Configuring The Close Button

The placement of the Close Button has been a very controversial subject for many people. I have run into several individuals who hate that there is now a button on every tab while others say “it’s about time.” I like the feature but if you’re one of the people that don’t then you can easily change it:

• Name: browser.tabs.closeButtons
• The preference name already exists and does not need to be created.
• Default Value: 1
• Possible values:
  • 0 - display a close button on the active tab only
  • 1 - display close buttons on all tabs
  • 2 - don’t display any close buttons
  • 3 - display a single close button at the end of the tab strip (Firefox 1.x behavior)

If you decide that you want to leave the Close Button on all of the tabs then there is another configuration option that you may be interested in. This option is considered the clipping width and refers to how small a tab can be and still display a close button. It only applies to the tabs other than the one that is currently selected.

• Name:browser.tabs.tabClipWidth
• The preference name already exists and does not need to be created.
• Default Value: 140 (pixels)
• Possible values:
  • Value greater than 140 will hide the Close Button sooner.
  • Value less than 140 will hide the Close Button later.
  • Value of 0 disables the hiding of the Close Button.