Mozilla Firefox

Terminology

INSTALL_DIR

One of:

• C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

PROFILE_DIR

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\THE_NAME_OF_THE_PROFILE_HERE

The "old way"

The examples shown for the "old way" are estimated to have been used between Firefox versions 3.6.x and 17 ESR, but it's been long enough now that I don't know for sure.

Enable old extensions that fail Compatibility Check

Note: I've not tested this approach in many years.

Unfortunately this has to be done each time a major version of Mozilla Firefox is released and it is a per-user setting. We'll assume you're running Mozilla Firefox 14 for the purposes of these directions.

1. Open Mozilla Firefox
2. Type about:config in the address bar.
3. Right-click and select New
4. Choose Boolean
5. For the name type extensions.checkCompatibility.14.0 and set the value to false
6. Close Mozilla Firefox and reopen.

I use this method to enable Aardvark in recent Mozilla Firefox releases. I may eventually get around to trying HackTheWeb that is supposed to be its successor.

Display bookmarks toolbar

The current way

The current approach is to set the values within PROFILE_DIR\xulstore.json:

{
    "chrome://browser/content/browser.xul":
        {
            "PersonalToolbar":
                {
                    "collapsed":"false",
                    "currentset":"personal-bookmarks"
                }
        }
}

The old way

1. Edit PROFILE_DIR\localstore.rdf
2. Insert a new line or change an existing line to include the following setting

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#PersonalToolbar"
                   collapsed="false" />

See the #Complete_example on this page for what a trimmed down, but completely functional file looks like. Not only is this setting illustrated but others as well.

Maximize on startup

The current way

The current approach is to set the values within PROFILE_DIR\xulstore.json:

{
    "chrome://browser/content/browser.xul":
        {
            "main-window":
                {
                    "sizemode":"maximized"
                }
        }
}

The old way

Snippet

1. Edit PROFILE_DIR\localstore.rdf
2. Insert a new line or change an existing line to include the following setting

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#main-window"
                   sizemode="maximized" />

Disable profile migrations

This is used to turn off the prompt to migrate settings from other browsers on first launch.

1. Edit or create override.ini
2. Insert or update the EnableProfileMigrator value

[XRE]
EnableProfileMigrator=false

This file can be placed in the following locations:

• INSTALL_DIR\browser\override.ini
• PROFILE_DIR\browser\override.ini

If you place it in the former directory, it will effect everyone using Firefox for the first time. If the second, it will effect both existing and new Firefox profiles.

References

Current config files

PROFILE_DIR\xulstore.json

Tested and confirmed to work with Mozilla Firefox 46 and 47, this appears to be the way to apply settings to a specific user profile. This file does the following:

• Maximizes window on application launch
• Displays the main menu (hidden by default)
• Displays the bookmarks toolbar (hidden by default)

{
    "chrome://browser/content/browser.xul":
        {
            "main-window":
                {
                    "sizemode":"maximized"
                },
            "toolbar-menubar":
                {
                    "autohide":"false"
                },
            "PersonalToolbar":
                {
                    "collapsed":"false",
                    "currentset":"personal-bookmarks"
                }
        }
}

Historical config files

PROFILE_DIR\localstore.rdf

Here is a complete copy of the file that I once used for lab environments (where I didn't have to worry with merging in the changes to existing files). Here we're maximizing the window in addition to displaying the bookmarks toolbar.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- 
    $Id$
    $HeadURL$
     
    Purpose: 
            #1)
             Set the Firefox window to maximized. This file would be copied
             over on every login, thereby preventing the window from coming up
             sized smaller. Users are able to size it themselves during their
             browsing session however.

            #2
             Always show Bookmarks Toolbar
-->
<RDF:RDF xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#"
         xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#PersonalToolbar"
                   collapsed="false" />
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#sidebar-title"
                   value="" />
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#main-window"
                   sizemode="maximized" />
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul">
    <NC:persist RDF:resource="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#main-window"/>
    <NC:persist RDF:resource="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#sidebar-box"/>
    <NC:persist RDF:resource="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#sidebar-title"/>
    <NC:persist RDF:resource="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#PersonalToolbar"/>
  </RDF:Description>
</RDF:RDF>