[Tip] Open Links, Bookmarks, Searches in Background in Firefox

When you try to open a bookmark, open links on webpages or search Google for some selected text, Mozilla Firefox opens them in new tab and immediately switches to their tabs. If you want to force Firefox to always open these links in background and don’t switch or focus on these tabs automatically, this article will help you.

Many times when you open a bookmark in new tab in Firefox, the browser opens the bookmark and makes the bookmark tab active. Similarly, when you select some text given on a website and right-click on the text and select “Search Google for” option from the context menu, Firefox opens the search result page in new tab and switches to the tab.

The same thing happens when you try to open a link given on a website in new tab or click on a link which is already set to open in new tab or window (specially Twitter links), Firefox immediately switches to these new tabs.

Personally I never like this behavior. In my opinion, Firefox should open these tabs in background so that we can continue working on the current tab. We can visit those tabs after some time according to our requirements.

Fortunately Firefox comes with some hidden secret preferences/flags to enable this feature. By modifying these preferences, we can force Firefox to always open links and bookmarks in background and never switch to them automatically.

If you also want to enable this feature in Firefox, following steps will help you:

1. Open Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

2. Now type InBackground in Search filter box and you’ll see following preferences in the window:

3. Except “browser.tabs.loadInBackground”, all other 3 preferences are set to false by default which means Firefox is set to automatically switch to search results pages, bookmarks and links.

To force Firefox to open search results in background and don’t switch to them automatically, double-click on the preference browser.search.context.loadInBackground and set its value to true. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.

To force Firefox to open bookmarks in background and don’t switch to them automatically, double-click on the preference browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground and set its value to true. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.

To force Firefox to open links given on websites (that are set to open in new tab/window) in background and don’t switch to them automatically, double-click on the preference browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground and set its value to true. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.

To force Firefox to open new tabs links (when you manually open a link in new tab) in background and don’t switch to them automatically, double-click on the preference browser.tabs.loadInBackground and set its value to true. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.

That’s it. Now whenever you’ll open a bookmark, search result or websites links, Firefox will always open them in background tabs and will not switch to them immediately.

PS: In future, if you decide to restore default behavior in Firefox, set the above mentioned preferences to false again.

Also Check:

[Tip] Always Show or Hide Bookmarks Toolbar on New Tab Page and Everywhere in Mozilla Firefox

[Firefox Tip] Hide or Remove “Other Bookmarks” Folder from Bookmarks Toolbar

[Firefox Tip] Keep Bookmarks Folder Menu Visible to Open Multiple Bookmarks in New Tabs

[Tip] How to Always Open Bookmarks in New Tabs in Mozilla Firefox

[Firefox Tip] Show Different Cursors for JavaScript Links and Hyperlinks that Open in New Window