Hello, brave people of Firefox ! Here is my request : I want Firefox to open the links in the current tab, except the pages opened from external apps — I want these ones to open in new windows. First choice : make this the default behaviour. I think this behaviour should be the default behaviour of Firefox. Alas, I do not expect to see this anytime soon. I don't see why, by the way. So, if I don't have the first choice, then as second choice I want to be able to set this behaviour using the prefs user-friendly UI. If I don't have the second choice, then as a third choice I want to set this behaviour using the "about:config" secret prefs. According to the — obsolete — page-acting-as-documentation http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries , this is not possible — except if I missed something. Thank you for making Firefox more user-friendly. In the meantime, if you can give me a workaround or a "secret pref" hint, this would been appreciated. Cheers, Nicolas Barbulesco

> I want Firefox to open the links in the current tab, except the pages opened from external apps > — I want these ones to open in new windows. Please give exact steps of reproduction. From how I understand your request, this is already the case, at least on my system.

Here's what I understand: Reproduction: 1. Open any webpage with a normal link <a href="..."> 2. Click on the link 3. Go to Thunderbird 4. Click on any link in an email Expected Result: Step 2: linked page opens in the same tab as the previous page in step 1. Step 4: linked page opens in a new tab, in the last-used Firefox window Actual result: As expected result Environment: Linux, Ubuntu, Firefox

Ben, First of all, I don't want the Thunderbird link to alter my existing Firefox window. I want it to create a new window. This is cleaner. Especially because Firefox, after I close such a new tab, does not always bring me back to the tab I had before — unlike Internet Explorer for instance. Secondly, your step 1 is too easy. I not only want the normal behaviour with normal links. I want it with “jumping” links too. You know, the target="_blank" links. This attribute is a totally non-standard bad habit of some Web authors, and Firefox should ignore it. Hence the dependency I had put with the request bug 86194.

When I say “open the links in the current tab”, I mean all links. Of course this is in absence of specific user decision, like middle-click or Apple-click or link drag-and-drop…

> target="_blank" links That's bug 565621, bug 64560, and bug 142712 > I want it to create a new window. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_external http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_newwindow http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction

(In reply to Ben Bucksch (:BenB) from comment #5) > > I want it to create a new window. > > See > http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_external > http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_newwindow > http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction Among these secret prefs, the only one dealing with pages opened from external apps is "open_external". The page you gave says this was removed in Firefox 3.5. > *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 565621 *** This is not entirely a duplicate.

1. Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter. 2. To bypass the warning, press the big button labeled “I'll be careful, I promise!”. 3. In the search box, paste browser.link.open_newwindow 4. In the search results, double-click browser.link.open_newwindow and set its value to 1 5. In the search results, double-click browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction and set its value to 0 6. In the search results, double-click browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external and set its value to 2 Reference: https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/annotate/784a4c059370/browser/app/profile/firefox.js#l431 https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/annotate/784a4c059370/browser/app/profile/firefox.js#l440 https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/annotate/784a4c059370/browser/app/profile/firefox.js#l435

(In reply to Gingerbread Man from comment #7) > In the search results, double-click > browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external and set its value to 2 Thank you. This is interesting. Is this hidden pref browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external documented somewhere? I don't find.

(In reply to Nicolas Barbulesco from comment #8) > Thank you. This is interesting. Is this hidden pref > browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external documented somewhere? I don't > find. You're welcome. There's no official documentation for about:config preferences [1]. You can either look at the comments in the source code [2], or the MozillaZine knowledge base [3]. // handle links targeting new windows // 1=current window/tab, 2=new window, 3=new tab in most recent window pref("browser.link.open_newwindow", 3); // handle external links (i.e. links opened from a different application) // default: use browser.link.open_newwindow // 1-3: see browser.link.open_newwindow for interpretation pref("browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external", -1); ――――――― [1] Bug 697655 [2] http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/app/profile/firefox.js#417 [3] http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_external

(In reply to Gingerbread Man from comment #9) > There's no official documentation for about:config > preferences [1]. You can either look at the comments in the source code [2], > or the MozillaZine knowledge base [3]. > > // handle links targeting new windows > // 1=current window/tab, 2=new window, 3=new tab in most recent window > pref("browser.link.open_newwindow", 3); > > // handle external links (i.e. links opened from a different application) > // default: use browser.link.open_newwindow > // 1-3: see browser.link.open_newwindow for interpretation > pref("browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external", -1); > > ――――――― > [1] Bug 697655 > [2] > http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/app/profile/firefox. > js#417 > [3] http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.link.open_external Thank you Ginger Man for this info. Alas, the knowledge base [3] is for a different hidden pref, "removed in Firefox 3.5". The new hidden pref browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external is a good news. It would be fully usable if documented. At worst, I will look in the source code with the links you gave.

(In reply to Nicolas Barbulesco from comment #10) > Alas, the knowledge base [3] is for a different hidden pref, "removed in > Firefox 3.5". The new hidden pref > browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external is a good news. It would be > fully usable if documented. The preference name has changed, but the possible values and their effects are the same. > At worst, I will look in the source code with the links you gave. At comment 7, I posted step-by-step directions. At comment 9, I posted the source code comments that explain how the preference works. Links [2] and [3] just repeat the same information.