Remove New Tab Button From Firefox 3.5

Posted: July 1st, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: firefox | Tags: , , , , | 35 Comments »

I have just upgraded to the latest version of Firefox.  While there are many new features in 3.5, the one that you will probably notice first is the addition of a button to the right of your tabs that will open a new blank tab.

Remove New Tab Button From Firefox 3.5

Since I use shortcut keys to open a new tab this button is pretty much useless to me.  I like to keep my browser as uncluttered as possible.  Fortunately, if you aren’t afraid of some minor text editing you can remove this button in about one minute.

You’ll need to find your user profile for Firefox which contains the userChrome.css file.  On my XP computer it is located here:

C:\Documents and Settings\<your_account>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ftz0ce5v.default\chrome

On OS X you will find this file here:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/ftz0ce5v.default/chrome/

On Windows 7:
%appdata%/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/ftz0ce5v.default/chrome

Note that ‘ftz0ce5v’ is randomly generated by Firefox so you will see something slightly different.  Once in this directory you should see a file named ‘userChrome-example.css’.  Make a copy of this file in the same directory and rename it to ‘userChrome.css’.

Open the file you have just created an add the following line:

.tabs-newtab-button {display: none}

Restart Firefox and you will see the button is gone.

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35 Comments on “Remove New Tab Button From Firefox 3.5”

  1. 1 Bill B said at 11:57 am on July 1st, 2009:

    FYI

    The path to the same file in Mac OS X is ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/zun1tuqq.default/chrome/userChrome-example.css

  2. 2 jriggs said at 12:20 pm on July 1st, 2009:

    Thanks Bill, I have added this to the post!

  3. 3 ekdor said at 1:56 am on July 3rd, 2009:

    Thanks.

  4. 4 Robyn said at 7:12 am on July 4th, 2009:

    How do you get rid of the drop down tabs button on the far right? This is like having another toolbar and its just making my view smaller.

  5. 5 Duck1974 said at 10:02 am on July 4th, 2009:

    Many thanks. I hated it at first glance

  6. 6 Luke said at 8:55 pm on July 5th, 2009:

    Appreciated. Do you know how to bring back the close button on the last tab?

  7. 7 jriggs said at 8:44 am on July 6th, 2009:

    @Luke,
    http://joe-riggs.com/blog/2009/07/show-close-button-in-last-tab-with-firefox-3-5/

  8. 8 Jack said at 1:59 am on July 7th, 2009:

    Thanks for this info man, very helpful. Instantly knew I did not want this button.

  9. 9 Paul said at 5:39 pm on July 7th, 2009:

    Tried to do your fix but couldn’t find the file to edit in question.

    Running Windows 7 RC 64-bit.

    Please update your document, had to download addon that you commented on badmouthing because you had “written a how-to” that didn’t work for me I might add….

  10. 10 jriggs said at 6:47 pm on July 7th, 2009:

    @Paul – thanks for the feedback. Though I don’t have Windows 7, I found the file’s location in about 30 seconds on google.

    Not quite sure what you mean about badmouthing the other add-on, I merely suggested an alternative, but thanks again for your comment!

  11. 11 jim said at 2:03 am on July 8th, 2009:

    thanks a lot !!!

  12. 12 Eric said at 9:48 am on July 8th, 2009:

    Yes, indeed, thanks so much! It was hate at first sight – though not as bad as the (pre-3.5) tab close buttons (about:config browser.tabs.closeButtons = 2 to kill them). Easy to search for this page because of the button’s tool tip.

  13. 13 Devyn said at 8:35 pm on July 9th, 2009:

    Thank you! I immediately searched for a preference to get rid of it. Luckily, you provided!

  14. 14 M said at 11:49 am on July 18th, 2009:

    If I’d wanted a “new tab” button like IE, I’d use IE.

    Thanks for this, it was the first thing I did upon upgrading.

