how do i get firefox to not be in full screen mode without a mouse or keyboard?
for some reason Firefox switched to full screen mode and i can't get out of it. I'm using Firefox on a tablet PC running windows 8.1 so using F11 or a mouse is not an option. at least i assume it's full screen mode. i can't see my bookmarks bar, my address bar, or even the windows task menu at the bottom of the screen, where my virtual keyboard is located at. i can get to the settings menu (i have Firefox set to start on a new page) but i can't find bookmark bar, address bar, or full screen settings there. I tried using IE11 to uninstall Firefox and reinstall it but it kept the setting. A "turn off full screen mode" button in the settings would be super helpful or a "force show address bar" button.
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actually i found the answer! sideswipe left from the right side of the screen to bring up the charms menu. on the bottom is the keyboard button. hit this and switch to the keyboard with the most buttons. hit fn (not the letter keys F,N but the Fn (function) button) and the F keys appear. hit F11 and problem solved.
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Yes, unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to solve this puzzle when I looked at it a couple months ago: How do i exit fullscreen mode on a tablet PC operating Win8.1 and no physical keys? Not sure any of the wild stabs in the dark there will work any better now than they did back then.
I think adding Exit Full Screen to the standard context menu (long pressing the page should call that up) could be a useful way to resolve it. But I don't know if anyone is working on anything like that (I haven't searched Bugzilla).
By the way, if Firefox is stuck in full screen mode, I think you could clear that by removing the settings file which stores window dimensions. Here's how:
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
If none of those is available: Use the Run command (or maybe the charms bar search box), type or paste the following and tap Run/Search or Enter on the virtual keyboard:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
Then double-tap into your most recently updated semi-randomly-named profile folder.
Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
- (menu bar) File > Exit
If neither of those is available, try using one of the standard Windows ways of exiting a program.
Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.
Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?
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actually i found the answer! sideswipe left from the right side of the screen to bring up the charms menu. on the bottom is the keyboard button. hit this and switch to the keyboard with the most buttons. hit fn (not the letter keys F,N but the Fn (function) button) and the F keys appear. hit F11 and problem solved.
Excellent! If I ever pull the trigger on a Surface Pro I'll keep that mind.