I suppose, by now, you must be using Firefox 3.5. If not, you can download the Firefox 3.5 to get a better browsing experience. I’ve upgraded my FF 3 to FF 3.5 yesterday and the first impression of FF 3.5 was great. Firefox 3.5 loads quickly, the UI also looks good and supports many HTML 5 features. I’m still waiting for my favorite plug-ins to release their FF3.5 compatible versions, though. Apart from the good things, I do have a small usability concern with Firefox 3.5.
In the earlier versions of Firefox, even if you have only one tab opened in a Firefox window, that tab used to have a close button. But this functionality is missing in Firefox 3.5. Now, if you just have a single tab opened in Firefox window, that tab will not have the close button. If you want to close that tab, you need to close the Firefox application itself. Another geeky way of doing this is by opening a new tab and you will get close buttons in all the tabs. Now you can close any tab you want! 
. OK, coming back to the point. I need the close button in the last tab too mainly for the Usability & Consistency – being used to have the close button in Firefox and now missing that functionality is kind if uneasy. And having the close button in all the tabs makes the UI consistent. Otherwise, just for closing the last tab, you need to search for the close button in the top-right section of the screen.
One way to enable the close functionality for the last tab is to make modification in the Firefox’s configuration file about:config. Follow the below steps to enable this.
Enabling the Close functionality for the Last tab in Firefox 3.5
- Type about:config in Firefox’s address bar and press enter. Firefox will warn you saying that ‘If you mess with my internal configurations, I won’t work properly’. Just promise FF that we won’t do any harm to it.
- You will be shown a screen with all configuration entries. We need to navigate to the tab’s configurations. Type tab in the filter box, which will show only the entries that contains the text tab. Now, as seen in the below screenshot, change the value of the property browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab to false. This will disable the window-close functionality for the last tab. Instead, now you must be able to close the last tab.
One problem in this work around is still you won’t get a close button in the last button. But, you will be able to close the last tab, with out needing to close the Firefox’s application, either by using Ctrl+w shortcut or by clicking on the tab with the mouse’s scroll button.
Update:
If you do not want to get your hands dirty with these configuration changes, you can try out the addon Last Tab Close Button, which solves the issue. Thanks to P for notifying me about this addon.
{ 48 comments }
Yeah, pretty annoying the last close button has gone. Cannot fully understand WHY it had to go. Seems like they copied the behaviour of IE8 on abs, which is also pretty annoying. For now, just waiting for an extension to resurrect the proper behaviour…
Yes. The missing-close-tab is really annoying. I hated that in IE8, but now it comes to FF also. Hope FF provides some option setting for enabling the close button in the single tab.
Why, thank you very much for this tip! Since I installed FF 3.5 I was constantly closing the browser instead of my last tab, and it was quite annoying. And I agree, I miss the “close” button on the last tab too !
You are welcome.
I kinda agree, although with a twist. See I think when there are only one document, there should simply BE NO TAB – why waste valuable screen real-estate?! Doing so obviously clashes with Firefox 3.5 now having “+” button for creating a tab, but this can easily be moved up (I used to have it like that in Firefox 3.0) in the main toolbar area.
Btw. Crome does the same as Firefox 3.5, except closing the last tab will also close Crome itself.
logically it is correct. There is no need to have a ‘close’ button in a single tab.
but consider this scenario – you have around five tabs open. You want to close them all and want to have fresh browser window. U start closing each tab using that ‘close’ button, and suddenly when the last tab comes, you won’t find any close button. You need to scroll your muse pointer all the way to top-right portion of the screen. It’s not a longer distance, but will be really annoying if you using touchpad instead of a mouse.
it’s not a big issue, but in usability point of view, it will improve user’s experience.
As you said, at least Chrome provides the ‘close’ icon even if it is a single tab. I like that.
Why the heck did Mozilla remove the X from the last tab? Talk about fixing something that wasn’t broke.
My approach to this problem is to have a blank home page and then clicking the home button to clear the last tab.
I wonder when/if Tab Mix Plus will be revised to work with FF 3.5. I believe it’ll fix this problem.
This brings up another issue. Why does each major release of FF break so many Add-On’s? Is the FF GUI API really changing that drastically?
//Why does each major release of FF break so many Add-On’s?//
to make the developers around the world always working on their add-ons !
Just kidding.
I do not have much idea on that plug-in’s area. knowledgeable people may give you an answer.
Perhaps I’m missing something obvious, but why would you want Firefox open with no content in it? Closing the last tab is basically closing Firefox, which is why Mozilla shipped it this way.
//why would you want Firefox open with no content in it?//
I’m using FF mostly for testing my Java web applications. For every fresh deployment of my java app, I usually open a new tab in my browser to avoid any caching/session related issues. If FF 3.5 doesn’t allow me to close the single tab alone, then I need to close the FF window itself and need to re-open the browser, which is a waste of time.
Instead I would prefer just to close the tab itself. This saves me few seconds.
I like to leave Firefox running because it takes 30+ seconds for it to launch on my computer (it’s a few years old). When I’m ready to come back to Firefox I like to come back to a clean slate. (I’m also really fussy about the order in which Firefox appears in my taskbar.)
Since upgrading to Firefox 3.5 I have to make a new tab, then close the tab with a page loaded to get back to a clean slate. It’s really annoying. I hate how all the browsers are going to this. This is even more frustrating on mobile Safari.
> Why does each major release of FF break so many Add-On’s?
It only broke one of my extensions (Moonlight) and that’s just because I used to have 64bit Firefox but just installed a 32bit one (same goes for Java and Flash plugins). Aging Tabs, DownloadHelper, Download Statusbar, Firebug, Prism and Tab Preview all still seem to work.
