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I just updated to Firefox 29 today, and now there's no Control Menu (Firefox icon). In fact, the entire Title Bar is now missing.

Here's how it looks in Firefox 29 (NOT what I want):
Firefox 29

And here's how it looks on my other computer (Firefox 28 which I haven't updated yet). This is what I want:
Firefox 28

How can I at least get the Control Menu back?

MTS
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    I didn't update myself, but did you give https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ a shot? – Patrick R. Apr 28 '14 at 21:16
  • What OS are you on? I don't have a Control menu on 28 either; I have the big Firefox menu button (Windows 7). – MrWhite Apr 28 '14 at 21:18
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    I'm on Windows 7. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:21
  • @Patrick R. - Thank you Patrick. The "Tabs in titlebar" option in the Classic Theme Restorer works. It also led me to the about:config setting that I've posted as an answer below. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:27
  • You say you just updated to Firefox 29 today. But then you go on to compare the UI to what it looked like in Firefox 29... what am I missing here? – Samir Apr 28 '14 at 21:27
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    FWIW Alt+SpaceBar is the keyboard shortcut for the "Control Menu" and this seems to work whether the icon is visible or not. – MrWhite Apr 28 '14 at 21:27
  • @sammyg - The first image is my other computer, which is still Firefox 28. It's the second image that's the issue I want to fix. Sorry for the confusion on that. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:37
  • @FWIW - Thank you, that is helpful. Although my main frustration was that I couldn't double-click in the upper-left corner to close Firefox. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:38
  • Changed the image order for clarity. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:58
  • You shouldn't really have to click (or double click) in the upper left corner to close a program window. There is a button for that purpose in the upper right corner. But I can understand that you have a different preference than I do. This is completely sane. For instance if you are using a Mac where they have these buttons on the left hand side. – Samir Apr 28 '14 at 22:43
  • @sammyg - I use dual monitors and have made a point of using the outside corners of each monitor to close programs, to make sure I don't accidentally close the wrong one. Regardless, though, it's not the responsibility of individual applications to be dictating UI standards - they should be following the UI standards of the OS. The control menu is still a standard feature in Windows, and has been for much longer than the single-click X has been around. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 23:17

5 Answers5

17

To get the control menu back in Firefox 29 on Windows:

  1. Click the "Open Menu" (far right with the three horizontal bars)
  2. Click "Customize (bottom of the opened window)
  3. Click "Title Bar" (bottom left of the opened window) This toggles the top control menu on and off.

Screenshots

a b

Click on image for a larger view.

Samir
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Mike
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  • Awesome, thank you Mike! That's really easy. This is the correct answer in my opinion. – MTS May 01 '14 at 21:29
  • This is very neat! It's much easier than the `about:config` method. Even though both methods do the same thing, I would prefer this one. – Samir May 05 '14 at 16:05
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Ok, this seems to work. Change the Firefox browser.tabs.drawInTitlebar setting to false.

  1. Type about:config in your address bar.
  2. Search for browser.tabs.drawInTitlebar.
  3. Double-click to change value to false.

As Patrick R. pointed out, you can also use the Classic Theme Restorer add-on (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer), and uncheck the Tabs in titlebar option. x

MTS
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    There is a simple way to change this setting without the need for about:config or an addon, as explained in this answer: http://superuser.com/a/747791/246852 – cremor Apr 30 '14 at 09:42
  • @cremor - Agreed. I've marked that as the answer, above. – MTS May 01 '14 at 22:18
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Apparently, Mozilla has decided to get rid of the big orange Firefox button in the upper left corner, starting with Firefox 29.0. It has been replaced with a "Open menu" button on the right hand side, underneath the window close (x) button. This placement follows the foot steps of Internet Explorer (the gear icon), and Google Chrome. It actually resembles the menu button of Chrome 34, they almost look identical.

