Sorry, the toolbars interface was changed for Firefox 4 to allow for "Tabs on Top".

So the user has no way to customize the tab bar, so that it has it's position to the right of the bookmark sidebar in current versions of firefox?

No there isn't. The "tabstrip" is part of a regular toolbar now. Any toolbar element can be out upon the tab bar, as with the other toolbars.

Thanks. Guess I'll have to live with it. There is a second question that I have concerning the tabs and "restore session tabs". Not sure if I should post it here or start another thread. But here goes. I did search and found some similar questions but no answer. In version 2.0, if I had several tabs opened and the browser or windows crash, when I opened up firefox again after a reboot, I will warn me that if I want to start a new session or restore previous sessions.

Now, it must be stated that I had in my privacy options, I had "browsing history" and "download history" set to clear when the browser closed. I set that and that's the way i wanted it. But it still gave me an option to restore sessions if the browser crashed. That was perfect for me. The answer I saw with my search indicated that I should have the "browsing history" unchecked and not cleared. Which doesn't make sense to me. If it worked in version 2.0, with browsing history checked to be cleared, how come it doesn't work in the latest version. I want to keep my browsing history checked to be clear when the browser closes and if the browser crashes, it should give me the options like it did in v2.0. Thanks.

Firefox 2.0 was first released 6 years ago, much about Firefox has changed in that time. History and "sessions" were changed a bit in Firefox 3.6, and then again in Firefox 4.0, when most internal files of Firefox was changed with Gecko 2.

On the first re-start after a Firefox crash, you session is supposed to be automatically restored. On the 2nd restart after a crash (if Firefox crashes as a result of the session restore), you get a tab which offers a window by window and tab by tab list - see screenshot.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/settings-privacy-browsing-history-do-not-track

Again thanks. I make a distinction between properly closing firefox and having firefox abruptly closing due to a system crash. For my current version, v15.0.1, I have "remember my browsing history" and "remember my download history" unchecked, also "clear history when firefox closes", just like in v2.0. When I properly close out all tabs and then firefox itself, I expect the application to comply with what I have checked. But, if the application, firefox, were to crash or the operating system crashes, I expect firefox, like in v2.0, to give me the option of restoring the tabs that I had opened before the crash, just like in v2.0. In other words, having the application comply with my request for privacy but at the same time recovering itself from an unexpected and unplanned closure. Just like it was in v2.0. I find it difficulty to believe the coders would remove such a built in safety feature. Maybe it still there, but I'm not checking the right boxes. I'm essentially checking the same boxes as I had them in version 2.0. Again, thanks for the assistance.

with version 2.0 and the settings I indicated: If the browser or system crashed, when I re-opened firefox, it had a pop-up asking me if I want to open a new window, or restore the sessions before the crash.

With version 15.0.1 and the same settings I indicated in version 2.0: If the browser or system crashed, when I re-opened firefox, it just opens to a blank tab. No mention of a crash or option to restore the tabs before the crash. It's a though as far as the application is concern, there was no crash. Yet it's showing a blank tab. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a customized settings issue. Hope this helps in better explaining my second question.

You can always look in "History > Restore Previous Session" (about:sessionrestore) to see if there is a previous session to restore.

If there isn't a session to restore then Firefox didn't create a sessionstore.js file. You can verify that session restore is enabled.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Session+Restore

Note that Firefox will try to clear private data on a next start if Firefox didn't succeed doing this on the previous close (pref privacy.sanitize.didShutdownSanitize is missing or false).

Guys, thanks very much for the responses. I'll read the two links and check my settings again. I just found it odd that version 15.01 wouldn't give me the option of restoring the sessions like version 2.0 did, after a crash. All other settings being equal.

You can set the Integer pref browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first restart after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes

Well, tried everything. It seems that the latest version of firefox demands that you must have "clear history when Firefox closes" and "Remember my browsing and download history" unchecked for restore sessions in case of a crash to work.

That wasn't the case with version 2.0. With that earlier version I had the above checked and it restored the sessions when it crashed.

Version 2.0 made a distinction between properly closing the application as oppose to the app being closed due to a crash. Because it allowed the user to have the "clear history when firefox closes" but remember those tabs that were open ONLY when there was a crash. So you had the best of both worlds with v2.0, privacy and insurance in case of a crash. Not so with v15 or v16 as far as I can see as a user.

It is possible that the crash occurs after Firefox has already has done the clear history on shutdown.
You can check the prefs.js file for the presence of a privacy.sanitize.didShutdownSanitize line.
If that is the case then there is not much that you can do (no history -> on tabs left to restore).

You can test if adding this line to a user.js file in the Firefox Profile Folder works to make Firefox think that there is no need to do the sanitize on the next start if there isn't a privacy.sanitize.didShutdownSanitize line.

user_pref("privacy.sanitize.didShutdownSanitize", true);

These are my settings for v16.0.1: - Use custom settings for history - Remember my browsing and download history (this in unchecked) - Clear history when Firefox closes (this is checked) These were also the settings I had in Firefox v2.0.0.20.

Now as a test I had 4 tabs open with different sites in firefox v16.0.1. To simulate a crash, I used Task Manager to kill Firefox. When I re-opened firefox, I get a tab "New Tab" which is blank. That's it. Nothing more. No pop up asking me if I wanted to restore the sessions before the crash.

As a reference, In firefox v2.0.0.20, I would get a pop window asking me if I wanted to restore the sessions before the crash. Again, with the same settings as I listed above.

In the "prefs.js", this is what I see after the simulated crash:

user_pref("pref.privacy.disable_button.cookie_exceptions", false);
user_pref("privacy.clearOnShutdown.cache", false);
user_pref("privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies", false);
user_pref("privacy.clearOnShutdown.formdata", false);
user_pref("privacy.clearOnShutdown.sessions", false);
user_pref("privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs", true);
user_pref("privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown", true);

Not sure what to do here. Do I edit in the line you posted?