How to Display Unlimited Tabs in Firefox

Horizontal scrolling is very unpleasant and I really hate when I have to do it. I hate it especially when I have to do it with the tabs in Firefox.

Every time I reinstall my PC, one of the first things I rush to do is make Firefox show an unlimited number of tabs. When I browse, I usually open new tabs all the time and soon my Firefox gets cluttered with tabs. The situation gets really unpleasant when the tabs don’t fit on one screen anymore and I need to scroll horizontally in order to find the tab I want.

Don’t you find this irritating? If you do, the fix is just some clicks away. In the address bar, type:

about:config

This will give you access to the hidden settings of Firefox. Find browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and double-click on it. This will open a dialog, similar to the one below:

Now, type 0 (zero) and press OK. Great – you now have no minimal width requirement for tabs and you can open as many of them as you need.

about:config is a great way to fine-tune your Firefox. You can perform tons of things from there, such as set Firefox tabs opened from links to appear at the end or backup and restore your Firefox. Just be careful not to break something by accident.

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4 comments

  1. Hello Tana George, I use Firefox in my office. My office computer is having an old processor. It runs very slow. Thus if I open multiple tabs on Firefox, my computer gets hang. Is there any simple tweak which can solve this problem? Is there any option in about:config which can reduce the CPU load?

    • There could be a way to make Firefox run faster on old machines – in aboutconfig or otherwise. Right now I can’t think of any tips in this direction but I will do some research because many people will benefit from knowing this. When I find something useful, I will post it. 

    • Things can be done to improve performance, but the best thing to do in your situation is to just not have too many tabs open. It know it doesn’t really solve your problem, but when you’re dealing with old hardware, you should only have open what you need.

  2. I do hate when I have to scroll horizontally to get to other tabs, but in most cases, it’s probably also a good indicator to start closing tabs; especially in Firefox.

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