Open Firefox as a popup window - without URL or tab bars.
Is it possible to open Firefox from command line (or shortcut) without loading the URL or tab bars?
My current workaround is to load the URL and then click a bookmarklet which opens the tab in a popup window. Is there a way to open a link directly in a popup window?
I've scanned about:config to no avail, and it seems all the popup extensions just do what my bookmarklet does.
Ideally there would be a command line flag like --popup which does exactly that, but the closest thing I could find is --headless and --kiosk which don't work that way.
I also made a new profile named "popup" and intended to add extensions which hide the nav bar, but it looks like extensions aren't allowed to do that any more.
Chosen solution
Hi Kevin, I think this is not fully debugged and that's why it isn't in the MDN article yet, but if you want to experiment:
(A) Enable the "Single Site Browser" feature in Firefox
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste ssb and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.ssb.enabled preference to switch the value from false to true
(B) Launch the URL with the -ssb switch
For example:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ssb https://www.mozilla.org/
Is that roughly what you're looking for?
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (8)
Chosen Solution
Hi Kevin, I think this is not fully debugged and that's why it isn't in the MDN article yet, but if you want to experiment:
(A) Enable the "Single Site Browser" feature in Firefox
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste ssb and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.ssb.enabled preference to switch the value from false to true
(B) Launch the URL with the -ssb switch
For example:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ssb https://www.mozilla.org/
Is that roughly what you're looking for?
kevin said
I also made a new profile named "popup" and intended to add extensions which hide the nav bar, but it looks like extensions aren't allowed to do that any more.
You would use custom style rules in a userChrome.css file. For a full view of the creativity of Firefox users, you can ask how other people have solved this problem over on
Isn't this SSB feature named "Site Specific Browser" as part of PWA support ?
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_applications
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site-specific_browser
cor-el said
Isn't this SSB feature named "Site Specific Browser" as part of PWA support ?
That's probably right. Eventually this is how PWA's will be supported on desktop.
jscher2000 said
Is that roughly what you're looking for?
That's exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you so much!
jscher2000 said
Hi Kevin, I think this is not fully debugged and that's why it isn't in the MDN article yet, but if you want to experiment: (A) Enable the "Single Site Browser" feature in Firefox (1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk. (2) In the search box in the page, type or paste ssb and pause while the list is filtered (3) Double-click the browser.ssb.enabled preference to switch the value from false to true (B) Launch the URL with the -ssb switch For example: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ssb https://www.mozilla.org/ Is that roughly what you're looking for?
will add on which are added in normal firefox work for site specific browser or we need to add them.(Frist time writing here)
Modified by Aniket
Hi Aniket, when I test, it is difficult to tell whether extensions are available because there is no toolbar and no right-click context menu in the SSB window.
If I have Firefox running in my default profile before launching the SSB window, I notice some connections:
- downloads in the SSB window follow the setting in my regular profile (save in one folder versus ask me where to save)
- the browsing and download history from my SSB window is added to my regular profile history
However, the style hacks applied to the site using Stylus only appear in regular windows and not the SSB window. So it seems to be some kind of hybrid behavior. I don't know where this is all documented, if anywhere.