Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How can I both 'Show your windows and tabs from last time' but start from my homepage?

more options

I'd like to know if it possible (using addons, if needed) to both load all windows and tabs from the previous session, but open the browser on a homepage, explicitely NOT on one of my windows or tabs from my previous session!

You may wonder why I want this. My additional privacy protecting addons don't always get fully loaded before the first page in the browser is loaded, hence my privacy is at risk when this page is loaded if turn the 'Show your windows and tabs from last time' on and forget to select a 'safe tab' (e.g. about:newtab). If instead, when opening the browser, I land on a 'safe tab', my addons are able to load before I visited any potentially 'dangerous' websites.

Of course, I can set a homepage and reload my tabs from the previous manually. But having both automatically seems technically possible and would be very convenient.

I'd like to know if it possible (using addons, if needed) to both load all windows and tabs from the previous session, but open the browser on a homepage, explicitely NOT on one of my windows or tabs from my previous session! You may wonder why I want this. My additional privacy protecting addons don't always get fully loaded before the first page in the browser is loaded, hence my privacy is at risk when this page is loaded if turn the 'Show your windows and tabs from last time' on and forget to select a 'safe tab' (e.g. about:newtab). If instead, when opening the browser, I land on a 'safe tab', my addons are able to load before I visited any potentially 'dangerous' websites. Of course, I can set a homepage and reload my tabs from the previous manually. But having both automatically seems technically possible and would be very convenient.

Isisombulu esikhethiweyo

Hmm, I'm a bit doubtful...

Firefox will load the active tab in each window when you restore previous session windows and tabs. If you only had one window, a workaround would be to start Firefox with a shortcut to a page (for example, to your home page). When I've launched Firefox using a link or shortcut to a page, the linked page is the active tab and my previous session tabs are loaded into that same window as pending background tabs. But this only works for the lead window, and all the other windows are restored normally, meaning the active tab in each window is restored. Often they are restored from cache, but some may be refreshed from the source site.

You could check whether any of the session manager add-ons have a feature to load your session automatically but after a delay. Otherwise, manual restoration would seem to be necessary.

I'm aware of these session management add-ons:

Funda le mpendulo kwimeko leyo 👍 1

All Replies (3)

more options

Isisombululo esiKhethiweyo

Hmm, I'm a bit doubtful...

Firefox will load the active tab in each window when you restore previous session windows and tabs. If you only had one window, a workaround would be to start Firefox with a shortcut to a page (for example, to your home page). When I've launched Firefox using a link or shortcut to a page, the linked page is the active tab and my previous session tabs are loaded into that same window as pending background tabs. But this only works for the lead window, and all the other windows are restored normally, meaning the active tab in each window is restored. Often they are restored from cache, but some may be refreshed from the source site.

You could check whether any of the session manager add-ons have a feature to load your session automatically but after a delay. Otherwise, manual restoration would seem to be necessary.

I'm aware of these session management add-ons:

more options

Ah, well, I can manage working within a single window. Or at least shutting Firefox down with a single window (after crashes pages aren't immediately loaded, anyway). I've created a desktop shortcut with

"...\firefox.exe" -new-tab "about:home"

, pinned it to the taskbar and it seems to work. Thanks!

more options

If you do need multiple windows, you could always open a new tab and make that active before shutting down. But yeah, that's extra work.