Firefox users have long been accustomed to the close button that appears in the tab bar when they click on a tab. However, Mozilla has recently removed this feature from Firefox, and users are now required to use the keyboard to close tabs. Mozilla justified this change by stating that it was unnecessary because users can now close tabs using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+W. However, many Firefox users feel that this change is unnecessary and inconvenient. Close Button Removal from Tab Bar Draws Criticism Close Button Removed From Firefox Tabs Mozilla has recently removed the close button from Firefox’s tab bar, requiring users to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+W instead. Many Firefox users feel that this change is unnecessary and inconvenient. Close Button Removal from Tab Bar Draws Criticism ..
It’s a good thing that Firefox is customizable, because we can easily turn them off, or even revert back to the Firefox 1.5 behavior of having a single close tab button on the right of the tab bar.
Disabling Close Buttons Without Tab Mix Plus
To disable this if you are not running the Tab Mix Plus extension, you can open about:config in the address bar, and then filter by the following:
The possible values are these:
Default No close tab buttons anywhere (You’ll have to use middle click or Ctrl+W) Move the close tab button to the right of the tab bar
You can see here that I’ve set the value to 3. Notice the single close button on the right.
Disabling Close Buttons With Tab Mix Plus
If you have Tab Mix Plus installed, you can do the exact same thing by opening Tab Mix Plus options on the Tools menu, and choosing Display \ Tab. Here you’ll make sure you uncheck the “Close tab button” checkbox.
If you want to also add the Close tab button to the right of the tab bar, then go to the Tab Bar tab and check the “Close tab button” option, as shown below:
Tab Mix Plus is one of the most powerful extensions for Firefox. It’s really quite incredible.