To get to "control menu" regardless of UI design

Regardless of what the UI looks like, try this keyboard shortcut to get the same result:

Alt+Space

You can use this in pretty much any program window in Windows. It works in Windows Explorer or File Explorer, CMD, or even programs that use their own window themes like Wunderlist or Spotify. So if you press this shortcut in Firefox 29.0 this is what you will get:

e

You can follow that up with C key to close the program window. (It will be a different key if you're Windows is not in English.) If all you want to do is just close the program window, you can always use the trusty old Alt+F4 and that will close it, without having to open the control menu.

Samir
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  • No, that's not what I want. I want the Title Bar to be visible (or at least the Control Menu), not the Menu Bar to be hidden. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:20
  • Normally (before version 28 at least) disabling/unchecking the "Menu Bar" _removes_ the Control Menu? – MrWhite Apr 28 '14 at 21:24
  • @MTS Then what do you mean by "Control Menu (Firefox icon)"? What do you mean by "Control Menu"? And is "Firefox icon" a reference to the Firefox favicon as seen in your screenshot? – Samir Apr 28 '14 at 21:24
  • @sammyg - Please see the red arrow pointing to it in the first image in the original question. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 21:32
  • @sammyg - Are you even using `Firefox 29` because the screenshots your using look nothing like mine. Interesting enough the `Menu Bar` looks out of place when the window is active although that might be my Windows theme doing it. – Ramhound Apr 28 '14 at 21:59
  • I thought I was. But no, I was not. I have just triggered the update by checking my version number. So I'm using 29.0 now. – Samir Apr 28 '14 at 22:05
  • Alright. I see you also updated the screenshot. Why did Mozilla change the interface once again and do a crap job doing it. The "Menu Bar" looks like it does not even belong. Its almost like they tried to port their failed attempt their Modern UI to the desktop code. – Ramhound Apr 28 '14 at 22:09
  • @Ramhound Note that the first two screenshots in this answer are from Firefox 28. I will assume you're referring to the screenshots I added to that other answer. Overall I think the new interface looks okay, but I agree with you about that menu bar. They had a chance here to correct this in version 29 from previous version. It looks like it doesn't belong there because it stands out like that. IMO, it should sink into the title bar so it becomes coherent with it. But most people don't even use the menu bar because it's not enabled by default. I know I don't. I just press Alt key if needed. – Samir Apr 28 '14 at 22:55
  • @sammyg - ALT-Space-X maximizes the window. ALT-Space-C closes it. – MTS Apr 28 '14 at 23:00
  • @MTS Very observant! Thanks! I have corrected that now. – Samir Apr 29 '14 at 10:18
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To show the title bar without showing the menu bar, open about:config, search for browser.tabs.onTop and make it false.

Now the tab is on bottom, but the title still isn't shown. You need to install the add-on Display Window Title to make it visible. That's what I'm using now

Firefox title bar

After that you can right click at the title bar or press Alt+Space to view the window menu or system menu (not control menu)

phuclv
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One alternative is remove Firefox version 29 and go back to Firefox version 28:

http://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/28.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2028.0.exe

(This link doesn't seem to be anywhere on the Mozilla website that I can find).

Joseph Quinsey
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  • ***Update:*** And various other versions can be found at https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/28.0/ – Joseph Quinsey Apr 30 '14 at 04:18
  • ***Update***: And Mozilla _does_ have a link here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-older-version-of-firefox – Joseph Quinsey Apr 30 '14 at 04:45
  • I've tried this in the past with an older version of Firefox, and after about two weeks Firefox auto-updated itself to the newest version anyway, even though I had automatic updates turned off. Even if this wasn't the case, staying with an old version doesn't seem like a feasible long-term solution. – MTS May 01 '14 at 21:33
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    Of course, Mozilla Firefox is not Google Chrome. Unlike Google, Mozilla supports one to two previous releases of their web browser, and they make all previous versions of the browser available for easy download through their FTP server. – Samir May 05 '14 at 16:00