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Open homepages when Firefox first starts, but blank page in new window

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cs19122005

cs19122005
cs19122005
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Hi!

So I switched from Chrome, and there is one thing that keeps annoying me: the homepage and new window behavior.

In Chrome, you could define your pages that load when first launching the browser, but when you open a new window, it would default back to an empty page. This is the behavor that I want.

In Firefox, I only found the solution with setting the browser.startup.page option to 0, so new windows open with a blank page while you could still edit your homepages. But here, I would have to click the homepage button each time I initially start the browser. This is quite annoying, since it would always be an extra step when launching the browser.

Could anyone help me get the behavior like in Chrome? I want Firefox to open my homepages on startup, but use empty pages when it's already open.

Hi! So I switched from Chrome, and there is one thing that keeps annoying me: the homepage and new window behavior. In Chrome, you could define your pages that load when first launching the browser, but when you open a new window, it would default back to an empty page. This is the behavor that I want. In Firefox, I only found the solution with setting the browser.startup.page option to 0, so new windows open with a blank page while you could still edit your homepages. But here, I would have to click the homepage button each time I initially start the browser. This is quite annoying, since it would always be an extra step when launching the browser. Could anyone help me get the behavior like in Chrome? I want Firefox to open my homepages on startup, but use empty pages when it's already open.

All Replies (3)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
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Unfortunately, there's no way to exactly emulate what Chrome does. Customary workarounds include:

(A) Using Pinned Tabs for sites you want to open at startup. See: Pinned Tabs - keep favorite websites open and just a click away.

Pinned Tabs are saved in session history files, so setting Firefox to flush history when it closes probably is incompatible with this feature, if you do that.

(B) Modifying the Firefox shortcut.

Maybe this is only a Windows thing, but you can add URLs to the command line, for example:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -url https://www.example.com/ -url https://support.mozilla.org/

The other approaches all appear to require manual action, unless there's an add-on that can take care of it.

cor-el
cor-el
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Note that the OP is using Linux where you can use a bash script to launch Firefox. 

#!/bin/sh

# cd to Firefox installation folder and start via ./firefox
cd /usr/local/mozilla/firefox
./firefox -url <url1> -url <url2>

cs19122005
cs19122005 Question owner
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cor-el said
Note that the OP is using Linux where you can use a bash script to launch Firefox. 
#!/bin/sh

# cd to Firefox installation folder and start via ./firefox
cd /usr/local/mozilla/firefox
./firefox -url <url1> -url <url2>

Seems this is the way to go. Does anyone know if it's possible to edit the command for the firefox shortcut in the dock/startmenu?