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

If you upgraded to new version of Opera web browser, you might have immediately noticed the new redesigned visual tab cycler or switcher UI which appears when you press Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+Shift+Tab hotkeys to cycle forward or backward through running tabs respectively.

The new visual tab cycler feature now shows a horizontal pop-up screen which contains small thumbnail previews of all running webpages along with page titles and favicons. Maximum 5 thumbnails are shown in the pop-up screen and if there are more than 5 tabs currently opened in Opera, the visual tab cycler scrolls between their thumbnails.

Following screenshot shows the new visual tab cycler in Opera browser:

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Opera_Popup_Visual_Tab_Cycler.png

In previous versions of Opera, when we pressed Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+Shift+Tabs keys, the browser used to display a list of all running tabs in “Tab Menu” button present in the tab bar along with a thumbnail of selected tab.

Following image shows the classic tab cycler or tab switcher in older versions of Opera browser:

Tab_Previews_Tab_Menu_Ctrl_Tab_Switching_Opera.gif

If you don’t like the new visual tab cycler in Opera and want to disable it and restore the classic tab switcher in Opera, this tutorial will help you.

Fortunately Opera team has provided a hidden preference/flag to restore old and classic tab cycler in newer versions of Opera.

You can use following steps to get rid of new visual tab cycler and replace it with the classic tab switcher menu in Opera browser:

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1. Launch Opera web browser and type opera://flags in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the hidden secret advanced configuration page called “Experiments”.

2. Now click inside “Search flags” text box and type cycler. It’ll show following option in the result:

Use horizontal tab cycler
Enables new tab cycler UI – Mac, Windows, Linux
#horizontal-tab-cycler

3. To deactivate and disable the new redesigned visual tab cycler UI and restore classic tab switcher in Opera browser, select “Disabled” from the drop-down box.

Disable_New_Visual_Tab_Cycler_Restore_Classic_Switcher_Opera_Browser.png

4. Opera will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Opera.

That’s it. Opera will disable the new visual tab cycler and will restore classic tab switcher menu.

BONUS TIP:

Once you restore classic tab switcher or tab cycler in Opera browser, you can also disable the thumbnail previews and tab menu which appear when you press Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+Shift+Tabs hotkeys with the help of following tutorial:

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

Also Check:

[Tip] How to Disable New Redesigned Address bar in Opera Browser

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

Published in: Opera

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.

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