This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

about:config# browser.newtab.url# under 'value' I enter new page ie. 'https://support.mozilla.org'# I open a new tab and nothing?

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by 170fin

more options

about:config# browser.newtab.url# under 'value' I enter new page ie. 'https://support.mozilla.org'# I open a new tab and nothing?

In case you need more of a step-by-step:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste newtab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter your preferred page:

   Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
   Blank tab => about:blank
   Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
   Any other page => full URL to the page 

Press Ctrl+t to open a new tab and verify that it worked.

Success? No ~ Doesn't work for me?

about:config# browser.newtab.url# under 'value' I enter new page ie. 'https://support.mozilla.org'# I open a new tab and nothing? In case you need more of a step-by-step: (1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful. (2) In the search box above the list, type or paste newtab and pause while the list is filtered (3) Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and enter your preferred page: Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab Blank tab => about:blank Built-in Firefox home page => about:home Any other page => full URL to the page Press Ctrl+t to open a new tab and verify that it worked. Success? No ~ Doesn't work for me?

Chosen solution

Firefox 41 no longer uses the browser.newtab.url setting in about:config because it was constantly attacked by malware. Starting in Firefox 41, you need an add-on to change the new tab page.

Here are some options (I learn of more all the time):

  • If you already use either the "Classic Theme Restorer" or "Tab Mix Plus" extension: There is an option somewhere (!) in its extensive settings dialogs to select a different new tab page.

Please only use one of these methods at a time, otherwise there may be conflicts and dysfunctionality.

Setting up New Tab Override and Custom New Tab

After installing one of these extensions, you need to use its Options page to set the desired new tab page (instead of using about:config).

Open the Add-ons page using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Cmd+Shift+a)
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then on the right side, find New Tab Override or Custom New Tab and click its Options button. (See first screen shot attached.)

New Tab Override

Depending on the height of your screen, you may need to scroll down to enter the desired address into the form. (See second screen shot attached.) For example:

  • Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
  • Blank tab => about:blank
  • Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
  • Any other page => full URL to the page

Then tab or click away from that form field and you can test using Ctrl+t.

Custom New Tab

Entering your preferred home page address is simple. If you do not check either of the boxes, the extension will set the focus in the page so, for example, the cursor will be in the Google search box. (See third screen shot attached.) I had to exit Firefox and start it up again before Custom New Tab started working, but this may have been due to testing so many extensions back-to-back.

Success?

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (5)

more options

New Tab Override (browser.newtab.url replacement) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/

With Firefox 41 (and higher), it's no longer possible to customize the page shown in a new tab via changing the preference browser.newtab.url in about.config. Because of the fact that hijackers abused the preference in the past, Mozilla decided to remove it (see bug 1118285). Fortunately, by removing it, Mozilla also introduced a new API to bring this functionality back to life as an add-on. This add-on allows the user to choose a certain page in a new tab.

more options

Chosen Solution

Firefox 41 no longer uses the browser.newtab.url setting in about:config because it was constantly attacked by malware. Starting in Firefox 41, you need an add-on to change the new tab page.

Here are some options (I learn of more all the time):

  • If you already use either the "Classic Theme Restorer" or "Tab Mix Plus" extension: There is an option somewhere (!) in its extensive settings dialogs to select a different new tab page.

Please only use one of these methods at a time, otherwise there may be conflicts and dysfunctionality.

Setting up New Tab Override and Custom New Tab

After installing one of these extensions, you need to use its Options page to set the desired new tab page (instead of using about:config).

Open the Add-ons page using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Cmd+Shift+a)
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then on the right side, find New Tab Override or Custom New Tab and click its Options button. (See first screen shot attached.)

New Tab Override

Depending on the height of your screen, you may need to scroll down to enter the desired address into the form. (See second screen shot attached.) For example:

  • Page thumbnails (default) => about:newtab
  • Blank tab => about:blank
  • Built-in Firefox home page => about:home
  • Any other page => full URL to the page

Then tab or click away from that form field and you can test using Ctrl+t.

Custom New Tab

Entering your preferred home page address is simple. If you do not check either of the boxes, the extension will set the focus in the page so, for example, the cursor will be in the Google search box. (See third screen shot attached.) I had to exit Firefox and start it up again before Custom New Tab started working, but this may have been due to testing so many extensions back-to-back.

Success?

more options

Excellent. Works perfectly now, thank you @jscher2000. Is there any security issues with this that you're aware of?

Thank you also @FredMcD for taking the time to respond.

more options

170fin said

Is there any security issues with this that you're aware of?

The Add-ons team does a security review of the extensions on the add-ons site. Occasionally, there have been cases of extensions getting advertising embedded in them, which perhaps doesn't violate site policies as long as it is disclosed. I doubt that will happen with these very simple extensions.

more options

@ jscher2000 ~ That's good to know. Thanks again for taking time to post ~ It's very much appreciated.