How To Disable Windows 7 Taskbar Tab Preview in Firefox 3.6
By on November 15th, 2009

If you have used Firefox the Firefox 3.6 beta, you have probably noticed that Mozilla has introduced support for Windows 7 taskbar thumbnails. Firefox 3.6 allows you to directly select a tab from the taskbar. This is similar to how Internet Explorer 8 behaves in Windows 7. Some people love this behaviour while others find it annoying. I happen to belong to the latter group. I am a heavy multi-tasker and often have dozens of open tabs organised into multiple windows. Taskbar tab previews doesn’t make any distinction between tabs from different windows and is a major productivity bump.

If you find taskbar tab previews irritating, here is a quick way to get rid of them.

  • Type about:config in the awesome bar (address bar). Ignore the caution message and proceed.
  • Type browser.taskbar.previews.enable in the filter bar.

    • Disable-Taskbar-Tab-Preview-Thumbnail-in-Firefox-3.6

  • Now, you will be displayed a single entry whose current value is True. Double click on the entry to change its value to False.

That’s it. Firefox should instantly stop displaying tab previews in the taskbar.

via Tweaking With Vishal

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Author: Pallab De Google Profile for Pallab De
Pallab De is a blogger from India who has a soft spot for anything techie. He loves trying out new software and spends most of his day breaking and fixing his PC. Pallab loves participating in the social web; he has been active in technology forums since he was a teenager and is an active user of both twitter (@indyan) and facebook .

Pallab De has written and can be contacted at pallab@techie-buzz.com.
  • http://www.techarraz.com Chinmoy Kanjilal

    I have disabled it from the very first day. It does not do me any good anyway.

  • Jack

    Yes, I’m in the latter group as well. Thankfully, your tip showed up on the first page of my search.

  • Max Johnson

    Cheers! Works like a charm.

    I'm in the exact same boat as the author of this tip!

    When you've got (for example) 3 Firefox windows open with multiple tabs in each, way too much crap pops up when you mouseover the icon on the taskbar in Windows 7, when all you want to do is change windows quickly. I'm surprised the setting is tucked away in about:config. It'd want to have it's own checkbox in the options page by the final build of 3.6… Annoying!

  • Richard Yauman

    Thanks for the tip, even though I needed it to go the opposite direction. My install had the task bar previews disabled and I was searching for a way to turn them on and by doing the tip backwards it solved the issue.

    • 4walls

      I was also looking for a way to turn them back on and this helped me do that. Thanks.

      Thanks for the tip, even though I needed it to go the opposite direction. My install had the task bar previews disabled and I was searching for a way to turn them on and by doing the tip backwards it solved the issue.

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  • Lisa

    Thanks so much! I was going crazy with this "feature." It actually slows me down and I don't know why they think it's better to have to analyze the tabs when you just want your Internet app.

 
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