Pale Moon Tweaks
Pale Moon and Firefox are two popular web browsers that share many features. Most Firefox add-ons run perfectly fine in Pale Moon for example and the same is true for the majority of about:config tweaks.
Differences exist on the other hand and it is likely that the gap widens in the future due to decisions made by both development teams.
Pale Moon was not switched to the Australis interface for instance that Firefox was switched to in version 29. While that looks like just an interface change, it impacts a lot in the browser.
Some add-ons have been designed specifically for Australis for instance while others won't work with the new interface at all.
As far as tweaks are concerned, the majority of them are identical. If you check out our Firefox security guide for instance, you will notice that most tweaks and add-ons listed on the page are compatible with Pale Moon as well.
Note: Some of the tweaks below work in Firefox as well.
About:config
If you are not familiar with about:config, it is actually simple but also very powerful at the same time. All you have to do is type about:config into the Pale Moon address bar and hit enter.
Pale Moon lists a huge number of preferences on the page that opens that can all be changed to modify behavior.
Some tweaks may change interface elements or behavior while others apply under-the-hood changes that modify caching, connections or the rendering of pages.
You change the value of parameters with a double-click on them. If it is a boolean (true or false values only) then it will be switched automatically to the other value. All other value types open a prompt instead that you use to change the value.
A right-click on a parameter opens a context menu with a reset option. This comes in handy if you want to restore the original value but cannot remember it.
Customize the secure site padlock
The majority of browsers show a padlock icon when you connect to secure websites such as https://www.startpage.com/. While the padlock is still displayed by most browsers, its position has changed in recent time.
Firefox and Chrome display it in the address bar inside the colored area indicating a secure site instead of in the status bar where it was located initially.
Pale Moon comes with several padlock related options that you may find useful:
- parameter: browser.padlock.style
Defines where the padlock icon is shown in Pale Moon
- Inside the identity area on the right side of it (default).
- Inside the identity area on the left side of it (Firefox default).
- Next to bookmark star in the address bar.
- Right side of the status bar.
- Right side of the tabs bar.
- Same as 1 but classic style
- Same as 2 but classic style
- Same as 3 but classic style
- Same as 4 but classic style
- Same as 5 but classic style
Image related tweaks
- parameter: browser.display.standalone_images.background_color
The default background color of the image viewer in Pale Moon is #2E3B41 which is a dark blue-grayish kind of color.
You can use the preference listed above to change the color to another one. If you select #ffffff for instance it becomes white. The color that you see on the screenshot is #b0b3b6.
Check out these Hex Colors for inspiration.
- parameter: browser.enable_automatic_image_resizing
Pale Moon, just like Firefox, resizes images automatically so that they fit the browser window. Setting this preference to false prevents this from happening so that the original size is always loaded.
Security and privacy tweaks
The following tweaks have been posted on the Pale Moon forum.
- parameter: dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar
Set this to true to prevent websites from removing the menu bar in the browser with JavaScript.
- parameter: dom.disable_window_open_feature.personalbar
Set this to true to prevent websites from removing the personal bar in the browser with JavaScript.
- parameter: dom.disable_window_open_feature.scrollbars
Set this to true to prevent websites from removing scroll bars in the browser with JavaScript.
- parameter: dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar
Set this to true to prevent websites from removing the title bar in the browser with JavaScript.
- parameter: dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar
Set this to true to prevent websites from removing the toolbar in the browser with JavaScript.
- parameter: dom.event.contextmenu.enabled
Set this to true to prevent websites from removing the context menu in the browser with JavaScript.
- parameter: security.xpconnect.plugin.unrestricted
Set this to false to prevent plugins from using external scripts with XPCOM or XPCONNECT.
- parameter: geo.enabled
Set this to false to disable geo localization.
- parameter: browser.history.allow*State
Set this to false to prevent websites from manipulating your browser history.
Disable Tooltips
Tooltips are displayed in Pale Moon whenever you move the mouse cursor over an interface element that has a tooltip assigned to it.
It offers a short description of what the element does. If you have used the browser for some time, you probably don't need those anymore.
- parameter: browser.chrome.toolbar_tips
Set this to false to disable tooltips in Pale Moon.
Network Prefetching
Pale Moon does not prefetch network resources like Firefox does by default. If you want that feature, as it may speed up browsing, then you need to enable it.
Note that it may increase bandwidth usage and impact privacy as well.
- parameter: network.prefetch-next
Set the parameter to true to enable prefetching in Pale Moon.
Disable url formatting in the address bar
Pale Moon, just like Firefox, formats the url in the address bar to emphasize the domain name. The domain is displayed in bold while all other "parts" of it are not.
- parameter: browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled
Set the value of the parameter to false to disable the formatting.
Disable animations in Pale Moon
- parameter: browser.*.animate
While some of you may appreciate animations when new tabs are opened or you are using the tab groups feature, others may not want those to be displayed at all.
Set browser.tabs.animate and browser.panorama.animate_zoom to false, and browser.fullscreen.animateUp to 0.
Open new tabs next to the active one
Pale Moon opens new tabs at the end of the tab bar. This is different from Firefox which opens new tabs next to the active tab.
- parameter: browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent
Change the value of the parameter to true so that new tabs are opened next to the active tab in Pale Moon from that moment on.
Paste with middle mouse button
Set the following parameter to true to enable middle mouse button pasting. Instead of having to use Ctrl-v or the right-click context menu, you can now just middle-click to perform the same operation.
- parameter: middlemouse.paste
Now You: Know of another must-have tweak for Pale Moon? Share it in the comments below and I'll add it to the guide.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.