[Firefox Tip] Remove Search Box from Options (About:Preferences) Page

Similar to Google Chrome web browser, Mozilla has added a search box on Options (about:preferences) page in newer versions of Firefox. If you open Options page in new Firefox versions, you’ll get a search box present at the top-right corner. You can take help of this search box to directly go to a desired option or setting.

This search box addition is a part of the reorganized Options page which has been redesigned to complement to the new Photon UI in Firefox.

If you don’t like the new search box on Options page or if you don’t need the search box, you can remove it by disabling a built-in preference present in Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration “about:config” page. Mozilla has provided a built-in preference to show/hide the search box on Options page.

To remove the search box from Firefox Options page, you just need to follow these simple steps:

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

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

That’s it. It’ll immediately disable the search box on Options Page. Try to open the Options page and you’ll no longer see the search box at top. It’ll be removed from Options page as shown in following screenshot:

To restore the search box on Options page, double-click on the browser.preferences.search preference again and set it to true.