  15. 15 Lagi said at 12:31 pm on July 18th, 2009:

    Likewise, noticed it straight away and wanted rid. Screen space is premium, so thanks for the help in shifting the little bugger.

  16. 16 Mike said at 12:39 pm on July 21st, 2009:

    Thanks for this, worked like a charm on Ubuntu.

    Btw, the file path in Ubuntu is: /home/mike/.mozilla/firefox/3649hhmn.default/chrome/userChrome-example.css

  17. 17 Name said at 12:29 pm on July 22nd, 2009:

    Works like a charm, not a button I need or wanted and I don’t like software forcing \noobish\ options like these on me so I zapped it away with your help. Thanks.

  18. 18 Patrick O'Connor said at 1:25 pm on July 22nd, 2009:

    The path in Windows Vista is:
    C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

    However, the Windows 7 path works in Windows Vista as well.

  19. 19 Buckingham said at 8:03 pm on July 26th, 2009:

    Same story here.. immediately wanted rid. Many thanks for sharing your solution.

    As for poster ‘Paul’ – perhaps you need a “How To…. Appreciate The Fact That People Are Trying To Help”.

  20. 20 Twitted by vmrob said at 3:42 pm on July 28th, 2009:

    [...] This post was Twitted by vmrob [...]

  21. 21 Calvin said at 3:35 pm on July 30th, 2009:

    Awesome. Does anyone know a way to remove that drop-down menu on the far right?

  22. 22 jriggs said at 7:45 am on July 31st, 2009:

    @Calvin add this to your userchrome.css file:

    /* Disable “List all Tabs” Button */
    .tabs-alltabs-button {
    display: none !important;
    }

    /* Disable Container box for “List all Tabs” Button */
    .tabs-alltabs-box {
    display: none !important;
    }

  23. 23 Korny said at 10:23 am on July 31st, 2009:

    Thanks Joe, meant a lot to me. Now there are even less reasons to use Iexplorer.

  24. 24 Haunt_House said at 7:39 am on August 3rd, 2009:

    Really cool. Thank you for the knowledge.

  25. 25 lili said at 9:04 pm on August 3rd, 2009:

    I need help :( I am not very computer savvy and I tried to apply this fix (for the same reason everyone else) and i was not successful.

    When i save the userChrome.css a message pops up and it reads:
    Cannot create the C:\program files\mozilla firefox\defaults\profile\chrome\userchrome.css file.
    Make sure that the file path and file name are correct.

    I am running vista 32-bit

    I am not sure what i am doing wrong. i would appreciate your help.
    Thank you!

  26. 26 FFUser said at 10:14 am on August 6th, 2009:

    Thanks

  27. 27 matt said at 2:17 pm on August 20th, 2009:

    userchrome.css file does not exist anywhere on my c: there is a file however called userChrome-example.css so i don’t know how to add this line of code

  28. 28 Phil said at 3:41 pm on August 20th, 2009:

    Worked great, thanks!

    (oh and matt, can’t you read the instructions?)

  29. 29 Cate said at 3:58 pm on August 20th, 2009:

    I’ve never edited the CSS before, was hoping to find a fix for this in about:config. Anyway, I understand how to do this but do want to confirm one thing. Do I leave all the existing text in the new css file, and simply copy/paste this code at the top or bottom? Not sure if I am to delete the text from the example and only have the code in the finished userChrome.css file. Thanks!

  30. 30 HappyJohn said at 5:15 pm on August 20th, 2009:

    Thanks, worked like a charm!

  31. 31 matt said at 12:33 pm on August 21st, 2009:

    doh!!

    thanks, got it working :)

  32. 32 Michael said at 12:06 am on August 22nd, 2009:

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  33. 33 Mike said at 6:02 pm on August 22nd, 2009:

    Thanks for your tip !

  34. 34 Chris said at 7:26 pm on August 26th, 2009:

    Thanks!

  35. 35 geoff said at 11:16 am on August 28th, 2009:

    ;P
    it works
    thx