The Features Mozilla Forgot for Restoring Sessions in Firefox…
One of the nice features that Mozilla put in Firefox 2 was the ability to close the browser and reopen it later on while restoring all of your tabs. This Session Restore feature is extremely handy, but Mozilla could have added a few more simple features to make it a little more powerful.
One of the things that I’ve mentioned before regarding the Session Restore is the absence of a Restart option in the File menu. This should have been really easy to implement considering that the ability to restart Firefox, while preserving open tabs and windows, is available after installing an extension. There is even a nice Firefox extension called Restarter that adds this much needed feature.
The next thing that I would like to see is an option to choose whether Firefox should save the session or not. In the Options -> General there is a setting to restore all open tabs each time Firefox starts up, but every now and then I prefer to start with a clean slate. So there should be an option that I can enable which will popup with a box asking whether I want to save the session or not. The closest extension that I could find for doing this is Session Fix, which prompts you to save the session when closing Firefox:
I would prefer to see a prompt when starting the browser like in Opera, but hey, this is pretty close. 
Are you using any other extensions that make the Session Restore feature in Firefox better?
Enjoyed the post? Subscribe to our feed to get a daily dose of CyberNet!
Tags: Firefox, Freeware, Software, Firefox Extensions
Related Posts:
- Want To Get That Pesky ‘X’ Off Of The Firefox 2 Tabs?
- Firefox 2 Is Now *Officially* Released And Has A Redesigned Homepage
- Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 Candidate Builds Available
- Update For Tweaking The Session Restore In Firefox 2
- Helpful Tip: Recover Lost Bookmarks in Firefox 3
tabmixplus-https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1122
tabmix plus can be set to save sessions on exit and start previous sessions on start up.open tabmixplus options go to session icon and uncheck use Firefox built in session restore feature.then enable session manager and crash recovery and also check ask before restoring and ask before saving.also,right click the customize above the addressbar and hit customize and place the session restore icon out for easy session access.
also i use the extension called update notifier to restart the browser.after you install right click hit customize and place icon on the browser
updatenotifier-https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2098
You would complain about Firefox…
I like the new spam protection; Was there a reason for the switch? Don’t forget to check out Aaron’s MySpace, they have two new songs since he graduated.
I second s on TabMixPlus - it adds several genuinely useful features to Firefox.
Overall though I’m not put off by the fact that FF doesn’t have some (necessary) functionality already built in, just as long as those things are possible using extensions. It keeps the bare app light, like it should be. Firefox takes so long to start on my system that I’ve customized it and replaced the close app button with a minimize button.
Helps keep the blood pressure down.
one feature mozilla forgot(i think its in seamonkey?) is tab preview-
http://ted.mielczarek.org/code.....abpreview/
also there is a similair extension on the mozilla addon site called tab scope
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4882
they integrated some of Tab Mix Plus’ features into Firefox 2, but the extra features of the Session Manager in Tab Mix Plus didn’t make it in. No big deal, since that is what extensions are for. I’ve been using TMP since it came out. It’s definitely in my top 5 most useful extension list.
They did Not forgot… thankfully. This is not as cool or as useful as one thinks and has had problems in SeaMonkey etc.
As for the Session restore, I’m sure other additions were considered but I think the restore on crash default and the “Show my windows and tabs from last time” feature in the preferences were all that were really needed without going overboard. If people wanted more then there were extensions.
Battling Firefox Bloat - http://weblogs.mozillazine.org.....09620.html
The Quote for 4. was not working right as I had to manually try and fix it.
I’ve used the Session Manager extension since even before Firefox 2. You can set it to remember as many sessions as you want and also manually save sessions and get easy access to recently closed tabs.
I don’t use Opera so I don’t really know, but I suspect that this feature can become quite annoying if you use your browser really often, as it means an extra click each time it starts. All in all, I think it’s easier to let Firefox restore my previous session, and then close all tabs by myself if I want to. No big deal : a bunch of Ctrl W and it’s done !
(I think there’s an option which specify that even if you close the last opened tab, Firefox doesn’t exit; or maybe this option is in TabMixPlus ?)
Maybe a good solution would be a simple extension which would add a toolbar button to close all tabs at once ? (This command can be added to the right-click menu on tabs, thanks to TabMixPlus –again.) Or maybe there exists a special command line, allowing to start Firefox only with a blank page ? This way you could have a special shortcut on your desktop : “Start blank Firefox”.
ToolBar Buttons will let you do this.
Whenever I want to save my session, I just kill the Firefox process. Then, after starting Firefox, it will ask me whether I want to restore my session or not.
@s: I’ve used TabMixPlus for a long time, but that always seemed to be the extension that would cause the heavy memory usage in Firefox. Thanks for pointing out the notifier extension though, that looks pretty sweet.
@Andrew: Switch? I haven’t switched. I use both Firefox and Opera on a regular basis.
@Nosh: I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact you replaced the close button with a minimize button.
That is the funniest thing I heard all week.
@thorbeast: I would agree that it is useful, but it can actually be overly useful. I wish they offered multiple versions of the extension so that people looking to keep their Firefox slim and fit could install a more barebones version.
@James: I understand that they are trying to keep the bloat out of the browser, and I’m all for that. I don’t think that they should be bloating the browser with more features that decrease the effeciency of the browser. However, these two features could be implemented without adding anymore overhead since the features are already built-in. The two extensions that I mention which solve the problems don’t do anything other than set a couple values in the about:config.
@Mris: I would use that extension, but I prefer to use the built-in features of the browser. Using a separate session manager, in my opinion, is like reinventing the wheel.
@s427: I guess if you restart your browser often the popup box would get annoying in Opera. I do like your idea of having a shortcut to start a “blank Firefox” and that has me wondering whether that is possible? It sounds simple enough and might be something you can do.
@Pieter:
I know one other person that always does that and I always thought it was funny. It’s essentially crashing Firefox on purpose, and I always thought that was ironic since the last thing you normally want to do is crash a program. 