Firefox Tweaker 2.0 released!

RejZoR

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Nov 26, 2016
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FirefoxTweaker_v2_Main.png FirefoxTweaker_v2_InterfaceTweaks.png FirefoxTweaker_v2_PrivacyTweaks.png

This tool is made by me, just so we're clear on where it's coming from :) It's been a short while since I released initial version and since I had plenty of time I was super busy and made new v2.0 in just 2 days :D Had to pick "Update" prefix here because no other applies...

What is Firefox Tweaker?

Firefox Tweaker is a tool that allows users to easily control aka “tweak” hidden Firefox settings. These tweaks are mostly a result of silly design decisions by Mozilla and they go out of their way to make them super difficult to revert or change. Especially now that they have dumbed down about:config tweaks page even further…

How Firefox Tweaker applies tweaks?

This tweaker directly modifies settings within prefs.js file. Because Mozilla’s dumb idea is to kill user.js tweaks soon to save 0.000002 milliseconds of browser startup time, so I’m not even going to bother doing it through user.js and instead modify prefs.js directly. As a safety measure, backup of prefs.js is created on initial run of Firefox Tweaker. You will be notified about it on run-time.

Special thanks

I’d like to specially thank Mozilla designers/developers to bless us with silly design decisions which forced me to develop this tool in order to easily revert or change them. I wouldn’t have to do it without you!

Limitations

Firefox Tweaker only works with Windows (and thus only supports Firefox for Windows) and only really supports single profile Firefox due to mechanism which fetches prefs.js location. If there are more profiles it will detect the first prefs.js which might not be the correct one.

DOWNLOAD, CHANGELOG & MORE INFO:
 

HarborFront

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Oct 9, 2016
6,014
Thanks for the great work

If I'm not wrong the user.js file has more than 300 tweaks. I see only a handful of tweaks in the FF Tweaker?

Some suggestions

1) Indicate the number of tweaks plus for which release of FF it applies.
2) A change log for each release is also a welcome move with indication of new, deprecated and obsoleted tweaks. As you are aware with each release of FF (interim and new) the aforementioned tweaks will apply.
3) Any restore feature for the backup prefs.js?

It'll be best if you can separate the tweaks into

1) Privacy
2) Security
3) Speed
4) Interface
5) Tweaks for creating a RAM disk
6) Miscellaneous
 
Last edited:

RejZoR

Level 15
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Nov 26, 2016
699
Thanks for the great work

If I'm not wrong the user.js file has more than 300 tweaks. I see only a handful of tweaks in the FF Tweaker?

Some suggestions

1) Indicate the number of tweaks plus for which release of FF it applies.
2) A change log for each release is also a welcome move with indication of new, deprecated and obsoleted tweaks. As you are aware with each release of FF (interim and new) the aforementioned tweaks will apply.
3) Any restore feature for the backup prefs.js?

It'll be best if you can separate the tweaks into

1) Privacy
2) Security
3) Speed
4) Interface
5) Tweaks for creating a RAM disk
6) Miscellaneous

Yes, I'm aware there are billion tweaks, but I focus on what's somewhat important and useful, not just stick every single one of them inside just to say I have 300 of them inside. I've asked on r/browsers for ppl to propose useful and sort of important tweaks and I'll collect from that. You guys can do the same here.

1) Number of tweaks as a number is imo irrelevant. I do post a changelog and I generally try to make them descriptive instead of cryptic. Was thinking of adding actual string names from about:config but would make changelog really cumbersome. I'll have to reconsider how to do that. Browser it will apply to will always be considered as the most recent stable version, which as of this moment is Firefox 75. There are 3 tweaks in it for this version already, some date as far as 40 versions back...
2) Changelog is tracked on my webpage. Generally, if tweaks are not supported in certain version, they are simply not effective even if they are applied to prefs.js. Again, I'll strive to keep them relevant to current version. Of something gets deprecated in current version, it'll be removed. And for new ones, hopefully I'll be able to add them before actual version goes live as I generally start using latest stable version 1-2 days before it's officially launched (usually appears on their public repository).
3) Currently no. There is a feature that opens the Firefox Profile folder in which there are both, prefs.js and prefs_BACKUP.js and you can quickly access both for manipulation.

Yes, my idea was to sort tweaks in categories, although there are often issues on how to classify them. Is First Party Isolation a Security or a Privacy feature? Coz in a way, it's both. Same for HTTP upgrading on HTTPS pages. Generally it's security, but if content is all HTTPS it's also privacy thing. So I haven't figured that out just yet.
 

Lenny_Fox

Level 22
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Oct 1, 2019
1,120
Special thanks

I’d like to specially thank Mozilla designers/developers to bless us with silly design decisions which forced me to develop this tool in order to easily revert or change them. I wouldn’t have to do it without you!

:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: (y)(y)(y) (your thank word after receiving the most valued and cynical developer award from the Mozilla community)
 

RejZoR

Level 15
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Nov 26, 2016
699
Oh Mozilla hates me and so does entire r/Firefox sub. Because I always speak up about dumb ##### and never cherry pick words to describe it. I mean, have you seen the new URL bar vomit in Firefox 75. You must be without any sense for design and be blind at the same time to plan, design, implement, vet and release to public something this bad. URL bar expands through interface element boundaries making it look totally weird and out of place and just plain ugly, clicking in it instantly expands it and shows everything no one wants there in plain sight every time. And yet they've done it. It's just baffling beyond belief. Whole Firefox sub is complaining and every single time they act like users are crazy and they know it better. ...
 

RejZoR

Level 15
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Nov 26, 2016
699
Released a 2.0.1 update. Added option to manually supply the tweaker with path to prefs.js file and added additional checks to ensure Firefox Tweaker can't run unless it can verify detected/supplied path actually has a physical file in the destination.
 

bayasdev

Level 19
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Sep 10, 2015
901
You should update this when they ship their new Yottabar in FF 100 which covers your entire neighborhood 🤣
 
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