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How do I get the color of the address, in the address box, to be all black on white, and not part of it to be gray on white, and part to be black on white?

  • 8 cavab
  • 21 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Right now, the address line in my address box, at the top of the page, begins "https://support", all in light gray, followed by "mozilla.com", in black, followed by "/en-US/questions/new?product=.......etc.", all in light gray on a white backround, so it is almost unreadable. Why did this start happening, and how do I change this, so that the address is all black on white, and not half gray and half black?

Right now, the address line in my address box, at the top of the page, begins "https://support", all in light gray, followed by "mozilla.com", in black, followed by "/en-US/questions/new?product=.......etc.", all in light gray on a white backround, so it is almost unreadable. Why did this start happening, and how do I change this, so that the address is all black on white, and not half gray and half black?

All Replies (8)

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You can set the pref browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled to false on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

  • Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
  • Preferences that have been modified show as bold(user set).
  • Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.
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Thank You... After I scrolled down to, and right-clicked on the line in question, that you told me to click on, I simply clicked on the word "toggle", which changed the word "True" to "False". I then hit the "Back" arrow, to take me back through the previous windows, to the beginning. I then restarted "Firefox" and the problem was corrected.

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You're welcome.

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I was able to make the change mentioned, from True to False, but since I started a new tab, I couldn't go back. Instead I just closed the tab and restarted Firefox. However, I'm still getting black text on a gray background--hard to read. I want a white background. I've rechecked about:config and browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled is still set to False. Maybe my question is a little different, since Ted K said he was seeing text "in light gray on a white background" whereas I'm seeing black text on a gray background. The background changes to white when I hover the cursor over it, but that doesn't help when I just want to read the URL.

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Do you have a working location bar or is the location bar only read-only?

Try to open a new window via "File > New Window" or "Firefox > New Tab > New Window"

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When I do File>New Window, I get a new window. So it seems to work. And I have the same problem with the menu. The menu items (File, Edit, etc) are black against gray. I use the menu a lot and have a hard time seeing the menu items. It's a constant strain. I've attached a screenshot.

By the way, my browser,urlbar.formatting.enabled is set to False.

Modified by ellenfinkl

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Can you turn off the glass effect? I believe that is what causes the menu bar to be hard to read. You could alternatively try installing a different theme that does not use any transparency effects.

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Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).


You can try to disable transparency this way as a test:

Right click in a free space on your desktop.
Left click on Personalization.
There are four options in Windows 7 at the bottom of the screen, choose "Window Color and Appearance".
Select a border color
Uncheck: "Enable transparency"