Type about:preferences#general<enter> in the address bar.

You are correct that the old dialog code was fully removed in Firefox 42. Things that pop up are gradually being weeded out. If you want to open the new Preferences page in a separate window, you can create a bookmark for it and Shift+click it (assuming Shift+click launches a new window on your Firefox).

Regarding the styling of the page, I'm not sure how to remove the custom colors and show your default system colors. Have you ever used Stylish or a userChrome.css/userContent.css file to apply custom style rules in Firefox? Maybe by making some elements transparent the baseline colors will come through. However, as I'm sure our system themes are totally different (I run Windows 7), this is not something I would be able to confirm/deny.

The browser.preferences.inContent is no longer supported in Firefox 42 and later, so it is not possible to open a standalone window by setting this pref to false. Bug 1140495 - Remove support for windowed preferences

You can possibly create a button on the Bookmarks Toolbar to the about:preferences page and hold the Shift key and left-click to open the page in a new window.

You can look at the Classic Theme Restorer extension.

• General UI (1): Open options page (about:preferences) in a window
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/

What are the chances of Mozilla bringing back the separate Preferences window. It makes it so much easier to have that smaller window separate from the browser. I don't like tabs at all and prefer to avoid them as much as possible.

Mozilla won't bring back the standalone window for Options/Preferences.

This feature has been removed and support for browser.preferences.inContent has now been removed as well because the code for the standalone preferences window hadn't been updated to match the code used by about:preferences, so you would be missing newly added features and this would only get worse with later Firefox versions.

Maybe someone will create an extension for this, but I don't see one when I search today.

Cor-el, Thanks for your quick reply. It's kind of a sad thing that this decision was made. I guess I will have to get used to it; but, for password recovery, it was so handy to have that little window to copy my forgotten password from.

For the Password Manager, you could try this:

(1) Type or paste the following internal address into the address bar and press Enter:

chrome://passwordmgr/content/passwordManager.xul

(2) Bookmark the page to the Bookmarks Toolbar or the Bookmarks Menu, whichever is more convenient for you

Then you should be able to launch it in a new window using Shift+click on the bookmark.

The new window is bound to be an awkward size compared with the old dialog, but at least you'll have direct access to it.

For the passwords and the cookies you can consider to open the Password Manager and the Cookie Manager via "Tools > Page Info > Security" also accessible via the Site Identity Button at the left end of the location/address bar. That will open the passwords and cookies in a standalone window.

I prefer the stand-alone / windowed version of the Preferences/Options.

Even though there is the Classic Theme Restorer extension, I still prefer the original.

I want the developers to update the code to match the code used for about:preferences How can I persuade the developers to bring back the Options to windowed?

I really hate the TAB version. TABS is used for browsing the internet, not for the options to be displayed in, and I have a lot of tabs opened thus like having the options in a separate window.

I use Firefox v39 at work. But at home, using 43 with Classic theme extension. I never did like Google Chrome because there options is in a TAB but if this the way Mozilla is going, then I will uninstall Firefox and switch to using Chrome. yep...Mozilla really knows how to keep loyal customers....my screwing things up they like.

Otacon23 said

I want the developers to update the code to match the code used for about:preferences
How can I persuade the developers to bring back the Options to windowed?

I don't know whether you can change the design, but one place to give feedback is the following page (click the sad face):

https://input.mozilla.org/feedback/firefox

If you open and close this page often, the workaround mentioned by cor-el -- shift+click a bookmark to launch the current page in a new window -- probably is your best bet.

If you want to open the page once and keep it open in its own window, you can "tear off" the Options tab to a separate window using either:

• right-click the tab > Move to New Window
• click and drag downwards on the tab

Otacon23 said

I want the developers to update the code to match the code used for about:preferences How can I persuade the developers to bring back the Options to windowed? I use Firefox v39 at work.

The browser.preferences.inContent preference was only temporary and unless you knew about it you had this panel ever since Firefox 38.0 Release.

You likely have this temporary preference toggled in the old Firefox 39.0

And in case you missed this reply in thread. cor-el said

Mozilla won't bring back the standalone window for Options/Preferences. This feature has been removed and support for browser.preferences.inContent has now been removed as well because the code for the standalone preferences window hadn't been updated to match the code used by about:preferences, so you would be missing newly added features and this would only get worse with later Firefox versions.

James said

The browser.preferences.inContent preference was only temporary and unless you knew about it you had this panel ever since Firefox 38.0 Release. You likely have this temporary preference toggled in the old Firefox 39.0

Yeah, I knew about it since 38.0 came out. One of the first things I did in about:config was set the browser.preferences.inContent to false.

And in case you missed this reply in thread. cor-el said

Mozilla won't bring back the standalone window for Options/Preferences. This feature has been removed and support for browser.preferences.inContent has now been removed as well because the code for the standalone preferences window hadn't been updated to match the code used by about:preferences, so you would be missing newly added features and this would only get worse with later Firefox versions.

I didn't miss it.That is why I said: "I want the developers to update the code to match the code used for about:preferences"

I know they are making firefox to be another Chromium browser and probably they feel having both preferences in windowed and tab version is too much coding and probably unnecessary to have 2 locations. Unfortunately it forces people to accept this change. (if they update their browser). Seems like many developers are heading into this one direction (maybe that stupid boy band gave them the idea :D) including website developers as, like the mozilla site, is changed to suit people with touchscreen devices by having everything BIG on their screen, and a lot more scrolling. Like Windows 8/10 using one design to suit all devices, but mainly geared towards touchscreen devices. Yes good for touchscreen devices but since I use a PC with a mouse, I hate this design. I don't need huge icons/buttons. In the past, I never did like Netscape, I favored IE over Netscape. Then when Firefox came out, favored FF over IE. Later realized Mozilla was created by members of Netscape. This time they did something right. When Chrome came out, I favored FF over Chrome. But since they are heading to become a Chromium browser, I might as well use Chrome or find another browser that is like the old FF. Don't need 2 Chromium browsers on my comp.

jscher2000 said

I don't know whether you can change the design, but one place to give feedback is the following page (click the sad face): https://input.mozilla.org/feedback/firefox If you open and close this page often, the workaround mentioned by cor-el -- shift+click a bookmark to launch the current page in a new window -- probably is your best bet. If you want to open the page once and keep it open in its own window, you can "tear off" the Options tab to a separate window using either:

• right-click the tab > Move to New Window
• click and drag downwards on the tab

Thanks jscher, I will send a feedback to them. I will stick with the classic theme restorer add-on. If I did open it in a separate window, it is still a tab/window.

Cheers guys.

Mozilla's slogan is "We're Building a Better Internet" - I don't think so. False advertising. Whatever you guys are doing, is building a shitter internet. :)