How to Open a Tab in Firefox in the Background

By default, when you click on a new link with the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the program will open a new tab and switch to the new page. However, users who open many links at the same time may want the program to stay on their original tab. In order to force Firefox to open new tabs in the background, you will need to edit the web browser's built-in configuration settings.

Things You'll Need

• PC or Mac computer
• Firefox 3 or later

Instructions

1. Launch the Firefox application on your PC or Mac computer.

2. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit "Enter" to edit the program's configuration.

3. Scroll through the list of configuration settings until you see "browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground."

4. Right-click on the entry and choose "Toggle" to change the option from "False" to "True."

5. Close, and then restart the Firefox web browser. Now when you click on a link, Firefox will remain in the original tab and open the new link in the background.

References

• Firefox Trick: Open Links in Background Tabs