Can you disable "save last window location" for Firefox?

[registerme]

It's the most annoying thing I have to deal with. I have a 2 Monitor Setup, one main monitor and my tv as second monitor which I use to watch movies, online stuff, youtube etc.

So when I eat and watch a youtube show, then close the window and turn my tv off / switch channels or whatever and want to open firefox later to surf on my main screen it pops up on the second monitor which I don't see since I need to switch back to the PC channel on my TV. I need to select it and use the windows-key + arrows to switch it around.

So is there a about:config, script or windows solution to disable that behavior for firefox?

 

[tomv]

Tools=options=general=start up=when Firefox starts= Click the drop down and select.

 

[registerme]

Tools=options=general=start up=when Firefox starts= Click the drop down and select.

changing my start page has nothing to do with my problem? Oo

also, I CLOSE the window on the 2nd monitor, "using the last window" is EXACTLY WHAT I DON'T WANT - that is the default behavior - I'm looking for a way to disable that.

 

[eburnettscd]

Nope. Browser will remember last navigation setting and default buttons, address bar, status, etc.

You have an alternative, split up your applications, use one browser ie. Chrome for one set of applications on one screen and Firefox for the other. You might get lucky and find an extension (browser search in your settings panel) that might deal with this, you are not the only one with this problem. However it's not likely that DOM reference for any of the major supported browsers handle multiple monitors. Could be wrong, hope you find something.

If someone does please share (triple monitor solution).

 

[registerme]

I found an addon for firefox that is specifically for multi monitors - but I haven't found an option that specifically solves my problem. it also features way too much stuff I don't need.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/monitor-master/

 

[A Guy]

Most programs, and specifically FF will open on the monitor they last closed on. I am unaware of any way to make FF always open on the primary monitor. You would have to remember to use the center Restore Down button to window the browser, and drag it to the primary to close. You could also run the free MultiMon which puts a nice arrow to move between screens. But the "built in" performance is to default to monitor on which it was last closed.

MultiMonitor TaskBar

A Guy

 

[registerme]

well since I don't see the screen a button won't benefit me much x)
I also use UltraMon already, which has exactly the same tweaks. I just wanted to make it a default behavior, as it means a bit more comfortableness for me. It's no biggie, but still it slightly bothers me whenever that happens.
It does happen so often, that I'm now almost a 100% confident with my "blind" mouse movements, to drag the window on the main screen x) or I use win+arrows.

I never understood why no program / windows can deal with "which monitor to use as default" for individual programs. It's a pain to get games to play on the second screen, just as it is to let Firefox stay on the main screen. Why hasn't it be implemented under .exe => properties yet, I have to wonder myself.

 

[A Guy]

well since I don't see the screen a button won't benefit me much x)

You see the screen before you close it out. Good luck. A Guy

 

[registerme]

Well I have firefox open on both monitors (I drag the tab I want to watch to the secondary screen). I close the tab / new window when I'm finished watching and if I close / open a new firefox instance, it reopens on the secondary screen, even tho the main screen-firefox was closed the latest. And even if I move it back to the main screen, it still opens on the secondary monitor sometimes.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Well I have firefox open on both monitors (I drag the tab I want to watch to the secondary screen). I close the tab / new window when I'm finished watching and if I close / open a new firefox instance, it reopens on the secondary screen, even tho the main screen-firefox was closed the latest. And even if I move it back to the main screen, it still opens on the secondary monitor sometimes.

Sometimes it takes a while for Firefox (or IE for that matter) to exit RAM - the window might be gone, but FireFox is still running..... so, Firefox might not be closing in the order that you think it is.

Anyway, I tried for hours to reproduce what you described - but Firefox always opened on the last screen that it was closed from. I even tried playing some flash streams in the second monitor in the hopes that I could get flash and the plugin app to hang and reproduce what you see at time - but it never happened.

The location of the last Firefox window closed is written to in "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<random>.default\localstore.rdf". I thought that I had a solution for you - add the read only file attribute to that file and Firefox would not be able to change it. Sadly, Firefox was able to delete and recreate the file.

It appears that Firefox can get around everything I can think of to prevent it from changing that file. (e.g changing NTFS ownership and denying everything but read permissions). Maybe other forum members have a suggestion on how to lock that file.

What I can suggest - is to use a script to automatically delete that file after Firefox closes. That should place next new Firefox window in the default location - like a fresh install.

 

[registerme]

thanks for the profound trying to help me. I appreciate it.
I have no reliable way to reproduce it either (at least when I just tested it), but it happens quite often. I'll try to remember exactly what I did the next time.

A script... mh - would I have to "click" it manually and would it fill my trashbin?

 

[UsernameIssues]

....A script... mh - would I have to "click" it manually and would it fill my trashbin?

The script would run all of the time - watching and waiting for Firefox to start and then exit.

You can use the script below - you need to change the path to the localstore.rdf file. You do not need to compile the script - but you will need to install AutoIt to make use of it... see the second video in this post and the info below it.

Opt("TrayIconDebug", 1)

While 1
    Sleep(100)
    If ProcessExists("firefox.exe") Then
        ;ProcessWaitClose("firefox.exe") ;uses too much cpu time
        Do
            Sleep(200)
        Until Not ProcessExists("firefox.exe")
        Sleep(300)
        $var = FileDelete("C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\25k5i5f4.default\localstore.rdf")
        If Not $var Then MsgBox(48, 'error', 'localstore.rdf was not deleted - chech the path')
    EndIf
WEnd

 

[registerme]

thank you very much! I'll try that in due time.