Keep Firefox Open When Closing The Last Tab

Thank you very much! My prefs.js for my primary 3.0 profile is way too large to pick out what I want and I could not remember if it was an add-on or a tweak that prevented Fx from closing from the last tab.
You rock!

@ragingdrunk: Um, that didn't work. Still don't have the "x."

But I did install NewTabURL which brings back SpeedDial in that final blank tab.

Sad that I had to install a new add-on to keep an old one working. Maybe Firefox will address this in future releases.

Please, anyone, is there ANY way to disable tab tearing?

@lbrtdy: same here.

@Brain.wav: The reason I don't like it is because I have Firefox restore my last tabs on startup, but if I'm closing tabs individually, that means I'm done with that tab and don't want it restored. But when the browser quits after closing the last tab, that last tab is *always* restored the next time I start the browser, which isn't what I wanted.

stickboy

@saintseminole: Just add the following to userchrome.css to get the x back. God only knows why they would want to get rid of it in the first place.

.tabbrowser-tabs[closebuttons="alltabs"] > .tabbrowser-tab > .tab-close-button {
display: -moz-box !important;
}
.tabbrowser-tabs:not([closebuttons="noclose"]):not([closebuttons="closeatend"]) > .tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] > .tab-close-button {
display: -moz-box !important;
}

@Brain.wav: I like it too. Saves me from having to go all the way up to the top of the screen or using a different hotkey to close the browser.

@saintseminole: To get the x back to close, add this to your userchrome.css:

.tabbrowser-tabs[closebuttons="alltabs"] > .tabbrowser-tab > .tab-close-button {
display: -moz-box !important;
}
.tabbrowser-tabs:not([closebuttons="noclose"]):not([closebuttons="closeatend"]) > .tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] > .tab-close-button {
display: -moz-box !important;
}

Very nice! Thanks for this!

lamintak

@prashant90: It's tab mix plus all right...there's a setting for it. :)

Theborg3of5

@cisengineer: Oooh. You're so smart.

seiun

@saintseminole: I'm sure someone will write an Addon soon enough. It's really annoying that they simply changed this instead of making it an option.

seiun

@nitzua: That doesn't solve the problem. The goal is to keep Firefox open with a blank page loaded--not the last page you visited.

seiun

Finally a fix for this change in behavior, it was starting to annoy me.

@sunken: Not exactly, but you can change the location of the close button, which sort of accomplishes the same thing. Type "about:config" in the address bar, then search for "browser.tabs.closeButtons".

The default value is "1", which displays a close button on every tab (except, annoyingly, the last open tab). Changing the value to "0" displays a close button only on the active tab. "2" removes the close buttons from all tabs. "3" displays a single close button at the end of the tab bar, which doesn't disappear when there's only one tab open. If I remember correctly, this was the behavior in the earliest FF versions.

seiun

I'm experiencing a frustrating bug with 3.5 -- "remember my tabs and windows from last time" (or browser.startup.page = 3, for the truly hardcore) is not working. Every time I launch Firefox I lose everything I was doing before! Is anyone else having trouble with this? I'm not doing anything unusual, so I'm a bit surprised we haven't heard more about this bug.

I disabled all my add-ons to verify it wasn't one of them at fault. But even with nothing but the vanilla browser running, it still forgets everything when I quit and relaunch. I'm running on a MacBook with OS X 10.5.7. How annoying is this?

@Igor Dubinskiy: Thanks. I was searching exactly for this.

@lbrtdy: same here... I must say I use Tab Mix Plus so that may be the reason why it does not happen to me. Can't work without TMP.

Thanks, This was one big problem I had. I regularly flush my browsing session by just closing all tabs.
But there is still another... When I stop moving the mouse over a page, I get a very small blank tooltip. Not sure if it's just with the portable version.

redeemer_lh

Mine already did that?

Blake380

@Igor Dubinskiy: or if you to do it manually add the following to your userChrome.css file

/* Add tab-close-button to last tab*/
.tabbrowser-tabs[closebuttons="alltabs"] > .tabbrowser-tab >
.tab-close-button { display: -moz-box !important; }
.tabbrowser-tabs:not([closebuttons="noclose"]):not
([closebuttons="closeatend"]) >
.tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] > .tab-close-button { display: -moz-
box !important; }

llryuujinll

Thanks for this. Funny how something so minor (in the scheme of things) can annoy so many people (myself included).

Thanks for it. I was really waiting this feature of Firefox. Before there is no any alternating to reopen your last closing tab, but now you can.
Thanks again.

@lbrtdy: Same here.

@nitzua: This is what i use; it's a default option and the best way imo. This should be noted!

@saintseminole: Ahhh, it all makes sense now, thanks. I couldn't understand why anyone would need to close the last tab but still NEED -- with the fire of 1000 suns -- the browser open. That normally means I'm done with the internet. ;)

bodar

Here are two Stylish scripts that give 3.0 functionality (close button on last tab, no new tab button) to 3.5. Install the Stylish add-on first, then install these:

[userstyles.org]
[userstyles.org]

Igor Dubinskiy

Mine never closed Firefox, ever. Right now the only tab addon I have is Tree Style Tabs.

