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Where is the option to NEVER use Tabs? I HATE, HATE, HATE TABS! Firefox opens a new tab even to set preferences!!

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There are lots of options for tabs on FF but not one that disables tabs completely. I hate tabs and want to never see a new tab opened, only new windows. Why isn't there one box to check in preferences that says "Never show tabs, only new windows".

There are lots of options for tabs on FF but not one that disables tabs completely. I hate tabs and want to never see a new tab opened, only new windows. Why isn't there one box to check in preferences that says "Never show tabs, only new windows".

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You can go into the Firefox settings and uncheck "Open new windows in new tabs instead" but there is no setting to completely disable tabs. Overall, most people find tabs far more useful than windows, with the ability to have more content easily accessible.

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There are other things that need attention.

The The System Details list next to your question shows you have multiple Flash plugins.

  1. Shockwave Flash 26.0 r0
  2. Shockwave Flash 12.0 r0

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.

You can check the Flash player installation folder for multiple Flash player plugins and remove older version(s) of the plugin (NPSWF32) and possibly (re)install the latest Flash player.

  • (32-bit Firefox) C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\
  • (64-bit Firefox) C:\Windows\System\Macromed\Flash\
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See also:

For links opened via JavaScript you can look at this pref:


Note that builtin about: pages like about:preferences (Options/Preferences) will open in a new tab. You would have to create a button on the Bookmarks Toolbar and hold down the Shift key to open such a page in a new window with a left-click. You can see all available about: pages on the about:about page.

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Why do you prefer individual windows instead of a bunch of tabs in a single window?

In case it's of interest, you can set Firefox to show each individual tab like a window on the Windows Taskbar with its own thumbnail. The setting is called "Show tab previews in the Windows taskbar" and it's on the Options page, General panel. This article will get you there if you haven't visited before or need a refresher: Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings.


Once upon a time there was an extension named "Tab Killer" that enforced a one-tab-per-window model in Firefox. That extension stopped getting updates and I don't think there's a version that can be installed right now. However, Firefox has a new interface for extensions, and I think someone might be able to create a new "Tab Killer WE" by combining a number of methods for these basic steps:

1. Detect that a new tab has been created in a window: tabs.onCreated

2. Check to see whether the index of the tab is higher than zero (otherwise, there's only one tab in the window). tabs.Tab If so:

A. Create a new window: windows.create()

B. Move the tab detected in step 1 to the window created in step 2A: tabs.move()

Note that this is an idea and not a proven recipe. Also, I'm not an extension developer, so even if something looks possible to me, I may be unaware of reasons that it is not, in fact, possible.