The second attempt to recover the usual function of right-click in Firefox, involved the use of Firefox Safe Mode. This time around, disabled and reset everything—add-ons, plugins, user preferences, bookmarks, etc! An overkill, maybe, but hoping against hope, this might do the trick before doing THE drastic move, such as un-installing and re-installing Firefox, or worst, a clean install of Windows! Clicked Make Changes and Restart.
Viewing the default Firefox start page and the Google search page brought back memories. The Firefox window was, as usual, not maximized to the full screen. Until now, never knew why Mozilla opted for this! Inserted SmartBro Plug-It and connected to the Internet, meanwhile thinking that maybe downloading all the 18 Add-ons direct from the Web would do the trick.
Also viewed Problematic_extensions in MozillaZine Knowledge Base and found out that All-in-One Sidebar was a problematic one: New extensions will not install. Also occurs in version 0.6.4 if updated from an earlier version or if used together with the SessionSaver extension. A Workaround was suggested as Uninstall, then (re)install version 0.6.4. Disable opening the Extensions window in the sidebar (Misc. -> Extensions -> Open in Sidebar). Version 0.7.12 of All-in-One Sidebar is not affected? The Knowledge Base was silent, though!
Using Google Search for Right Mouse Click Opens Another Firefox Tab pointed to sites regarding the same thing happening in Firefox installed in Ubuntu, but no links pointed to Windows XP. Other search results offered How-To-Guides, or about:config tweaks to ENABLE the Right-Click on links to automatically open another Firefox tab. Just the EXACT OPPOSITE of what I really wanted, i.e., DISABLE THAT!
A question in Mozilla Support, moreover, offered some suggestions. Amusingly, one of these suggested that maybe some keyboard keys were stuck causing the phenomenon. Promised to try pressing each of the 108 keys when the phenomenon happens again.
Searched the 18 Add-ons, then individually installed each and re-started Firefox after every installation. Nothing unusual happened after each Add-on installation and Firefox re-start, 18 times, except during the installation of Smart Bookmarks Bar 1.4.3 and Xmarks 3.9.5. Smart Bookmarks Bar failed to convert the Bookmarks into icons and Xmarks failed to synchronize the bookmarks databases, after successfully logging in!
Viewing Remy Juteau’s Smart Bookmarks Bar page was of no help. Un-installed the Smart Bookmarks Bar Add-on, restarted Firefox, and re-installed the same directly from Firefox Add-ons. Restarted Firefox, yet again, and there . . . it worked: the Bookmarks in the Bookmark Bar became icons! No instance of right-clicking a link automatically opening a new tab. Hmmm . . . all is well now? I wondered!
After finding out that Xmarks was recently acquired by another company, LastPass, viewing My Xmarks was a surprise. What the hell! There were four [4] copies of each bookmark in the database. Every and EACH bookmark was quadruplicated!!! This was probably the cause why the bookmarks’ synchronization failed? Or was this in any way connected to the defective right-click menu context, such as a defective synchronization changed something in the menu context?
Imported an archive copy of the bookmarks, particularly a day old, from the Firefox Portable stored in a USB to the Firefox installation in this Compaq Presario 2100 notebook. Tried synchronizing the notebook and Xmarks bookmarks. Xmarks pop out a Message Box announcing that it observed a substantial size change of the bookmarks database, or words to that effect, being that the bookmarks in this notebook was smaller [816 KB] than the existing bookmarks database [2,242 KB] contained in Xmarks. WTF! Not to worry, it virtually said, that this was normal if the user recently deleted a bunch of bookmarks. Probably, Xmarks should include in the said Message Box that Xmarks bungled the database by creating four [4] copies of each bookmark instead of including only the recently bookmarked ones! Uploaded the new bookmarks [816 KB] to Xmarks, i.e., replacing the defective database. At least for now, the Xmarks and this notebook Firefox’s bookmarks were the same!
