# Firefox question: How do I make new tabs load in the background?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question-how-do-i-make-new-tabs-load-in-the-background/707929>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 22, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question-how-do-i-make-new-tabs-load-in-the-background/707929 "2014-12-22T17:50:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question-how-do-i-make-new-tabs-load-in-the-background/707929/1 "2014-12-22T17:50:08Z")

</div>

Windows 7 user here

Many times I highlight text then right click. An option allows me to google the highlighted text. When I do so, the focus window shifts to the newly opened tab. How do I change it so that the tab will load, but I remain focused on the current window

I tried googling it but it didn’t work. I typed about:config in the Firefox brower url area. It gave me a list of things I can change about Windows. I changed both of the following to the opposite of whatever setting they were currently then closed the browser.

> [@](#):
>
> browser.tabs.loadInBackground  
> browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground

When I opened the browser again, it was still doing that thing! FYI, I didn’t reset the whole computer, just turned off Firefox. But its a browser thing, it shouldn’t require me to restart right? Why would it, I’m not changing the registry or rebooting, I just want to make the browser act differently.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question-how-do-i-make-new-tabs-load-in-the-background/707929/2 "2014-12-22T18:36:55Z")

</div>

Use the [TabMix Plus](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus/) addon for Firefox. You can control all tab behavior then, including getting tabs to open in the background.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question-how-do-i-make-new-tabs-load-in-the-background/707929/3 "2014-12-22T18:56:27Z")

</div>

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question-how-do-i-make-new-tabs-load-in-the-background/707929/4 "2014-12-22T19:32:15Z")

</div>

In Firefox open the Options dialog and select the Tabs tab. There is a checkbox for “When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately.” Try unchecking that.

I have the opposite problem in Chrome - opening a new tab always opens it behind the current tab, and I can’t find a way to make the new tab open in front.