My last tab annoyance is that there is no longer an "x" on the last tab. I like to sometimes click the "x" to close down my last tab and refresh a blank tab when I'm done browsing. They removed that...

@It_Figures: Same goes for me. I always found it annoying when I'd accidentally click the W key more than I needed to and have Firefox close on me. And because I don't keep my history, I have to do some thinking and remember where I was, and how I got there.

In other news, I have nextplease and check4change working.
[cisengineer.com]
[cisengineer.com]

cisengineer

about:config search for close. It wasn't rocket science...

cisengineer

@Brain.wav: Yeah, same here. To each his own, I suppose, but I think I actually find this way more annoying. I usually have it set up so the tab bar is not showing if there's only one tab, actually.

jeremiah89

The problem with the new behavior for me, is that it negates the use of SpeedDial.

With or without the about:config fix, I still can't get down to one last blank tab like before.

(On older versions of FF, when I hit the "x" on the last tab, it showed a blank tab -- and therefore SpeedDial. Now it's just a blank tab. What's the point of that?)

Is there anyway to get the little "x" back on the final tab?

@sunken: To get rid of the new tab button, put this in your userchrome.css:

.tabs-newtab-button {display: none;}

@Johan Vandekerckhove: Same here. Always before, I had an "x" on the last tab. Now I don't, and the "close tab" on the context menu is disabled... So I guess this isn't a worry for me.

Go to tools>options>tabs and untick 'always show tab bar'. It's useless to have it showing at all times, and doing so will fix this little problem.

@It_Figures: Thanks for the tip, but here, it does not close FF, it shows an blank tab.

Johan Vandekerckhove

@sunken:

the theme i'm using (was on lh not long ago.. it says daum firefox on my themes tab) doesn't have a +, it has nothing there..

Only when you highlight right next to the tab to the most right (the newest tab?) a little box appears to open a new tab.

Mine doesn't have a close tab when there's only 1.. but i usually just open a blank tab and close the rest, works fine.

Now, is there a way to make that last tab have a "close" button?

As for annoyances, the new "+" next to the tab bar is ugly and redundant, as double clicking in an empty spot on the tab bar will open a new tab.

@PatrickSF: Ohhhhhhhhhh, damn it! I hate when that happens. Pipe = "|"

PatrickSF

@[site1.com|http:]

PatrickSF

@eirrikr: Yes, in 3.5 and earlier versions. Just create a pipe-delimited list of urls in the tools-->options-->main-->startup-->home page input.

PatrickSF

@APer3Caper: Nice, thanks for that! Good glass frames on my windows now. (Y)

As for Nightly Tester Tools, I tried, but it screwed it all over somehow. Instead of glass, I was getting black frames like when you maximize in Vista.

@[tmp.garyr.net]
:)

KesMonkey

FF has always closed the browser with the final tab for me. I prefer it, actually. Chances are, if I'm closing that last tab, I'm done using the browser for the moment.

I love Chrome because I can make it open my favorite sites when I launch it.
Can FF3.5 do that as well?
That's the only reason why I switched to Chrome..

eirrikr

@VenomIreland: An update is available, but not through Firefox (yet), just google it.

KesMonkey

Thanks, this was so annoying! I like to leave FF open and blank, but that was quickly stopped when I upgraded to v3.5.

Now it's back, yay!

orellius

@Arvedui: I stumbled upon this link on the Glasser Firefox Addons page today. It's a version of Glasser that works with Firefox 3.5. I tried it and it works great.

[www.mediafire.com]

@jonny6pak: Ctrl-W (Win) or Cmd-W (Mac) closes the present tab. If it's the last tab open, it closes Firefox.

Oh thank you so much for posting this. When I'm not looking at a site, and leaving the computer, I usually would middle click the tab, to make it blank. Now it works again!

Khristopher Ranger

Tab Mix Plus allows you to set this as well. I panicked when TMP stopped working with 3.5. As mentioned above, you can edit the about::config, but the developer also has a build on the forum of the TMP website to download the dev build compatible with 3.5.

[tmp.garyr.net]

@Johan Vandekerckhove: Same here

jonny6pak

@lbrtdy: Not supported by 3.5 IIRC.

@lbrtdy: My first guess would be Tab Mix Plus?

lbrtdy

@lbrtdy: Same here

GldRush98

@Arvedui: Have you tried force installing with Nightly Tester Tools?

Now I'm wondering if that's in Chrome too... that's one of the things that really irritated me.

AnonJr

Hmmm I am missing something, my annoyance is that I cannot close that last tab.

Close tab stays grey and there is no close button on the tab...

Johan Vandekerckhove

The behavior I get from closing the last tab is odd, now. The tab closes, I can see that, and it's replaced by a blank one. But it doesn't SWITCH to the blank one. It's like having one open tab that's inactive and I'm seeing something that should have been closed. And then, when I click on a link in the site I was on, it will actually load the link and everything, despised the tab no longer existing.

Perfect! This was really the only annoyance I had with 3.5. Except Glasser not working. *sad*

By default my FF 3.5 doesn't close when you close the last tab.. The tab just goes white. Maybe because of some of my add ons changing the default settings?

lbrtdy

You just made my day.