[Firefox Tip] Disable Ctrl+Tab Thumbnail Previews and Cycle Through Recently Used Tabs

Long time back in 2009, when Mozilla Firefox version 3.6 beta was under development, we shared an exclusive tutorial to enable a hidden secret feature in Firefox web browser. This secret feature was called “Ctrl+Tab Thumbnail Previews“. By default the feature was not enabled and we had to use the advanced configuration page “about:config” to activate this feature. This feature enabled Windows 7 and later style thumbnail previews of tabs in Mozilla Firefox.

You can check out the old tutorial at following link:

How to Enable New Ctrl+Tab Preview Thumbnails List in Mozilla Firefox?

Now after 9 years, Mozilla team has enabled the feature by default in Firefox 63 and later versions. But the feature is only enabled for new profiles. If you were using a previous version of Firefox and upgraded to Firefox 63 or later version, this feature will not be enabled for you. If you clean install Firefox 63 or later version or create a new profile in Firefox, this feature will be activated automatically.

The new Ctrl+Tab feature shows thumbnail previews of tabs when a user presses Ctrl+Tab keys together and keeps pressing Ctrl key. A list of thumbnail previews of all running tabs is shown. The user can press Tab key to switch between thumbnail previews.

This feature also activates “Cycle through tabs in recently used order” behavior. If a user presses Ctrl+Tab key, it cycles/navigates though tabs in recently used order i.e. in order the tabs were used or visited. It doesn’t cycle through all running tabs.

For me this new feature is very annoying and I immediately disabled this feature in new Firefox installation.

Mozilla team has removed the old “browser.ctrlTab.previews” preference from about:config page (as mentioned in old tutorial). Now they have replaced it with a new preference “browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder“. The same preference is also present in Firefox Options page.

If you want to disable or enable Ctrl+Tab thumbnail previews feature and cycle through tabs in recently used order functionality, following steps will help you:

METHOD 1: Using Options (About:Preferences) Page

1. Open Firefox and click on the Hamburger icon present at the right-side end of the toolbar to open the main menu. Now click on Options menu to open Firefox settings page.

Alternatively, you can direct option this page using about:preferences command in address bar.

2. Now under “General” section, look for “Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order” option.

To disable the thumbnail previews and cycle through tabs in recently used order behavior, uncheck this option.

If you want the reverse, you want to enable thumbnail previews and cycle through tabs in recently used order behavior, then enable this option.

That’s it. Now try to press Ctrl+Tab keys together and Mozilla Firefox will no longer show thumbnail previews. Now it’ll always cycle through all running tabs.

METHOD 2: Using About:Config Page

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 ctrlTab in Search filter box and it’ll show following preference in the window:

3. If the preference value is set to true, it means the thumbnail preview feature is activated and enabled. If the value is set to false, it means the feature is deactivated and disabled.

To modify the preference, double-click on browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder preference and change its value. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.

To disable the thumbnail previews and cycle through tabs in recently used order behavior feature, set the value to false.

To enable the thumbnail previews and cycle through tabs in recently used order behavior feature, set the value to true.

That’s it. The changes apply immediately.

Also Check:

[Tip] Disable New “Ctrl+Tab” Visual Tab Cycler and Restore Classic Tab Switcher Menu in Opera

[Tip] How to Disable Tab Previews and Tab Menu on Ctrl+Tab Switching in Opera