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Cuireadh an snáithe seo sa chartlann. Cuir ceist nua má tá cabhair uait.

How to PERMANENTLY disable the F-keys in firefox? (F9, F10, F11, F12 and so on)

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junk6
junk6
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Hello everybody!

Im trying to disable those F-keys for firefox but i am unable to find anything that helps, after weeks of searching..

I need to disable those keys because i am a clumsy typist, often hitting F12 instead of backspace, F5 as well as the number 6 and so on.

Its VERY disruptive to have those keys enabled, i have often had to re-type a lengthy forum reply just because some dimwit programmer found it reasonable to pollute my user experience with a "reader mode" and link it to F9. I could possibly live with that F12 web console behaviour, since it doesnt really do anything but annoy me, i just close it again when i accidentally open it, but that damned F9 is seriously making me hysterical.. ..Just to clarify, if i press the F9 while typing a forum reply, the whole page gets reloaded in some autistic fashion that deletes everything ive typed..


And to further specify my request; i want ALL the F-buttons to be blocked/unusable by Firefox, but unaffected while in windows or other apps.

If its not possible to block firefox from receiving the F-key-presses, is it possible to get the source for firefox and rebuild it without those features? ..I would rather just flip a settings switch to disable this F-key madness, but if i were to find a web browser that DIDNT use them, i would have uninstalled firefox for that reason alone..

Hello everybody! Im trying to disable those F-keys for firefox but i am unable to find anything that helps, after weeks of searching.. I need to disable those keys because i am a clumsy typist, often hitting F12 instead of backspace, F5 as well as the number 6 and so on. Its VERY disruptive to have those keys enabled, i have often had to re-type a lengthy forum reply just because some dimwit programmer found it reasonable to pollute my user experience with a "reader mode" and link it to F9. I could possibly live with that F12 web console behaviour, since it doesnt really do anything but annoy me, i just close it again when i accidentally open it, but that damned F9 is seriously making me hysterical.. ..Just to clarify, if i press the F9 while typing a forum reply, the whole page gets reloaded in some autistic fashion that deletes everything ive typed.. And to further specify my request; i want ALL the F-buttons to be blocked/unusable by Firefox, but unaffected while in windows or other apps. If its not possible to block firefox from receiving the F-key-presses, is it possible to get the source for firefox and rebuild it without those features? ..I would rather just flip a settings switch to disable this F-key madness, but if i were to find a web browser that DIDNT use them, i would have uninstalled firefox for that reason alone..

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Hi junk6, I'm not aware of any one-click solution to this. There are some keys that will stop doing things if you disable their associated function, and there are add-ons which can prevent most keys from reaching Firefox (they embed a script in the current page and intercept and modify keys you assign).

I'm tried these two add-ons, but don't use them day to day:

  • https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/saka-key/
  • https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/shortkeys/
cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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F12 would open the developer tools, so if you never use any developer tool then you can disable them entirely via the about:config page.

  • devtools.enabled = false

F7 for caret browsing mode also can be disabled via a pref.

  • accessibility.browsewithcaret_shortcut.enabled = false

I'm not aware of a action for F8 as a builtin function, so this action might be connected to an extension.
You can inspect and modify keyboard shortcuts used by extensions via the cogwheel button on the about:addons page.