[Firefox Tip] Disable New Compact Menu (Photon UI) and Restore Classic Main Menu

We told you earlier about the new compact main menu implemented in Mozilla Firefox newer versions. The compact main menu is a part of the new Photon UI design which brings many UI changes and improvements to Firefox web browser. You can read our exclusive review of Firefox’s Photon UI at following link:

[Review] The New Photon User Interface (UI) of Mozilla Firefox

The new compact menu replaces previous classic main menu which used to show 3 columns of big icons. The main menu can be accessed by clicking on the Hamburger (3-lines) button present on the extreme right-side of the toolbar.

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Now the new compact main menu looks as following:

Mozilla_Firefox_Photon_UI_Main_Menu_Design.png

It looks very similar to Google Chrome‘s main menu. Now it doesn’t show big icons. It now shows all options on separate rows with smaller icons and text size.

Some people may like the new compact menu but some people may get annoyed by the new menu. Recently one AskVG reader “Mark” shared his opinion about this new compact main menu:

The new “compact” menu is at least twice as large and half as usable as the old menu for me.

So you can see some people will not like the new compact menu at all. The good thing is that Mozilla has provided a built-in preference to enable/disable the new compact menu and some other Photon UI changes in newer Firefox versions.

If you also want to restore classic main menu and other UI elements in Mozilla Firefox, following steps will help you:

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1. Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “I accept the risk!” button. It’ll launch Firefox’s hidden advanced configuration page.

2. Now type photon in Search filter box and it’ll show result in the window.

3. Double-click on browser.photon.structure.enabled preference and it’ll change its value to false. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.

Browser_Photon_Structure_Enabled_Preference_Firefox.png

That’s it. It’ll immediately restore classic main menu and some classic UI elements in Firefox. Following screenshot shows classic main menu back in Firefox:

Restore_Classic_Main_Menu_Mozilla_Firefox.png

In future if you want to restore new compact menu in Firefox, set the browser.photon.structure.enabled preference to True again.

Also Check:

[Firefox Tip] Restore Old Classic Options (About:Preferences) Page

[Firefox Tip] Restore Classic New Tab Page in Mozilla Firefox

[Tip] How to Restore Classic UI in Mozilla Firefox (Sort of)

Published in: Mozilla Firefox, Troubleshooting Guides

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. This does not work, there is no browser.photon.structure.enabled preference in about:config. How do you turn this thing off, the best thing about Firefox was its good looks, photon ruins it!

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