How to Add “Load Images Automatically”, “Enable JavaScript” and “Always Show Tab Bar” Options Back in Mozilla Firefox?

UPDATE: New Firefox add-on “SettingSanity” can be downloaded to bring these removed options back. Scroll down to read more about this add-on.

A few hours back we told you about the release of Mozilla Firefox 23 version which comes with new features, improvements and fixes. Along with these new features, it also comes with removal of a few essential options which are:

  • Load images automatically
  • Enable JavaScript
  • Always show the tab bar

Images_Javascript_Firefox_Options.png

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Mozilla has removed these options from Firefox Preferences window. Users can’t access these options any more. So now you can’t disable images, you can’t disable JavaScript and you can’t disable tab bar as these options are no longer available in Firefox settings.

Disabling JavaScript and images were useful options for people who use slower Internet connections. If you disable these options, the webpages load faster and you can save your Internet connection bandwidth.

This is just a start. Mozilla is going to remove several other options as well which have been mentioned in following article:

Mozilla to Remove Several Unnecessary Options from Firefox Preferences Window

People who updated Firefox to 23 version, are missing these options. We have received so many comments and emails from AskVG readers asking for a fix. So today in this tutorial, we are going to tell you how to access and change these options in newer versions of Mozilla Firefox.

This tutorial will help you in enabling or disabling following 2 removed features:

  • Load images automatically
  • Enable JavaScript

Actually these 2 options have been removed from Firefox Preferences window only. The functionality is still present in the browser. So you can access and customize these options using Firefox’s hidden about:config page.

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If you are using latest Firefox version and want to access these removed features, check out following 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’ll be careful, I promise! button.

2. If you want to enable or disable “Load images automatically” option, then type permissions.default.image in the Search Filter box and you’ll get an Integer with the same name “permissions.default.image” in preferences list.

Disable_Image_Loading_Firefox.png

Its value is set to 1 by default which means all images are set to load automatically. If you want to disable image loading, change its value to 2. If you want to allow images loading from the same website but want to disable 3rd party images, then set its value to 3.

Related: [Tip] How to Block or Disable Images in Mozilla Firefox

3. If you want to enable or disable “JavaScript” option, then type javascript.enabled in the Search Filter box and you’ll get a boolean with the same name “javascript.enabled” in preferences list.

Disable_JavaScripts_Firefox.png

Its value is set to true by default which means JavaScripts are enabled. If you want to disable JavaScripts, change its value to false. You can change its value by double-clicking on the preference name or by right-clicking on it and select “Toggle” option.

4. Regarding “Always show the tab bar“, Mozilla has completely removed this functionality. In older versions, this option used “browser.tabs.autohide” preference in about:config but Mozilla has removed this preference from Firefox source code. So its not present in the about:config window. Even if you manually create the preference, it’ll not work.

That’s it. This is how you can access and change these removed features in Mozilla Firefox newer versions.

Thanks to Mozilla forum, gHacks and our reader “Ibnu Ali”…

UPDATE: A new Firefox add-on “SettingSanity” is available for download which adds all these removed options back to Mozilla Firefox preferences window. It also adds 2 new buttons in Firefox toolbar to toggle images and JavaScript quickly and easily without going through Firefox Options window.

You can download this add-on using following link:

Download SettingSanity Add-on for Mozilla Firefox

Thanks to our reader “marc” for sharing it…

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. Mozilla has done very bad by removing these features. Dear Mozilla, this can lead to Firefox decline. Oops! I think I said too much.
    In other news, Yay, first to comment.

  2. Hey VG, Can I suggest you something? If yes, then please add an Edit+Delete button against comments in the Comments Box. That would help many users like me, who are very bad at typing.
    Hope you’ll do something. Sorry for the trouble.

  3. Mozilla, Microsoft, and Google are all suffering from “we’re dumbing down our products and will give you what *WE* think you want” syndrome (on top of M & M’s “slavishly aping Google Chrome’s UI” problem).

  4. @Martin J. Pollard, I agree with you. In my view, Windows 7 is far too better than Windows 8.

  5. good vg but an addon is also avalible name quick java its comes with many features

  6. SettingSanity Re-adds the options to disable Images, JavaScript, and the Tab Bar in the Options window.
    addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/settingsanity/

  7. In version 23.0.1 you also removed add-ons / the ability to simply on the fly from the Tools menu change your own persona you created. I do not like the take it or leave it mozilla / FF personas; lines & curly Q’s ???? Please allow users to use their own personas again as the Add-ons do not work and/or they mess up other add-ons already installed in the bottom tool bar.

    A lot of people put time & creativity in making their own and to summarily take it away is Not very mindful of keeping FF user friendly and holding on your loyal user base. Thanks !!

  8. Thanks for give back the options. I just stay with firefox esr 17. btw this page come first on google.

  9. Hey! AskVG I’m not facing that kind of problem now.. coz an addon QuickJAVA addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quickjava/
    Can solve this easily better than earlier….
    look at my browser i.imgur.com/oPYovTG.png

  10. Too much change-for-no-reason. What is with all this hyper-sensitivity to “the dumb users are going to break the product” I know of NO-ONE who has ever broken their browser due to the settings described above and I manage I.T. Mozilla is just full of “excuses” to “change” the software for no reason, including changing the interface all-around FOR NO REASON. Just because software CAN be changed doesn’t mean it should be. These entertainment-class mozilla “developers” could never make it in the hardware world, or mission-critical world, where things have to be RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. What’s the firefox version now 59? Just kidding.

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