Disable web browser tab previews in Windows 7

Recently I upgraded my work machine from Windows Vista to Windows 7. While learning the new features of 7 I found that Aero likes to show tab previews of each tab I have open in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. I am the kind of guy that keeps multiple tabs open almost all day long looking up items, coding, … the list could go on so I found this “feature” a pain. As you can see in the below image that I have multiple websites open but you cannot tell if it is multiple windows or multiple tabs.

Firefox1

Now with the picture below you can easily see I have only one window open but four tabs.

Firefox2

To disable tab previews in Firefox you need to do the following:

  • Open the about:config page in a new tab or window
  • Filter for: browser.taskbar.previews.enable
  • By default this is set to true so double click on the true to swap the value to false
  • Your done!

Now for Internet Explorer you have to open the the Internet Options. You will do this by opening Internet Explorer and in the toolbar look for the Tools icon which looks like a gear and then select Internet Options at the very bottom.

IE0

Once in the Internet Options click on the Settings button in the Tabs section.

IE1

Once in the Tabbed Browsing Settings un-check the option that says: Show previews for individual tabs in the taskbar*, then click OK on all the open windows and close out of Internet Explorer.

IE2

Now for Opera we have to open the opera:config page in a new tab or window.

Opera1

Scroll down to a section titled User Prefs and expand this section.

Opera2

Scroll down towards the bottom of the User Prefs section and un-check the check box: “Use Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnails”

Opera3

Once you have unchecked this box scroll down to the bottom of the User Prefs section and click the save button. You will eventually be presented with the following dialog box once complete.

Opera4

That is how you disable tab previews in Windows 7 for popular browsers.

Make Firefox open new tabs at end of tab row

So you have recently upgraded Firefox and you have noticed that when you open a link in a new tab that it does not open at the end of the tab row. Here is an easy way to fix this:

  • Open a new tab/window and type “about:config” in the address bar – You may need to click the “I’ll be careful, I Promise!” button to let you continue opening this page.
  • Do a search for: “browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent”
  • The default value for this key is true. Double click the key value to change it to false.
  • Close out of the about:config

Enjoy opening new tabs at the end of the tab row. If you want to revert back to the related tabs opening right after the other just change the value back to true.

Quick way to download Flickr images

So I was browsing around on Flickr.com and found some images I wanted to save to my computer. The problem is that when you right click on an image you get a file called spaceball.gif which “covers” up the image from right click to save the image file. To get around this you will need the following:

  • Firefox
  • Adblock Plus

Once you have installed the Adblock Plus extension into Firefox follow the steps below:

  • Navigate to Flickr page that you want to save the image.
  • Right click the image you want to save and select Save Image As. If the filename is called spaceball.gif cancel the download
  • Right click on the image and select Adblock Plus: Block Image
  • Select the very first option under the Look for pattern which will more than likely be: |http://l.yimg.com/g/images/spaceball.gif and click Add Filter
  • Refresh page and try saving picture again

Enjoy saving images from Flickr when there is no option to download larger files.

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