# Has Firefox browser really become this bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615 "2020-02-08T05:39:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/1 "2020-02-08T05:39:54Z")
I’m working on getting a friend on an old-ass computer updated to a new computer, but she wants to use Firefox. Is there anyway to get it to work from a simple menu icon to open to a folder, sub-folder hierarchy drop down like it used to? I just can’t figure out how to. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/2 "2020-02-08T06:22:02Z")
Here’s one way. Settings-\>Options-\>General, define your _Home Page_ to the path you want. Then when you select the Home Page icon, you will be magically transported there. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/3 "2020-02-08T07:14:29Z")
Folder…? ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/4 "2020-02-08T11:07:40Z")
If you’re talking about a tree-like list of bookmarks / favorites / shortcuts, you can open that as a pane with Ctrl-B, or in a separate window with Ctrl-Shift-B. You can [customise](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-firefox-controls-buttons-and-toolbars) the menu to add a button to open up the bookmarks. Many people don’t bother to manage a lot of bookmarks nowadays, maybe just a toolbar of links at the top of the window. The browser itself learns which sites you always visit and typically offers those as choices when you open a new page (Ctrl-N) or tab (Ctrl-T). In general, Firefox is a very good browser, but like all other modern browsers, it’s a memory hog. If you have many tabs open, or leave a complex tab (like GMail) open for very long, it will eat up a LOT of memory. Firefox has better features for protecting your privacy (think about _who_ makes Chrome – and yes, I’m typing this in Chrome). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/5 "2020-02-08T14:56:10Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > If you’re talking about a tree-like list of bookmarks / favorites / shortcuts, you can open that as a pane with Ctrl-B, or in a separate window with Ctrl-Shift-B. You can [customise](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-firefox-controls-buttons-and-toolbars) the menu to add a button to open up the bookmarks. I still use a lot of bookmarks because I simply like it that way. The auto-managed favorites by the browser are wrong often enough that I find them useless. I don’t use firefox anymore, but most browsers have a tree-like bookmark pane. I don’t like them because they take too much real estate. I don’t want to go fishing under the hamburger menu for the bookmark list, either. My solution on chrome: I display the bookmarks toolbar. My first bookmark is a folder which contains the massive heirarchy. It is titled with a graphic character. The rest of the bar is the pages I commonly visit, and I edit the title to an empty string, so that just an icon is displayed, and I can get a long list on the toolbar without wrapping. For the few cases of duplicate icons, I add a title of just a couple letters to disambiguate them. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/6 "2020-02-08T15:37:06Z")
What amazes me about how they implement bookmarks, particularly on the iPad version of Firefox, is there are many ways to configure them with various toolbars… Bookmarks Menu Bookmarks Toolbar Unsorted Bookmarks Mobile Bookmarks And yet you can’t do something simple like change the order in which they appear. If it’s possible, that function is well hidden and I haven’t been able to find it. I see this more and more - tremendous flexibility for certain purposes, with basic goddam functionality left out. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/7 "2020-02-08T17:09:33Z")
Firefox has a “Library” button to the right of the address/search box. It looks like four books on a shelf, with the fourth leaning left against the third book. Click on this Library button, and there is a drop down menu, with Bookmarks at the top. Mouse over “Bookmarks.” This is the drop down hierarchical Bookmarks menu you want. (PC version: N/A to smartphone OS versions) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/8 "2020-02-08T20:55:02Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > Firefox has a “Library” button to the right of the address/search box. It looks like four books on a shelf, with the fourth leaning left against the third book. > > Click on this Library button, and there is a drop down menu, with Bookmarks at the top. Mouse over “Bookmarks.” This is the drop down hierarchical Bookmarks menu you want. > > (PC version: N/A to smartphone OS versions) Ctrl-B gets you a hierarchal Bookmarks menu on the left part of the window. It’s faster and more convenient than that Library. I use it all the time. The only complaint I have is that it always opens at the top of the list and doesn’t remember where you were last time. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/9 "2020-02-08T21:03:19Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > What amazes me about how they implement bookmarks, particularly on the iPad version of Firefox, is there are many ways to configure them with various toolbars… > > Bookmarks Menu > Bookmarks Toolbar > Unsorted Bookmarks > Mobile Bookmarks > > And yet you can’t do something simple like change the order in which they appear. If it’s possible, that function is well hidden and I haven’t been able to find it. I see this more and more - tremendous flexibility for certain purposes, with basic goddam functionality left out. I’m not exactly sure what order you can’t change. But that may be because I don’t have the iPad version. If it’s the order of the bookmarks, you can change that easily enough in the PC version. Just grab them and drag to a new place in the list or into a sub-folder. