Common questions after upgrading from Firefox 3.6
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- Creator: Michael Verdi
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Did you just update from an old version of Firefox? Are you wondering about all the things that have changed? This article covers the most common questions people have after upgrading and has tons of links to other great articles that you might want to explore later.
If you're new to Firefox, you might want to also see Get started with Firefox - An overview of the main features which covers the major features.
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Table of Contents
- 1 Why weren't my tabs and windows restored?
- 2 Why are the menus (File, Edit, View, etc.) missing?
- 3 How do I get the Firefox button?
- 4 Why do my fonts look blurry?
- 5 What happened to the Status Bar?
- 6 Bookmarks Toolbar - Display your favorite websites at the top of the Firefox window
- 7 How to make the new Firefox look like the old Firefox
- 8 Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars
- 9 Pinned Tabs - keep favorite websites open and just a click away
- 10 Use Tab Groups to organize a lot of tabs
- 11 The Add-on Bar gives you quick access to add-on features
Why weren't my tabs and windows restored?
If you had tabs and windows open when you closed Firefox, the new default Firefox home page will have a
If you don't use the default Firefox home page, you can restore your tabs and windows from the History menu:
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the button, go over to ( menu in Windows XP) and select .On the menu bar, click the menu and select .At the top of the Firefox window, click the menu and select .
For more about how session restore works, see Session restore and How do I restore my tabs from last time?.
Why are the menus (File, Edit, View, etc.) missing?
If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you now have an orange Firefox button that takes the most common functions and puts them in one menu.
- To temporarily show the old style menus, just hold down the Alt key.
- To have them shown all the time, right-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and check in the pop-up menu.
How do I get the orange Firefox button?
If you're using Windows XP or you've customized your toolbars, you can switch to using the orange Firefox button by:
- Right-clicking on an empty section of the Tab Strip and unchecking in the pop-up menu.
See Restore the Menu bar in Firefox for problems with the Menu bar and check out Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars for more about arranging Firefox to fit your needs.
How do I get the Firefox button?
Firefox now has the option of replacing the menu bar with the Firefox button which takes the most common functions and puts them in one menu. You can switch to using the Firefox button by:
- Right-clicking on an empty section of the Tab Strip and unchecking in the pop-up menu.
See Restore the Menu bar in Firefox for problems with the Menu bar and check out Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars for more about arranging Firefox to fit your needs.
Why do my fonts look blurry?
If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, text in Firefox may appear blurry. This is usually due to Windows ClearType not being turned on.
- In Windows, click and type cleartype in the search box.
- Click to open the ClearType control panel.
- Check Turn on ClearType and then to fine tune your settings.
- After you fine tune the ClearType settings, click to accept them.
For more details see, Fonts look blurry. It's also possible that you are also experiencing issues related to outdated graphics card drivers. See Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL for more information, including how to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox as a possible workaround.
What happened to the Status Bar?
The Status Bar at the bottom of the Firefox window has changed. The new Status Bar only shows page loading activity and link previews. When neither of those are needed it simply disappears. Please see What happened to the Status Bar? for more.