We all know that Mozilla has completely redesigned interface of Firefox 4.0. They have removed Statusbar, put tabs on top, made the Menubar hidden and made many other UI changes.
If you are new to Mozilla Firefox 4.0 and not getting used to the new UI, this topic will help you.
After following this topic, the end result would be:
As you can there are many differences in the above Firefox UI and the default Firefox 4.0 UI. In above screenshot, Firefox 4.0 looks very much similar to Firefox 3.0.
So without wasting time, here are some simple steps to make Mozilla Firefox 4.0 look-like to Firefox 3.0:
Disable New Orange Button and Enable Menubar
Mozilla Firefox 4.0 comes with a new orange "Firefox" button in Titlebar which has replaced the good old Menu Bar.
Although it looks good but some users might find it difficult to use and annoying as it doesn't provide all menubar shortcuts and also hides the Titlebar text. So you can't see website titles in this way.
Following tutorial tells you how to get the good old Menu Bar back in Firefox 4.0 which will also disable the new orange "Firefox" button:
How to Disable New Orange "Firefox" Button in Titlebar & Get Menu Bar Back in Firefox 4.0
Put Tabs Back on Bottom
Mozilla Firefox 4.0 comes with Tabs on Top by default which might become quite difficult and annoying for existing Firefox users which are used to bottom tabs.
Following tutorial tells you how to put Tabs back on bottom as you used to get in older versions:
How to Put Tabs Back on Bottom in Mozilla Firefox 4.0
Get Statusbar Back
Mozilla has replaced Statusbar with new Add-on Bar which shows nothing except icons for installed add-ons.
If you also miss the progress meter and status text which used to shown in Status bar, take a look at following topic:
How to Get Good Old "Statusbar" with Text and Progress Meter Back in Mozilla Firefox 4.0
Get Back / Forward Dropmarker Back
Mozilla has removed the dropmarker from the back/forward button set. To show the recent pages drop-down list, you can either right-click on back or forward buttons or left-click and hold on back or forward buttons.
But you can get the dropmarker back using "Back/Forward Dropmarker" add-on.
Thanks to our reader "Rejjy13" for sharing it...
Few Other Things
Following tutorials will help you in getting some missing Firefox 3.0 features back and disabling new unnecessary features:
- How to Get Good Old "RSS Feed Icon" Back in Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Addressbar
- How to Get Separate "Stop" and "Reload" Buttons in Mozilla Firefox 4.0?
- How to Disable "Open New Tab After Current Tab" Feature in Mozilla Firefox?
- [Fix] Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Closes When You Close the Last Tab
- How to Bring Back "Save Tabs and Quit" Feature in Mozilla Firefox 4.0?
- How to Disable Hardware Acceleration (GPU Rendering) in Mozilla Firefox 4.0 to Fix Font Problem?
Posted by: Vishal Gupta | Categories: Mozilla Firefox
OMG
but firefox3 has no aero glass effect on its toolbars?
EGA
nice tutorial VG!
@OMG: if you want remove the aero effect try this : addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-3-theme-for-firefox/#reviews
Crond-Fx
«How to Make Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Look-Like Firefox 3.0»
What for?! =D
Uewd
Thank you very much.
Me
How can you forget Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4?! This is must-have addon who loves Firefox 3 look.
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-3-theme-for-firefox/
Fadly
i have a theme for firefox 4 for make look like old firefox 3 by Jeremy Morton
addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/firefox-3-theme-for-firefox/
leomate
Maybe somebody make Firefox 3 theme for 4 and its perfectly close like FF3 with aero glass effects :D
Prashant Ghai
Now why anybody wanna do that. It defeats the whole purpose of a new interface. Coz an average user can't even notice the back-end changes made to the browser.
Patrick
at least firefox 4 is so flexible enough to become firefox 3 interface,
IT Geek 2011
Now I can remember my old days using Firefox 3.0 on my Firefox 4.0.. Thanks for the post...
random_reader
on top of that you should also install this theme addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-3-theme-for-firefox/
Costas
Who said that this trick will remove aero? It is only a look-alike procedure (you just rearrange the buttons). You will retain every option (and aero) that Firefox 4 has to offer.
Why anybody wanna do that?
With new interfaces most people will experience the usual symptom that you move your mouse to button (that you use for years) by habit .... only to find out that this button no longer exists in that place and you have to search for it. This procedure confuses a large percentage of users and they wish to had the previous interface that are comfortable with.
Nithin
@ Crond-Fx
Yes.. why somebody would make FF4 look like 3 ? point taken.
Kyle
Coo'
MJPollard
Nice to have all of this information collected in one place, so that those of us who want the benefits of FF4 with the UI we prefer and are used to can have our cake and eat it, too. (Believe it or not, fellas, there are people out there who don't instantly fall in love with every new thing just because we're told it's "better." Each of us is the judge of what is "better" for our own needs, and if you can't or won't respect that, then you arrogant SOBs can go pound sand.)
SCBright
SOB = Sounds of Brazil, a night club in New York City :)
Rejjy13
Hey VG,
You forgot about the drop down menu next to back/forward buttons. It can be installed using this addon addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/backforward-dropmarker/
I am posting this guide at many places to help other people "unChrome" Firefox so it would be appreciated if you post this addon so I wouldn't have to.
Thanks,
Rejjy
VG
^^ Thanks. Added.
mma173
Another features that was removed, for the sake of that TOO minimal design, is the 'open search notification' (Bug 430627). This addon brings it back:
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-search-notification/
Mina
Did you know that everything is not skinned in Firefox 4?
Look at History manager (...or something like that, I don't have English Firefox.)