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

Links open in a new window instead of a new tab

  • 6 tontu
  • 10 am na jafe-jafe bii
  • 1 view
  • i mujjee tontu mooy hb1547

more options

Since updating to Firefox 42.0 this morning, links open in new windows instead of new tabs despite my settings. Not every link -- just links configured for a new window.

I have the option "Open new windows in a new tab instead" checked, and browser.link.open_newwindow in my about:config is set to 3. I tried Safe Mode and the problem still persists.

Any ideas?

Since updating to Firefox 42.0 this morning, links open in new windows instead of new tabs despite my settings. Not every link -- just links configured for a new window. I have the option "Open new windows in a new tab instead" checked, and browser.link.open_newwindow in my about:config is set to 3. I tried Safe Mode and the problem still persists. Any ideas?

All Replies (6)

more options

Does the browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction pref (JavaScript window.open()) has any effect?

Does the right-click context menu work properly?

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) to see if that helps.


more options

My browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction is set to "2", which seems to be what I would expect. I tried checking Firefox in Windows Safe Mode and the problem still exists.

Middle-clicking on links/bookmarks still works, same with "open link in new tab". Opening links in new tabs via the context menu also works.

more options

I'm having this problem with window.open() without "features", which should by default be opened in a new tab. This test page demonstrates the problem:L

http://jeffersonscher.com/res/popit.html

Setting browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction = 0 forces everything to a tab (so now the third link works incorrectly). That may be less annoying on balance.

There was a change in Firefox 42 to check for "features" web pages shouldn't be allowed to use, but I don't understand the code well enough to know whether that change caused this problem, or there is something else going on. (https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mo.../3e8d94c73096d71029b71cb1d1466d0fa9fd29d8#l4.186).

I filed a bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1222879

more options

I've tested it in the current Firefox 43.0b1 version and there it works as expected, so this issue will be fixed in the next release.

more options

It seems that having dom.disable_window_open_feature.minimizable set to true causes this problem, and resetting it to the default value of false resolves it. I'm not sure whether i have always had this set to true or whether this was toggled somehow (I was experimenting with advanced configuration extensions and one of them changed a bunch of my settings recently).

more options

jscher2000 said

It seems that having dom.disable_window_open_feature.minimizable set to true causes this problem, and resetting it to the default value of false resolves it. I'm not sure whether i have always had this set to true or whether this was toggled somehow (I was experimenting with advanced configuration extensions and one of them changed a bunch of my settings recently).

I also have this value set to true. Great sleuthing!