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Toggle table of contents. Current section: Open the Waterfox tab controls

Control Waterfox tab menus and display

Waterfox includes controls for extra tab context menu commands, tab sizing, close buttons and a private tab button. You can change them without restarting Waterfox.

Open the Waterfox tab controls

  1. Click the Waterfox menu button and select Settings.
  2. Select Tabs and browsing.
  3. Find the Waterfox tabs group.

The relevant controls are in Tab context menu and Tab display.

Choose tab context menu commands

These controls change the menu that appears when you right-click a tab:

  • Show the duplicate tab entry is on by default. It shows Duplicate Tab, or the multiple-tab version when several tabs are selected.
  • Show the copy tab URL entry is on by default. It shows Copy Tab Link.
  • Copy the URL of the active tab instead of the clicked tab is off by default. Turn it on if Copy Tab Link should always copy the selected tab’s address, even when you right-click a background tab.
  • Show the copy all tab URLs entry is off by default. It shows Copy All Tab Links.

Copy All Tab Links copies addresses from the current Waterfox window, one address per line. It skips internal pages whose addresses begin with about:. The active-tab option only affects Copy Tab Link, not Copy All Tab Links.

Menu visibility updates the next time you open the tab context menu.

Change tab display and closing behavior

  • Shrink pinned tabs to just the site icon is on by default. Turn it off to give pinned tabs a regular tab width and show their titles.
  • Hide the close button on tabs is off by default. When enabled, Waterfox hides tab close buttons, but you can still close tabs from the tab context menu or with the usual keyboard shortcut.
  • Keep window open when closing the last tab is off by default. Turn it on to make Waterfox replace the last tab with a new tab instead of closing that browser window.
  • Show a private tab button next to the new tab button is off by default. It adds a button beside the standard new tab button in both horizontal and vertical tab layouts.

The private tab button is for opening a Waterfox private tab inside a regular browser window. Waterfox does not add this button to a private browsing window.

For the controls in the Restarting section of the same settings group, see Restart Waterfox.