Can you manually use Firefox's "restore session" feature?

[SenorBeef]

If you crash while Firefox is open, when you open it again, it'll ask you if you want to restore your old session or start a new one. So it tracks what you're doing at any given time, and can open it up again automatically.

Well, here's my question: Can you do that voluntarily somehow, without crashing?

Often I'll have 20+ web pages open, eating memory, and I'll want to play a memory intensive game - so I have to close it all down first. It'd be nice if I could shut it down, and then restore it when I was done.

[Duckster]

Go get the Tab Mix Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/) add-on.

[Mangetout]

While we're here... can the 'restore session' thing be turned off? It does nothing but annoy me - Firefox doesn't crash for me, but I get the restore session dialog if I happened to shut down my computer with browser sessions open (which is usually the case because I often have a window minimized but ready to log into my helpdesk system and another for my mail server)

[yabob]

If nothing else, you can just kill it from the task manager.

[yabob]

Oh, and I mean kill the process from the task manager "processes" tab, not the application. Killing it from the app tab gives it a chance to clean up.

[Duckster]

While we're here... can the 'restore session' thing be turned off? It does nothing but annoy me - Firefox doesn't crash for me, but I get the restore session dialog if I happened to shut down my computer with browser sessions open (which is usually the case because I often have a window minimized but ready to log into my helpdesk system and another for my mail server)

[ Tools | Session Manager | Settings ]

Uncheck Enable Session Manager

[yabob]

[ Tools | Session Manager | Settings ]

Uncheck Enable Session Manager
That's presumably provided by the add-on you mentioned above. The base browser has no such menu choice.

[Wordworker]

From http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/05/28/tweak-firefox-20s-session-restore-feature/

1. Start Firefox.
2. In the Address Bar type “about:config” and press Enter.
3. Right-Click and select New->Boolean.
4. A box requesting the Preference Name will popup and you should enter “browser.sessionstore.resume_session” (without the quotes). Press OK to continue.
5. Select “True” from the box and press OK again.

[Wordworker]

Damn. One, that was not a response to the OP, but to Mangetout, and two, I believe the flag should actually be set to false.

[mhendo]

Wow. Lots of incorrect information in this thread.

If you have Firefox 2.0 (the latest release), do this:

Tools > Options > Main

In the "Startup" section, from the dropdown menu, select the option "Show my windows and tabs from last time."

Easy.