In Firefox 34, which is in beta at the moment, Mozilla has introduced a new Search UI. Unlike the previously available search box where you had to explicitly choose a different search provider if you wanted to search with it, the new interface shows you a drop down allowing you to select the search provider while you are typing the search query. As you are typing, the search box now shows a list of installed search providers, allowing you to send a request to another service besides the default one. For instance, you can instantly search with Wikipedia, even if the default search provider is Google.
Personally I like this new option, but some users don't and would like to get rid of the new search UI. Here is how it can be disabled.
Tag: Firefox
Get the HTML color code of any web page element in Firefox
Previously, we covered how Mozilla has added an extremely useful command line feature to their Firefox browser. Let's continue exploring more useful built-in commands available in Firefox. The command line functions are very helpful and save you time. We already saw the screenshot command which allows you to take a screenshot of a web page or the entire browser window, and also the folder command which can open any folder from Firefox directly. Let's take a look at another brilliant command, eyedropper.
Move tabs and address bar in Firefox to the bottom with Bottom UI
Some time ago I covered a trick which allows you to move tabs to the bottom in Mozilla Firefox. In that article, I used the awesome Classic Theme Restorer add-on. I was a fan of the classic Opera browser which had a fully customizable UI and I appreciate having the same ability in Firefox to be able to modify its look with the help of add-ons. One such addon is Bottom UI. It is a very interesting extension for Firefox. Let's take a look at what it offers to the end user.
Open the Firefox profile folder or any other folder right from the Firefox browser
Mozilla Firefox has several useful built-in commands as part of its console. Let's continue exploring them. Earlier, I reviewed the awesome screenshot command which allows you to take a screenshot of a page, or a specific element of the page, or the entire browser window. Today, we will play with the folder command which can be used to open various folders directly from the Firefox browser including the browser's profile folder.
Enable the Update Badge in Firefox
As you might be knowing, Mozilla Firefox can update itself automatically. If you didn't change the default settings when you installed it, it will be configured to check for updates periodically and install them, so you will always have an up-to-date browser. However, there is no clear indication that an update is available for Firefox until you restart it, so Mozilla has finally added a special badge to indicate that updates are available for Firefox. The update badge is disabled by default. Here is how to enable it.
How to take a screenshot of the opened page in Firefox without using addons
I would like to share with you several useful built-in commands in Mozilla Firefox which can increase your productivity and save your time. For such tasks, Firefox has dozens of addons, but not many users know that it is possible to execute simple commands in Firefox to do them. We will start with a simple tutorial on how to take a screenshot of the opened page without using any add-ons.
Change the download location in IE, Chrome, Firefox and Opera
In this article I would like to show you how to change the default download location in popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Most of the mainstream browsers keep downloaded files in the user's Downloads folder, located at C:\Users\<Your User name>\Downloads. If you would like to set some other location for downloaded files, i.e. change it to the Desktop folder for faster access, then read the rest of this article.
How to select text inside a hyperlink without opening the link in Firefox
Every browser has features to make it easier to do basic tasks such as selecting and copying text. Firefox has a special feature for selecting a portion of hyperlinked text. Sometimes when browsing the web using Firefox, you need to select some text on a web page, often some words or a phrase inside a longer sentence. It is no problem selecting it if that text is not hyperlinked to open another page. However if the text is hyperlinked, then when you try to select the text, especially a single word or a phrase, you may end up unintentionally opening the hyperlink. You can easily select the whole link text but it's not easy to select a part of the hyperlinked text. Here is a native solution for Firefox users on both Windows and Linux. This special feature of Firefox will allow to you to precisely select exactly the text you want.
How to run Firefox in private browsing mode from the command line or a shortcut
Private browsing mode is a feature of the Firefox browser designed to not record the history of your web surfing. When you open a new private window, Firefox does not retain cookies, temporary internet files, history, and other data related to your browsing activities. When the Private browsing session window is closed, this data is cleared. Additionally, Firefox will reset the clipboard content for better privacy. Private Browsing mode can be activated in settings, there you can enable it permanently so Firefox always runs in private mode. However, you might want to run it usually in normal mode and only have a shortcut instead to run Firefox in private mode.
Disable and remove the search box from the new tab page in Firefox
Mozilla released a new stable version of the Firefox browser for desktop (Windows, Mac and Linux) and mobile (Android) platforms. In desktop version of Firefox 31, there is a search box that has been added to the New Tab Page. But Firefox already has a dedicated search box. If you found the search box on the New Tab page redundant, you can remove it. Just follow these simple instructions.
