[Firefox Tip] Always Open Address Bar URLs and Search Box Results in New Tab
In Mozilla Firefox web browser, if you are visiting a web page and if you type another website URL in the address bar and press Enter key, the web page starts loading in the same tab and you lose access to the previous web page. Same thing happens with the search box. If you are working on a web page and type something in the search box and press Enter, it opens the search results page in the same tab.
Related: [Firefox Tip] Restore Search Box on Toolbar
To open websites or search results in new tab, you need to first open a new tab by clicking on new tab icon in tab bar or by pressing Ctrl+T keys together.
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Wouldn’t it be great if Firefox always opened address bar URLs and search box results in new tabs without overwriting the opened tab?
Don’t worry! Firefox 60.0 and later versions come with a new preference which allows you to force Firefox to always open address bar URLs and search results in new tabs. You can enable this feature using the hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.
If you are using the latest build of Firefox and want Firefox to always open address bar and search results in new tabs, following steps will help you:
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.
2. Now type openintab in Search filter box and it’ll show following preferences in the window:
browser.search.openintab
browser.urlbar.openintab
3. Both preferences are set to False by default i.e. disabled.
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The first preference “browser.search.openintab” preference can be enabled to launch search box results in new tab.
The second preference “browser.urlbar.openintab” can be enabled to open address bar URLs in new tab.
To enable desired feature, double-click on the preference and change its value to True. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.
That’s it. Once you enable the preference, try to type something in address bar or search box and press Enter key. Firefox will open the URL or search results page in new tab and your current tab will remain opened in the browser.
Also Check:
[Firefox Tip] Keep Bookmarks Menu Visible to Open Multiple Bookmarks in New Tabs
[Tip] How to Always Open Bookmarks in New Tabs in Mozilla Firefox
Just to add a clarification based on MY experience (YMMV), in the search bar, when I click on the arrow icon to initiate the search, the search does NOT open in a new tab even with the about:config setting mentioned set to true. However if I simply press ENTER (as stated above) while my cursor is in the search bar field, it DOES open with a new tab. Seems like a bug to me but that’s how it’s working for me. (FF v64)
I used to do it with an add on which was not working very well
Thanks you so much.
If you want bookmarks to open in new tabs then also set the following to TRUE:
browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInTabs = TRUE
^^ True. We have a dedicated article containing this trick:
https://www.askvg.com/tip-how-to-always-open-bookmarks-in-new-tabs-in-mozilla-firefox/