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Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox Google Chrome Microsoft Edge uBlock Origin

^{Version 12/10/24}

Author’s Note

Mozilla Firefox is recommended over Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge for its enhanced ad-blocking capabilities.

Installation

Install with winget or use Ninite

winget install mozilla.firefox --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements

Open Firefox

• Click Continue
• Select the options you want and click Save and Continue
• Continue through the onboarding process or close the tab
• Right click the “Firefox View” button in the top left and select Remove from Toolbar
• Right click the “Show sidebar” button to the left of the back arrow and select Remove from Toolbar

Theme

• If you don’t like the current theme you can change it
  • Options Menu > Add-ons and themes > Themes on the left
  • Enable a theme to try it out
• If you don’t like the default Dark theme, try this one instead https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-dark-theme/

  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-dark-theme/
  

Appearance

*This section is Optional

• Right click some empty space on the top bar and select Customize Toolbar
• Click Toolbars at the bottom
  • Check Menu Bar optionally
  • Set Bookmarks Toolbar to Always Show
• Remove white space squares in top toolbar by dragging them to the box underneath
• Drag Home to toolbar next to reload
• Click Done

Settings

Click the Options Menu in top right corner > Settings

General

• Startup
  • (Optional) Enable Open previous windows and tabs
  • Uncheck Open Firefox automatically when your computer starts up
• Tabs
  • (Optional) Uncheck Show an image preview when you hover on a tab
  • Uncheck Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups
• Browsing
  • (Optional) Uncheck Control media via keyboard, headset, or virtual interface to disable Media Hotkeys
  • Uncheck Recommend extensions as you browse
  • Uncheck Recommend features as you browse
  • Uncheck Enable link previews

Home

• New Windows and Tabs
  • Set “Homepage and new windows” to Firefox Home (Default)
  • Make sure “New tabs” is set to Firefox Home (Default)
• Firefox Home Content, Uncheck:
  • Weather (Optional)
  • Shortcuts (Optional)
  • Recommended stories
  • Support Firefox
  • Recent activity

Search

• Default Search Engine
  • Select preferred Default Search Engine
  • My recommendation: DuckDuckGo
• Search Suggestions
  • Uncheck Show search suggestions
  • (Optional) Uncheck Show recent searches
• Address Bar – Firefox Suggest
  • Uncheck Search engines
  • Uncheck Quick actions
  • Uncheck Suggestions from Firefox
  • Uncheck Suggestions from sponsors
  • Make sure Improve the Firefox Suggest experience is disabled
• Search Shortcuts
  • Uncheck everything

Privacy & Security

• Website Privacy Preferences
  • Check Tell websites not to sell or share my data
• Permissions
  • Location > Settings > Check Block new requests asking to access your location > Click Save Changes
  • Notifications > Settings > Check Block new requests asking to allow notifications > Click Save Changes
• Firefox Data Collection and Use
  • Uncheck all settings
• Website Advertising Preferences
  • Make sure Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement is disabled
• Enable DNS over HTTPS using (Optional):
  • Select Max Protection

Advanced Changes

In the address bar type: about:config or copy the link from below

about:config

On the “Proceed with caution” page, click Accept the Risk and Continue or press Enter on the keyboard

Search for the setting and double click true|false to toggle the boolean

• Disable Firefox Accounts
  • Change identity.fxaccounts.enabled to false

  • identity.fxaccounts.enabled
    

• Disable “More from Mozilla”
  • Change browser.preferences.moreFromMozilla to false

  • browser.preferences.moreFromMozilla
    

• Disable “Firefox Labs”
  • Change browser.preferences.experimental to false

  • browser.preferences.experimental
    

• Disable Tab Groups
  • Change browser.tabs.groups.enabled to false

  • browser.tabs.groups.enabled
    

• Disable AI smart tab grouping
  • Change browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled to false

  • browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
    

• Disable Local AI Generation
  • Change browser.ml.enable to false

  • browser.ml.enable
    

• Disable AI Chatbot integration
  • Change browser.ml.chat.enabled to false

  • browser.ml.chat.enabled
    

• Disable sites asking to handle email links (Optional)
  • *This also prevents “mailto:” links from working
  • Change network.protocol-handler.external.mailto to false

  • network.protocol-handler.external.mailto
    

• Disable Tab Preview (Optional)
  • Change browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled to false

  • browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled
    

Once you have finished configuring your settings, close and reopen Firefox

uBlock Origin

Install

• Open the Firefox Add-ons page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
  

• Click Add to Firefox
• In the popup click Add
• On the second popup check Allow this extension to run in Private Windows and click Okay

Pin

• If uBlock doesn’t show on the toolbar, click the Overflow Menu button
• Right click the uBlock icon and select Unpin from Overflow Menu

Configure

• See the uBlock Origin article

Automatically Clear History

Settings > Privacy & Security > Scroll down to “History”

• Clear any history first
  • Click Clear History
  • Change “When” to Everything
  • Select all boxes and click Clear
• Set “Firefox will” to Never remember history
• Select Restart Firefox now