Firefox - Load Tabs in Background

In Firefox, I like to have my tabs load in the background since my typical usage is to open multiple tabs from a site (multiple news stories for example). This is true when opening from a site, bookmarks or from a third party app such as my RSS Aggregator or email.

While the default is for Firefox 3 to load tabs in the background (links from other tabs), when loading from bookmarks or external apps, Firefox will move to the foreground to load the tab.

To change this behavior:

1. Enter about:config in the address bar.



2. Press OK to move pass the warning



3. In the filter bar enter: browser.tabs.load



4. Change the settings as required to True

The three relevant entries are browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground, browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground and browser.tabs.loadInBackground.

As mentioned, loadInBackground defaults to true; however, the other two default to False (meaning focus is switched to the tab). I set all three of these to True.