On the 80% vs. 100%, do you mean the size of a resizable window on the screen or do you mean the zoom level of the page content?

Resizable Windows Size

Like many Windows applications, Firefox generally stores the size of the last resizable window you closed, and uses that size for new windows launched from a resizable window. But if you launch a new window from a maximized window, usually the new window will also be maximized.

Sometimes the window size Firefox stores is illogical or the setting file containing it becomes corrupted. Steps to work around that at the end.

Page Zoom Level

You can use an add-on to set a "default" zoom level, although sometimes the setting is difficult to find. I'm aware of this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/zoom-page-we/

This is the old settings dialog with that setting marked, I haven't checked it in many months: https://prod-cdn.sumo.mozilla.net/uploads/images/2017-11-30-19-03-25-15ee1c.png

On saving passwords, you can uncheck a box on the Options page. See: Password Manager - Remember, delete and edit logins and passwords in Firefox.

On the possibly corrupted settings file:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, on the Profile folder row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
• (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?

If you need to restore the menu bar or bookmarks toolbar, use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

• right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank spot on the tab bar (or the "+" button)
• (menu bar) View > Toolbars
  On Windows, tap the Alt key to activate the menu bar temporarily.
• in Customize mode > Show/Hide Toolbars (see: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars) -- use this to redisplay the title bar

To turn on the Bookmarks Toolbar, Menu Bar, or other bars, click it on the list.

Thanks for your help, jscher2000.

Using Zoom WE allowed me to set my default PageContent to 80%. I tested 3 web addresses and one, kponline.org, just kept flashing the Kaiser Permanente banner, and never didn't load the entire page.

I then tried fixing the corrupt file as you dictated, but it made no difference on the kponline.org site.

Any other thoughts?

rschaef07 said

I tested 3 web addresses and one, kponline.org, just kept flashing the Kaiser Permanente banner, and never didn't load the entire page.

When I try that address, Firefox redirects me to this address:

https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/

Please make sure the redirect block is turned off:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste access and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If the accessibility.blockautorefresh preference is bolded and "modified" or "user set" to true, double-click it to restore the default value of false

Of course, an add-on also could be involved...

the accessibility.blockautorefresh preference was already set to false..

I tried https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/, but got the same results as before.

The only other Add-On is LastPass....

So without Zoom Page WE, I can't have my Page Zoom level auto set to 80%?

Thanks for checking the add-ons.

Do you use Firefox's Tracking Protection feature? When it is blocking content in a page, there will be a "shield" icon toward the left end of the address bar. This article has more information on managing this feature, which is turned on automatically in private windows: What happened to Tracking Protection?.

Otherwise, I would suggest "the usual":

If a site is generally known to work in Firefox, these are general suggestions to try when it stops working correctly:

Cache and Cookies: When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

(1) Clear Firefox's Cache

See: How to clear the Firefox cache

If you have a large hard drive, this might take a few minutes. If you do not see the number going down on the page, you can reload it using Ctrl+r to check progress.

(2) Remove the site's cookies (save any pending work first). While viewing a page on the site, try either:

• right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
• (menu bar) Tools > Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
• click the padlock or "i" icon in the address bar, then the ">" button, then More Information, and finally the "View Cookies" button

In the dialog that opens, the current site should be pre-filled in the search box at the top of the dialog so you can remove that site's cookies individually.

Then try reloading the page. Does that help?

Testing in Firefox's Safe Mode: In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

rschaef07 said

So without Zoom Page WE, I can't have my Page Zoom level auto set to 80%?

Firefox has a single setting for scaling the web content AND the user interface area. If the toolbar text is a good size, reducing the built-in scaling factor may make the interface much harder to use. If you want to experiment with it anyway, I can list out the steps.

Sure, why not?

FYI, I removed the Zoom Page WE, and the Kaiser site did the same blinking thing anyhow...

Global Scaling Factor

The following setting governs both the content area and the "chrome" area (menus, toolbars, and tabs). You can adjust the value, but it might be hard to find just the right number:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the filter box, type or paste pix and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click layout.css.devPixelsPerPx and change its value to 1.25 -- that corresponds to 125% which is a pretty typical size for recent versions of Windows.

If there is no change from what you saw before, try 1.0 which is 80% of 1.25. How does that look?

Be very cautious going below 1.0 because if the text gets unmanageably tiny it's hard to recover. You can always right-click > Reset to go back to Firefox's default behavior of following the Windows Text Size setting.