
Confirm before closing multiple tabs | browser.tabs.warnOnClose = true |
Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+Shift+W close the browser without any warning or prompts. This setting re-enables the prompt that Mozilla recently turned off: https://www.ghacks.net/2021/10/28/firefox-wont-prompt-anymore-when-you-are-closing-multiple-tabs-but-there-is-an-option-to-enable-it/ |
Disable "Shortcuts" from address bar drop-down | browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites =false |
These are the stock suggested sites https://www.userchrome.org/megabar-styling-firefox-address-bar.html |
Disable Sponsored Sites from address bar | browser.urlbar.sponsoredTopSites =false |
|
New Tab page: remove sponsored sites | browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredTopSites = false |
|
Show more than 10 suggestions in address bar drop-down | browser.urlbar.maxRichResults = <a number greater than 10> |
|
Prioritise history and bookmarks over search results in the address bar | browser.urlbar.showSearchSuggestionsFirst =false |
|
Reject cookie banners | cookiebanners.service.mode =2 |
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/12/24/configure-firefox-to-reject-cookie-banners-automatically/ |
Reject cookie banners (private windows) | cookiebanners.service.mode.privateBrowsing =2 |
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/12/24/configure-firefox-to-reject-cookie-banners-automatically/ |
Always open previous windows and tabs | ??? | |
Disable the "Refresh Firefox" prompt | ??? | |
Disable Pocket recommendations on new tab pages | browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.section.highlights.includePocket= false``` |
Function | Key | |
---|---|---|
Re-open closed tab | Ctrl+Shift+T | |
Move tab along tab strip | Ctrl+Shift+PgUp/PgDn | |
Focus address bar | Alt+D | |
Focus search bar | Ctrl+K | |
Close tab | Ctrl+W | |
Dev Tools: Network Tab | Ctrl+Shift+E | |
Remove an address from the address bar | Shift + Delete | If an address still appears after this, go to about:support, Places database, Verify Integrity, then restart Firefox |
Switch to next/previous tab | Ctr+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab | |
Go to Addons | Ctrl+Shift+A |
Page | Info | Comment |
---|---|---|
about:crashes | ||
about:cache | ||
about:memory | ||
about:telemetry | ||
about:protections | See how many social media trackers, cross-site tracking cookies, fingerprinters and cryptominers Firefox has blocked | |
about:performance | Useful for seeing which tabs are misbehaving and chewing up too much RAM/CPU | |
about:networking | I use this to view/clear the DNS cache, do a basic DNS lookup and see DNS server config |
Create themes here: https://color.firefox.com/
about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
Click Load Temporary Addon
- TBA
- TBA
Use this file to set/modify preferences and about:config settings outside of the browser
Example of user.js
file contents
// Dark Theme
user_pref("browser.theme.toolbar-theme", 0);
// Ctrl + Tab MRU
user_pref("browser.ctrlTab.sortByRecentlyUsed",true);
// Disable Pocket extension
user_pref("extensions.pocket.enabled", false);
// Submit crash reports
user_pref("browser.crashReports.unsubmittedCheck.autoSubmit2", true);
// F12 tools - Set Network tab first
user_pref("devtools.toolbox.selectedTool", netmonitor);
user_pref("devtools.toolbox.tabsOrder", netmonitor,inspector,webconsole,jsdebugger,styleeditor,performance,memory,storage,accessibility,application);
// Dark Theme
user_pref("extensions.activeThemeID", firefox-compact-dark@mozilla.org);
user_pref("extensions.pictureinpicture.enable_picture_in_picture_overrides", true);
// Disable Web Search Suggestions
user_pref("browser.search.suggest.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.search.suggest.enabled.private", false);
// Search region
user_pref("browser.search.region", AU); //Australia
// Stop sites preventing access to right click menu (seems to interfere with right-clicking on Google Maps etc. Use Shift+Right Click instead
// user_pref("dom.event.contextmenu.enabled", false);
// set DDG as search engine
// Not possible via user.js....
// dark mode for dev tools (f12)
user_pref("devtools.theme", dark);
// add zoom buttons to toolbar
// override the ugly Courier New monospaced font to something nicer
user_pref("font.name.monospace.x-western", Consolas);
// restore previous session
// Use OS settings for dates etc
user_pref("intl.regional_prefs.use_os_locales", true);
// allow firefox to send backlogged crash reports
// *** TBD: allow addons to run on protected/internal pages
// extensions.webextensions.restrictedDomains
// Disable accessibility services (faster)
user_pref("accessibility.force_disabled", true);
// Enable SSO for Microsoft services
user_pref("network.http.windows-sso.enabled", true);
// Allow all addons to run in private mode
// Remove Inspect Accessibility Properties from right click menu
user_pref("devtools.accessibility.enabled", false);
Create a user.js
file using PowerShell
# Create a user.js file and open it in Notepad
IF (test-path $env:USERPROFILE\appdata\roaming\mozilla\firefox\profiles){
$profilefolder = (ls $env:USERPROFILE\appdata\roaming\mozilla\firefox\profiles | sort lastwritetime -Descending | select -first 1 ).fullname
$configfile = new-item -Path $profilefolder -Name user.js -Type File
notepad $configfile
}