4 ms·

It's great that they're continuing to add back customisation to the new tab page but why am I still restricted to two rows of "top sites"? I'm on a desktop here

It's great that they're continuing to add back customisation to the new tab page but why am I still restricted to two rows of "top sites"? I'm on a desktop here, I'm not going to run out of pixels. Even on Android I liked having more space for quick links to websites I visit semi-regularly. In fact it was more useful there because there isn't a good way to bring order to the history panel. Is it just to make room for "highlights"? I switched that off because it's utterly useless for me. I don't find it helpful to be shown a random selection of things I've clicked on. Besides, I am capable of scrolling. Yes I know, there's an addon for that (probably). But it just feels like such an arbitrary restriction. Why are only twelve "top sites" allowed?

ChrisSD 9y ago
To reply to myself I've found that about:config has `browser.newtabpage.rows` which I can increase. When I do that and restart the browser it resets to 3 but `browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount` is increased and more sites are shown. Changing `browser.newtabpage.columns` doesn't appear to have an effect. My question still stands but at least there's a partial workaround, even if it's potentially unstable. EDIT This setting doesn't appear to be available on Android.
- aembleton 9y ago
  I've changed the `browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount` to 36 which fills my screen with 6x6 boxes filled with my top sites. Except, for the last box which is always empty! It seems that there is a hard limit in Firefox of 35 top sites.
  - ChrisSD 9y ago
    Did you try restarting your browser? I've just tried setting rows to 12, which sets topSitesCount to 72. This worked for me after restarting the browser.
ams6110 9y ago
And why can't I have my home page as my new tab page? I don't want any of that "top sites" BS on a new tab, I want the local HTML file that I created as my home page. Why not allow it for new tabs?
- dorgo 9y ago
  I'm cursing for about a year about this. I spent days searching for workarounds and stopped short of hacking into firefox. Maybe I should just install firefox 50 and disable updates.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    Only thing I've found is that hitting ALT-Home keys in the new tab will load the home page. But it's one of those tiny repeated annoyances that I'd love to avoid.
    - davvolun 9y ago
      I can't really comment fairly here as I've gotten used to Chrome for the last 2+ years, but is there really not an extension in Firefox for this, even if it's not natively supported? Seems surprising to me.
      - ams6110 9y ago
        Yes there are, but for some reason using a local file is a problem. Something about the ability of WebExtension to access a local file. Probably sensible, but in this case annoying.
- frio 9y ago
  Given the existence of things like momentum (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/momentumdash/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/momentumdash/), I'd suggest maybe looking into packaging your HTML page into a web extension :).
- anotherevan 9y ago

ChrisSD 9y ago

To reply to myself I've found that about:config has `browser.newtabpage.rows` which I can increase. When I do that and restart the browser it resets to 3 but `browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount` is increased and more sites are shown. Changing `browser.newtabpage.columns` doesn't appear to have an effect. My question still stands but at least there's a partial workaround, even if it's potentially unstable. EDIT This setting doesn't appear to be available on Android.

aembleton 9y ago
I've changed the `browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSitesCount` to 36 which fills my screen with 6x6 boxes filled with my top sites. Except, for the last box which is always empty! It seems that there is a hard limit in Firefox of 35 top sites.
- ChrisSD 9y ago
  Did you try restarting your browser? I've just tried setting rows to 12, which sets topSitesCount to 72. This worked for me after restarting the browser.

ams6110 9y ago

And why can't I have my home page as my new tab page? I don't want any of that "top sites" BS on a new tab, I want the local HTML file that I created as my home page. Why not allow it for new tabs?

dorgo 9y ago
I'm cursing for about a year about this. I spent days searching for workarounds and stopped short of hacking into firefox. Maybe I should just install firefox 50 and disable updates.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Only thing I've found is that hitting ALT-Home keys in the new tab will load the home page. But it's one of those tiny repeated annoyances that I'd love to avoid.
  - davvolun 9y ago
    I can't really comment fairly here as I've gotten used to Chrome for the last 2+ years, but is there really not an extension in Firefox for this, even if it's not natively supported? Seems surprising to me.
    - ams6110 9y ago
      Yes there are, but for some reason using a local file is a problem. Something about the ability of WebExtension to access a local file. Probably sensible, but in this case annoying.
frio 9y ago
Given the existence of things like momentum (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/momentumdash/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/momentumdash/), I'd suggest maybe looking into packaging your HTML page into a web extension :).
anotherevan 9y ago