How to make Firefox reset printing to Default Printer and Settings at Startup
Earlier versions of Firefox and most Windows programs that I know of, start by using the default printer with default settings. If you change them, they stay changed for that session, but once you close the program and re-start it, you are back to a clean slate. V3.6 of Firefox now remembers settings such as portrait/landscape, zoom settings, etc. I find myself throwing out paper because I zoomed in on a certain document on Friday, then on Monday inadvertently print 20 pages of a normal page because Firefox remembered the zoom and I forgot about it. I would hate to HAVE to do a print preview EVERY time I printed because I couldn't count on the default settings. Thanks for your help.
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Since Firefox 0.8 in 2004 (and probably earlier), it has remembered the users settings for printing from one Firefox session to another, there has never been an automatic "resetting" of prefs. As far as "default settings", in Firefox the "default" is that last used settings - the "system default" isn't used as the default.
So, there is no way to get Firefox to work like other Windows programs? Upon starting Firefox, I would like the printer to be the default printer, paper to be portrait, and the zoom to be "shrink to fit".
Sorry, I don't know which "other Windows programs" you are referring to, but OpenOffice (which is a cross-operating system program like Firefox) works the same as Firefox. It remembers the last settings used, for the last used printer that was selected, and that is the "default" which is used. And if you would change to a different printer, the last settings (like "scale" and paper orientation) used for that printer, would be what Firefox uses for that printer.
That holds true for "local" printers, attached by USB or a parallel printer connection; "network" printers can affect the printer Firefox "defaults to" if they are "offline" due to hibernation and the printer might need to be selected every time you want to print to it.
I appreciate the help. Regardless of how other programs work, is there any way to tell Firefox to reset the printer settings on start-up?
Sorry, no there isn't.
Here's a great link with a fix that worked for me.