Firefox 61 is here with new features for faster browsing

Jun 27, 2018 11:02 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla Firefox 61 is now available for download with a series of improvements, including a new feature that is called Tab Warming.

While I think that this is quite a catchy name and I like it a lot, not everyone understands the purpose of this feature despite the fact that it’s enabled by default when they update to the latest version of Firefox.

Tab Warming, as Mozilla puts it, is a way to make browsing faster by simply offering speedier response times when switching between tabs. This is possible thanks to Firefox preemptively loading tabs when you simply move over them.

Software developer Mike Conley working for Mozilla offer a deeper insight into the purpose of Tab Warming. In a post published in January when the feature was first implemented in the nightly builds of Firefox, Conley explains that the browser buys more time to load websites by using the moments between the mouse hovering on a tab and the actual click to open the tab to begin rendering content.

“With tab warming enabled, when you hover over the tab with your mouse cursor, the rendering of that sophisticated SVG will occur while your finger is still on its way to click on the mouse button to actually choose the tab. Those precious milliseconds are used to do the rendering and uploading, so that when the click event finally comes, the SVG is ready and waiting for you,” the Mozilla engineering explains.

Mozilla Firefox 61

Technically, Tab Warming is quite a neat feature for Firefox users that should only improve browsing speed, but there are users out there who just want to disable it and stick with more basic browsing.

For some reason, Mozilla isn’t offering dedicated options to disable Tab Warming in Firefox 61, so don’t start searching for such a toggle in settings because you won’t find any.

Instead, it’s possible to disable this feature using a more complex approach that’s not necessarily aimed at newbies, but still easy to use for everyone in a way that won’t cause any damage.

After updating to Firefox 61, launch the browser, and it the address bar, type the following command to enter more advanced customization options:

about:config Click the button that reads I accept the risk! when being told that changing these settings could affect stability, security, and performance of the browser.

Next, you need to search for a flag called browser.tabs.remote.warmup.enabled. You can either manually scroll down to look for it in the list or simply copy the name from this article and paste it in the search box included in Firefox. This way, you should be able to find it faster without being afraid that you change the settings of a different item.

Disabling Tab Warming in Firefox 61

Once you’ve identified the flag that you have to change, it’s enough to double-click it to switch the value from true to false. What you need to know is that when true, the flag is enabled, while when toggled to false, it is disabled by default.

Once you apply the new settings, it’s enough to simply close the configuration tab and Time Warning should no longer be active. If you want to enable it again, all you have to do is to follow the steps above and change the value to true.

Most likely, Mozilla will offer dedicated options to disable Tab Warming in a future Firefox release, but for the time being, this is pretty much the only method to turn it off. There are basically no risks associated with this hack, but in case something doesn’t work as expected after making these changes, back up your browsing data and then reinstall the browser.

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