Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

I want to permanetly disable restore previous session and recently closed windows button

  • 7 replies
  • 11 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

My Firefox homepage is set to google and everytime I start Firefox it goes directly to google. No problem here. The problem that I have is that under the history tab there is a restore previous session button that is annoying me. The privacy setting is set to "Use custom settings for history". The only thing that are checked are the "Accept cookies from sites" and "Accept third-party cookies" checkboxes. Solution that starts with "Are you using Tools > Options > General > Startup: "When Firefox Starts": "Show my windows and tabs from last time" ? " Please don't. I also want to disable the recently closed windows button under that darn history tab. I just can't figure it out why Firefox doesn't seem to care about people's privacy. I'm using Firefox 6. I know I have to update it but that's not the point here

My Firefox homepage is set to google and everytime I start Firefox it goes directly to google. No problem here. The problem that I have is that under the history tab there is a restore previous session button that is annoying me. The privacy setting is set to "Use custom settings for history". The only thing that are checked are the "Accept cookies from sites" and "Accept third-party cookies" checkboxes. Solution that starts with "Are you using Tools > Options > General > Startup: "When Firefox Starts": "Show my windows and tabs from last time" ? " Please don't. I also want to disable the recently closed windows button under that darn history tab. I just can't figure it out why Firefox doesn't seem to care about people's privacy. I'm using Firefox 6. I know I have to update it but that's not the point here

All Replies (7)

more options

Do you still want to be able to reopen closed tabs or windows during the current session?

See:

more options

Yes but not imperative.

I don't want to permanently use private browsing on my own laptop but would like some form of privacy as my newphews sometimes use my laptop. The only solution I found so far is to close every windows and re start Firefox and then close it again. I think you'll agree that's a dumb & tedious solution

more options

So no one knows how to do this? Guess that i'm switching to Chrome then

more options

I have much the same problem. I don't want to clear all recent history, but I DO want to delete the entries in "Recently Closed Tabs" and "Recently Closed Windows". Those must be stored in a file or folder somewhere, so if we knew where that was we could easilhy delete them -- or just some of them, as desired.

more options

"Recently Closed Tabs" and "Recently Closed Windows" data is stored in the sessionstore.js as part of the session data.

You can (temporarily) set the browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo pref to 0 to clear the "Recently Closed Tabs" list. If you want to re-use the "Recently Closed Tabs" feature (Undo Closed Tabs) then you can reset the browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo pref to the default value via the right-click context menu.

You can temporarily set the browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo pref to 0 to reset the "Recently Closed Windows" list.

Firefox will remember one window if you open additional windows and close that window while tabs are open in that window and the max_windows_undo is set to 0.

Close all tabs in a window before closing that window to prevent the window from appearing in the recently closed windows list.

  • Note that this may not be possible with a pop-up window.

Set the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab pref to false on the about:config page to prevent closing the last tab from closing that window.

You can (temporarily) set the browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo pref to 0 to clear the "Recently Closed Tabs" list.
If you want to re-use the "Recently Closed Tabs" feature (Undo Closed Tabs) then you can reset the browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo pref to the default value via the right-click context menu.

You can temporarily set the browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo pref to 0 to reset the "Recently Closed Windows" list.

Firefox will remember one window if you open additional windows and close that window while tabs are open in that window and the max_windows_undo is set to 0.

Close all tabs in a window before closing that window to prevent the window from appearing in the recently closed windows list.

  • Note that this may not be possible with a pop-up window.

Set the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab pref to false on the about:config page to prevent closing the last tab from closing that window.

more options

Thanks for those suggestions -- but I'm afraid I need more explanation.

> "Recently Closed Tabs" and "Recently Closed Windows" data is stored in the sessionstore.js as part of the session data. <

What is the sessionstore.js and where can I find it?

> You can (temporarily) set the browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo pref to 0 ... <

Where is that setting? I can't find it in any of the tabs from Tools > Options.

more options

That is a file in the Firefox profile folder.

See:


Type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key to open the about:config page, just like you open a website by typing the URL in the location bar.

  • If you see a warning message then you can confirm that you want to access the about:config page.
  • use the Search bar at the top of the about:config page to locate preferences more easily
  • preferences that have been modified and do not have the default value show as bold (user set)
  • preferences that are user set (bold) can be reset to the default value via the right-click context menu
  • preferences can be changed via the right-click context menu: Modify (String or Integer) or Toggle (Boolean) or by double-clicking the line with the pref
  • preferences can be created via the right-click context menu: New -> String, Integer, Boolean

Note that you should be cautious with changing prefs if you are not experienced enough to understand what you are doing. The warning is there for a reason.