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Firefox 8 - can't drag favicon shortcut to desktop

  • 7 replies
  • 20 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Rick

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I just upgraded to Firefox 8. I may have to go back to 7, it seems buggy. In particular, I used to be able to drag a tab favicon to the desktop. Now if i try this, it opens the tab in a new window. How do I get the "proper" behaviour back?

I just upgraded to Firefox 8. I may have to go back to 7, it seems buggy. In particular, I used to be able to drag a tab favicon to the desktop. Now if i try this, it opens the tab in a new window. How do I get the "proper" behaviour back?

All Replies (7)

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Hold down the Ctrl key and press the left mouse button to start the dragging to make a copy of the tab on the desktop.

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Nope. That does not help at all. And despite Ctrl+ normally inducing "Copy" behaiour, while it moves the tab to a new window it does not leave the original tab in the original window. I have disabled all add-ons, but I am still not able to drag a tab (favicon) to the desktop. (Though I can drag a favicon FROM the bookmarks toolbar to the desktop, and I can drag a tab favicon TO the bookmarks toolbar.)

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Drag the icon from the URL bar (Location bar) instead.

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I found this, it was posted by someone else, but it worked. The problem is an add-on; don't know which one. Follow these instructions and your dragging problem will be fixed. But the key is put FF into safe mode, then test dragging. Then only put the add-on's back on if they don't create a problem.


-> go to Help Menu -> select "Restart with Add-ons Disabled"

Firefox will close then it will open up with just basic Firefox. Now do this:

-> Update Firefox to the latest version by going to Help Menu -> About Firefox -> click Check for Updates -> if an updated version is found then download the latest version and install it. After that follow these steps:

-> Update ALL your Firefox Plug-ins https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/

-> go to View Menu -> Toolbars -> unselect All Unwanted toolbars

-> go Tools Menu -> Clear Recent History -> Time range to clear: select EVERYTHING -> click Details (small arrow) button -> place Checkmarks on Cookies & Cache -> click "Clear Now"

-> go to Tools Menu -> Options -> Content -> place Checkmarks on:

1) Block Pop-up windows 2) Load images automatically 3) Enable JavaScript

-> go to Tools Menu -> Options -> Security -> place Checkmarks on:

1) Warn me when sites try to install add-ons 2) Block reported attack sites 3) Block reported web forgeries 4) Remember Passwords for sites

-> Click OK on Options window

-> click the Favicon (small drop down menu icon) on Firefox SearchBar (its position is on the Right side of the Address Bar) -> click "Manage Search Engines" -> select all Unwanted Search Engines and click Remove -> click OK

-> go to Tools Menu -> Add-ons -> Extensions section -> REMOVE All Unwanted/Suspicious Extensions (Add-ons) -> Restart Firefox

You can enable your Known & Trustworthy Add-ons later. Check and tell if its working.

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For me, the TorButton addon (version 1.4.5.1) was the culprit.

With the TorButton addon enabled, trying to drag the favicon always gave the red-line-circle and I could not create the shortcut. Disabling the addon and restarting Firefox allowed draging and creating a shortcut as normal.

This behaviour was confirmed on three PC's.

Note that the TorButton does not have to be actively in Tor mode, just enabled as an addon for the behaviour to manifest.

The issue has already been raised as a bug with the TorButton developers (not by me).

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Whats up with Firefox 9?

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Quote: "Whats up with Firefox 9? "

Well, nothing except that it still has the above problem with TorButton, or vice-verse. I have 9.0.1 installed and still have to disable TorButton to enable the favicon dragging.