I’m using Firebug and it released the updates for FF 3.5. It works fine now (along with delicious add-on, scribefire, colorzilla)
copy and paste the following in 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;
}
restart firefox and voilà.
that’s cool. Thanks for the information.
I’m using Speed Dial plugin, which displays my common links instead of clean screen. The problem with new FF is now, when last tab was closed FF just displays blank page instead of shortcuts screen.
hope Mozilla provides some fixes for this in next release.
I prefer the olderway, my Firefox is set to open the tabs left over from before. Sometimes I leave work open in tabs, and sometimes I don’t.
Because 1 tab is now always open, when I run firefox this old tab is opened and loaded weather I like it or not.
I also like the fact that when you closed the last tab, it would automatically create a new blank tab and put focus into the address bar for you.
The new change breaks that, and doesn’t leave a user any way to close all tabs and leave us with a nice blank tab ready to work with.
//Because 1 tab is now always open, when I run firefox this old tab is opened and loaded weather I like it or not.//
yes. even I don’t like this. but, after the fix in about:config, now it’s fine.
Thanks for the tip!
The only drawback in my FF 3.5 is, that after closing the last tab, the focus does not go to the “new” last tab and the display is not updated (it still shows the content of the “old” last tab – only the name of the tab itself is updated). I have to manually click on the “new” last tab in order for it to gain focus and for the display to be updated.
Hi Stevie,
I think, it must be a bug in Firefox 3.5. But, it’s working properly in my FF 3.5. (i.e. closing the last tab removes the content and opens a new tab).
Anyway, you can try logging your bug request at mozilla’s issue tracker. they may have an answer for your question.
OK, the problem was lying with the add-on named “Tab Kit”. I am now using “Tab Mix Lite CE” instead. The above described problem is gone. It works fine now.
Warning: Whoever reads this, don’t try to use both add-ons at the same time. They don’t like each other.
//They don’t like each other.//
Thanks Stevie for the tip on the “Tab Mix Lite CE” add-on.
I just tried it. It works great so far. Even though it’s “experiemental”, I’ve had no problems with it. It has all the features I used in “Tab Mix Plus”.
Actually, Tab Mix Plus had so many options I never used and seemed unnecessarily complex to me.
Tab Mix Lite CE URL:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12391.
This is one of the things I’ve always hated about IE7/IE8.
It makes no sense to be to not be able to close the last tab, and I frequently find myself annoyed (despite using IE so infrequently) that I can’t.
agree with that. I wonder how Mozilla came up with that approach of not allowing the user to close the last tab.
My guess would be that they wanted to emulate IE. Goodness knows why, since I doubt there’re many users in favour of the change.
Thanks for advise about scroll-button – I was really annoyed that in Firefox support they’ve closed 3 questions regarding this topic as “solved” while their solution is not working up to the moment. Thank you once again.
you are welcome, Sharmila!
There is a way to bring back the close button. The config change is only half the task. You need to edit userChrome.css file as well. For details: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1309415
yes. that will add a close button to the last tab too.
thanks for the information.
Hi
The solution is simpler as you think.
Just toggle “browser.tabs.autoHide” from false to true.
Hi Himbre,
thanks for the tip. Will try it out.
cool man, thank you.
.-= Murat´s last blog ..VS 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP 1(BETA) Released =-.
welcome.
I think they copied off of IE8, if I wanted FF to work like IE I’d just use IE!
ha.ha.
As to why I want this functionality, first of all, it’s what I’m used to. I’m used to it because I can clear the decks of all browser material. If I’m sitting at my desk looking at something that’s not work-related with only one tab open, I can close it quickly without closing Firefox. Even if FF 3.5 loaded quickly (it doesn’t), closing the last tab is easier than mousing around to close and reopen FF.
Like another poster, I tried both opening a second tab and closing the first one,and then using the home page icon to go to the default Google home page in FF. But oops…that leaves the page you were on in memory and the back button will bring it up. OK, but if I was playing online poker at the office when someone came into the room and then forgot and clicked back…..
IMO, a better solution than fiddling with the FF config and having to remember a new scroll click is this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12991/
It’s experimental, and I was reluctant to try it, but I’m sold on it after using it for a week. No odd things have happened, and I have the red-x box in the last open tab.
Thanks for the information, John.
Will definitely try out the plug-in you’ve mentioned.
Last time I checked, the CTRL+F4 keyboard shortcut would close the solo tab, along with your entire firefox instance
I found that to be the most annoying, since I was used to hitting that a bunch of times to clear out all of my tabs when I had 4 or 5 up. The fact that I could hit CTRL+F4, which was supposed to close a tab, and have my entire firefox app close was the absolute worst in my mind…
@iddqd
Yeah. that feature is really annoying.
Just found this addon
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12991/
Hm.. I expected that some plug-ins will appear to fix this. Thanks for the link.
The config change recommended by “Hombre” made the tab bar go away when there was only one tab – that’s not what I needed. The addon recommended by “P” does solve the problem. Thanks!
Very nice tip! It was *VERY* annoying that I can no longer close window with Ctrl+w.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
I’m glad to find this solution as I’ve been VERY annoyed with this “feature”, In fact, it got me to the point where I’ve learned a new preference I’d like to have. Does anyone know how/where I could make it so that when I do CTRL-W my tabs that when I get to the last one, it closes it out, then reloads my “Home” tabs. Or, could I just “program” CTRL-E to close all my tabs and reload my “Home” tabs?
THANK YOU!! This was driving me crazy. Who wants to close the last tab with cmd-W and then have a new blank tab appear???
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
This is just what I have been looking for.
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