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

New Tab, TOP SITES

  • 5 replies
  • 79 have this problem
  • 49 views
  • Last reply by S.Valentin

more options

Hi,

Is there, or will there be an option to choose how many rows (maybe even columns) we want to have in this new "New Tab", "TOP SITES" system? I know that now you can add one more row, to have 2, but I used to have more then that, and it was really helpful. Also, the option to be able to change the order was really nice, I tried it now, with the new system, but it doesn't let me.

Hi, Is there, or will there be an option to choose how many rows (maybe even columns) we want to have in this new "New Tab", "TOP SITES" system? I know that now you can add one more row, to have 2, but I used to have more then that, and it was really helpful. Also, the option to be able to change the order was really nice, I tried it now, with the new system, but it doesn't let me.

Chosen solution

  1. Open about:config in the address bar, press Enter and "accept the risk".
  2. Type browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount (or just topsitescount) in the Search field.

The value for this preference is 6 by default, gets modified to 12 if you choose Show two rows using the cogwheel in the top right of the New Tab page, but can be modified here to any value you want. It does not have to be a multiple of 6, but setting it to e.g. 18 makes it show 3 rows and 6 columns.

For the order: you can do several things with tiles (or thumbnails) for Top Sites, but I’m afraid you cannot change the order in v57 when the new and so-called "Activity Stream" is enabled. However, you can disable that view by toggling the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enabled preference to false in about:config, which will set back the New Tab page view back to what you were used to. Adding rows and columns would then be done by modifying browser.newtabpage.columns and browser.newtabpage.rows.

Note that when changing any of the latter, you may need to restart Firefox, or you might see empty New Tab pages.

Also see the Customize your Firefox New Tab page article.

Read this answer in context 👍 51

All Replies (5)

more options

How about just top sites if you use Tiles Make top sites in tab page more (smaller icons) about:config page named browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount to expand your amount.

Is all I got... We know nothing... A article printed today said " The new toolbar can be customised in 265,252,859,191,742,656,903,069,040,640,000 permutations." Think know 6 myself.

Info will come, Extensions will be built....

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

more options

Chosen Solution

  1. Open about:config in the address bar, press Enter and "accept the risk".
  2. Type browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount (or just topsitescount) in the Search field.

The value for this preference is 6 by default, gets modified to 12 if you choose Show two rows using the cogwheel in the top right of the New Tab page, but can be modified here to any value you want. It does not have to be a multiple of 6, but setting it to e.g. 18 makes it show 3 rows and 6 columns.

For the order: you can do several things with tiles (or thumbnails) for Top Sites, but I’m afraid you cannot change the order in v57 when the new and so-called "Activity Stream" is enabled. However, you can disable that view by toggling the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enabled preference to false in about:config, which will set back the New Tab page view back to what you were used to. Adding rows and columns would then be done by modifying browser.newtabpage.columns and browser.newtabpage.rows.

Note that when changing any of the latter, you may need to restart Firefox, or you might see empty New Tab pages.

Also see the Customize your Firefox New Tab page article.

more options

Thank you Tonnes. I chosed to disable "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enabled". The other option would have been better if I was able to change the size of the "sites", and to be able to change the order. Maybe in future they will add that too.

more options

In addition to being able to manually add more top sites, I have found some other customizations that can be done:

To re-order your Top Sites: go to about:config, "accept the risk", then go to "browser.newtabpage.pinned". Now, you can edit in place, but I'd recommend copying the value to your favorite note editor, and making a second (backup) copy before you start changing things. Everything inside of each set of { } is one Top Site, so you can move them around, making sure to preserve the commas },{ and beginning/end brackets [ ]. Once you're done, right click on "browser.newtabpage.pinned" and select "modify" then paste your edited code and click Ok. (note: you'll have to restart your browser for the changes to take effect)

You can also change the display name of your Top Sites: same place as before, what you're going to do is after the "url":"http//etc." add "label":"My Label" making sure to preserve commas between attributes like so; {"url":"http//etc.","label":"My Label","baseDomain":"etc."}

One more note: while re-ordering Top Sites you may see some null,null those are unpinned sites between pinned sites, and you may delete them to move all of your pinned sites to the top (again, make sure to leave one comma between curly braces).

Modified by hydrowindandsolar

more options

hydrowindandsolar said

In addition to being able to manually add more top sites, I have found some other customizations that can be done: To re-order your Top Sites: go to about:config, "accept the risk", then go to "browser.newtabpage.pinned". Now, you can edit in place, but I'd recommend copying the value to your favorite note editor, and making a second (backup) copy before you start changing things. Everything inside of each set of { } is one Top Site, so you can move them around, making sure to preserve the commas },{ and beginning/end brackets [ ]. Once you're done, right click on "browser.newtabpage.pinned" and select "modify" then paste your edited code and click Ok. (note: you'll have to restart your browser for the changes to take effect) You can also change the display name of your Top Sites: same place as before, what you're going to do is after the "url":"http//etc." add "label":"My Label" making sure to preserve commas between attributes like so; {"url":"http//etc.","label":"My Label","baseDomain":"etc."} One more note: while re-ordering Top Sites you may see some null,null those are unpinned sites between pinned sites, and you may delete them to move all of your pinned sites to the top (again, make sure to leave one comma between curly braces).

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind in case they decide to remove the "old Top Sites". It is nice that you can change the order, but having to do that every time I want to change something, well that ruins it. I'll wait until they add drag and drop, it is not hard to do, but little things always get left behind. For now, the old layout is enough for me, and btw, I know what a JSON structure is. :)

Modified by S.Valentin