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/10 "2020-02-09T00:16:27Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Ctrl-B gets you a hierarchal Bookmarks menu on the left part of the window. It’s faster and more convenient than that Library. I use it all the time. The only complaint I have is that it always opens at the top of the list and doesn’t remember where you were last time. I know about the side-pane and I think the OP does as well. I use it exclusively. But the OP asked a particular question for an unsophisticated user. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/11 "2020-02-09T01:00:48Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > I know about the side-pane and I think the OP does as well. I use it exclusively. But the OP asked a particular question for an unsophisticated user. It doesn’t take much sophistication to hit Ctrl-B. From the OP, it sounds like it’s exactly what they want, but perhaps just forgot the keystroke combination. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/12 "2020-02-09T03:18:08Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > Firefox has a “Library” button to the right of the address/search box. It looks like four books on a shelf, with the fourth leaning left against the third book. > > Click on this Library button, and there is a drop down menu, with Bookmarks at the top. Mouse over “Bookmarks.” This is the drop down hierarchical Bookmarks menu you want. > > (PC version: N/A to smartphone OS versions) I have never seen that button with the books. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/13 "2020-02-09T04:07:58Z")
Show all bookmarks, move them around as you will. Even with cmd B you can drag individual bookmarks to wherever you will. There is no enforced order, except on some Phones, not computers. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/14 "2020-02-09T04:19:42Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > In general, Firefox is a very good browser, but like all other modern browsers, it’s a memory hog. If you have many tabs open, or leave a complex tab (like GMail) open for very long, it will eat up a LOT of memory. Firefox has better features for protecting your privacy (think about _who_ makes Chrome – and yes, I’m typing this in Chrome). Chrome seems a lot slower than Firefox, even when the only tab I have open is gmail. I think Firefox is full of memory links. The other day Firefox was hanging. I opened the task manager, and it was using tons of memory. I killed it, restarted it, which restores your tabs, and all was fine. I keep it open probably longer than I should. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/15 "2020-02-09T15:12:59Z")
I love the Windows click-on-a-webpage to put a titled icon on my desktop - it’s what I like, I can group icons on the realestate and put them into a folder if there get to be too many, and even delete that desktop shortcut, if I no longer use it frequently, knowing that the shortcut still resides in the Desktop folder. I use Firefox more and more - is there anything comparable there? Dan ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/16 "2020-02-10T01:30:12Z")
There’s also a button in the toolbar customization that will give you the old Bookmarks button behavior, where it shows a drop down list, and each folder is a submenu (i.e. item with \> next to it that opens a menu). This is what I use. I find the Libraries button annoying, since it adds an extra step, treating history as just as important as bookmarks. And I don’t like losing the screen real estate of using the side bars. I also use the bookmarks bar (but I move it inline with the address bar), which will let you both have an overflow, and include folders to contain all your bookmarks. This would duplicate the Chrome behavior if having an “Other Bookmarks” folder that has all other bookmarks. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/17 "2020-02-10T01:53:39Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > There’s also a button in the toolbar customization that will give you the old Bookmarks button behavior, where it shows a drop down list, and each folder is a submenu (i.e. item with \> next to it that opens a menu). Thank you very much, that is exactly what I was looking for. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/18 "2020-02-10T12:07:07Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And I don’t like losing the screen real estate of using the side bars. Ctrl-B produces a sidebar that consumes less screen real estate than either the bookmarks button on the tool bar or the library. OK, it doesn’t have to, since you can expand its size, but the default is that way. And when you no longer need it, hit Ctrl-B again and it disappears. Best of all, you can invoke it with the keyboard rather than the mouse or touch screen. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-firefox-browser-really-become-this-bad/847615/19 "2020-02-13T05:21:45Z")
From your description, it appears your friend doesn’t have the usual “File Edit View History Bookmarks” etc. at the top of the window. That’s called the “menu bar”. To display it, press alt-v to bring up the “view” menu. click on “toolbars”, then click on “menu bar”.