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Address Bar Drop-Down Suddenly Super-Wide?

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After the most recent update, the drop-down menu for the address bar/url bar is now the entire width of the screen, as opposed to the width of the address bar, which means that it not only looks clunky/cluttered, but there is a lot of unnecessary space. Also, the page title now displays in front of the page url, as opposed to on top like before.

So, this has prompted two questions from yours truly: 1) Why was this change made? It does not seem practical or needed from my view, and it's not the nicest-looking change either. 2) Is there a way I can get the address bar drop-down menu to look like it used to?

Edit: Also, the scroll bar for the dropdown menu is gone too. How do I replace it?

After the most recent update, the drop-down menu for the address bar/url bar is now the entire width of the screen, as opposed to the width of the address bar, which means that it not only looks clunky/cluttered, but there is a lot of unnecessary space. Also, the page title now displays in front of the page url, as opposed to on top like before. So, this has prompted two questions from yours truly: 1) Why was this change made? It does not seem practical or needed from my view, and it's not the nicest-looking change either. 2) Is there a way I can get the address bar drop-down menu to look like it used to? Edit: Also, the scroll bar for the dropdown menu is gone too. How do I replace it?

Modified by ponyparty

All Replies (12)

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Revert back to 47.0.1

I just did.

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Vlammetje said

Revert back to 47.0.1 I just did.

Okay, is there a way to do that from Firefox itself (or is there a site that offers trustworthy downloads)? I'm a bit leery about getting the download from another site only to end up with issues.

Also, is there a way to work Firefox so I won't get reminders about 48.0 until I am ready to download it myself (aka when they fix this issue)?

Modified by ponyparty

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It's the new design coming with FF48.

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Oxylatium said

It's the new design coming with FF48.

And I am wondering if there is an addon/tweak that can revert it back to the original look, because it's not a new design I much care for.

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Probably the add-on Classic Theme Restorer, but it's pretty heavy to fix only that.

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Oxylatium said

Probably the add-on Classic Theme Restorer, but it's pretty heavy to fix only that.

Yeah, it seems the best options for now are either wait until someone gets an address bar-specific addon, or download the previous version.

I'm tempted to do the latter, but I don't know where to get a trustworthy download, nor do I want Firefox to send me constant update reminders/force me to update before I am ready to.

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https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/47.0.1/

US English 32-Bit Windows flavor: https ://ftp. mozilla .org/pub/firefox/releases/47.0.1/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2047.0.1.exe

You can also set FF to never check for updates.


moderator obfuscated the hyperlink - NO hyperlinks directly to executable files permitted

Modified by the-edmeister

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In another thread, a user posted a screenshot from a beta version of Classic Theme Restorer that appears to roll back some of the changes autocomplete drop-down. I haven't tried it myself.

Regarding the width, you can of course use custom style rules to modify the width, but I don't know if custom style rules can wrap the URL below the title. I may look into it tonight.

Regarding the scroll bar, there's only 10 items by default. If you specify that you want more than 10 items, a scroll bar will appear. If you want to do that, here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste rich and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.urlbar.maxRichResults preference and edit the number of items from 10 to the desired value, for example 15 and click OK.

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jscher2000 said

In another thread, a user posted a screenshot from a beta version of Classic Theme Restorer that appears to roll back some of the changes autocomplete drop-down. I haven't tried it myself.

Apologies for my late reply... As another user said above, that's a pretty heavy fix for just that one issue. I'd almost prefer to wait and see if someone comes up with a specific fix.

On that note, what category would a fix like that go into on the Addons page?

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ponyparty said

On that note, what category would a fix like that go into on the Addons page?

It would be an extension, but whether the author uses a particular name I really couldn't say. The four most typical names for the bar are:

  • URL bar
  • Address bar
  • Location bar
  • Awesomebar

You could search for those individually and see what's new/updated.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/

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Okay, thanks. Doesn't appear to be one on there yet unless I'm missing something.

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I created an experimental two-line autocomplete drop-down with pure style rules and incorporated into my existing URL Bar Tweaks userstyle.

https://userstyles.org/styles/122394/url-bar-tweaks-remove-visit-search-scroll-bar

See attached screen shot.

I've only tried it on Windows 7 (Aero) so far, so it probably needs some edits for other platforms, but it's a start.