While at Xmarks, viewed the users forum and was not surprised that a number of users were complaining the same for at least a year or so. The most recent was about a few minutes ago. Complaints ranged from unsynchronized bookmarks, defective bookmarks database, missing bookmarks, server unavailability, etc. At least in the first two pages in the user forum, no complaint was lodged about bookmarks growing quadruple!
In retrospect, I wondered whether these Xmarks events were in anyway connected with the official release of FirefoxSync? I also used FirefoxSync, one time or another, but without a users’ website for whatever was synchronized, as most of these were stored in the Firefox profile, I decided against it and un-installed the FirefoxSync Add-on.
Synchronized the bookmarks to see whether both database contained the same entries. The synchronization was a success. And then it happened!
With Google Search and Xmarks still opened in respective tabs, switching back to Google Search and replaced it with Mozilla Support to research this Right-Click phenomenon, a Right-Click on a link triggered opening a new tab! Sometimes, the Right-Click context menu was shown, sometimes it was absent altogether. Mozilla Support suggested to change the default Firefox setting: Tools > Options > Content > Enable Javascript > Advanced Button, which allows scripts to Disable or replace context menu. Un-ticked that input box, then restarted Firefox. Unfortunately, when Firefox re-opened, the Right-Click phenomenon still persisted!
Notes:
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The Grey Chronicles
Right Mouse Click Opens Another Firefox Tab, Part II
Tags: about:config, Add-on, Advanced, All-in-One Sidebar, Archive, Bookmark, Bookmark Bar, Button, Clean Install, Compaq, Content, Database, Disable, Download, Enable, Extension, Firefox, Firefox Portable, FirefoxSync, Google, Help, How-To-Guide, Icon, Input Box, Install, Installation, Internet, Javascript, Key, Keyboard, Knowledge Base, LastPass, Login, Menu Context, Message Box, Missing, Mozilla Support, MozillaZine, My Xmarks, Notebook, Option, Phenomenon, Plug-It, Plugin, Preference, Presario 2100, Problem, Profile, Reboot, Remy Juteau, Restart, Right Mouse Click, Right-Click, Safe Mode, Search, Server, SessionSaver, Settings, Side Bar, Sidebar, Smart Bookmarks Bar, Smart Bro, Sticky, Suggestion, Synchronization, Synchronize, Tab, Tool, Tweak, Ubuntu, Unavailability, Uninstall, Upload, USB, User, Web, Windows, Windows XP, Workaround, Xmarks
Viewing the default Firefox start page and the Google search page brought back memories. The Firefox window was, as usual, not maximized to the full screen. Until now, never knew why Mozilla opted for this! Inserted SmartBro Plug-It and connected to the Internet, meanwhile thinking that maybe downloading all the 18 Add-ons direct from the Web would do the trick.
Also viewed Problematic_extensions in MozillaZine Knowledge Base and found out that All-in-One Sidebar was a problematic one: New extensions will not install. Also occurs in version 0.6.4 if updated from an earlier version or if used together with the SessionSaver extension. A Workaround was suggested as Uninstall, then (re)install version 0.6.4. Disable opening the Extensions window in the sidebar (Misc. -> Extensions -> Open in Sidebar). Version 0.7.12 of All-in-One Sidebar is not affected? The Knowledge Base was silent, though!
Using Google Search for Right Mouse Click Opens Another Firefox Tab pointed to sites regarding the same thing happening in Firefox installed in Ubuntu, but no links pointed to Windows XP. Other search results offered How-To-Guides, or about:config tweaks to ENABLE the Right-Click on links to automatically open another Firefox tab. Just the EXACT OPPOSITE of what I really wanted, i.e., DISABLE THAT!
A question in Mozilla Support, moreover, offered some suggestions. Amusingly, one of these suggested that maybe some keyboard keys were stuck causing the phenomenon. Promised to try pressing each of the 108 keys when the phenomenon happens again.
Searched the 18 Add-ons, then individually installed each and re-started Firefox after every installation. Nothing unusual happened after each Add-on installation and Firefox re-start, 18 times, except during the installation of Smart Bookmarks Bar 1.4.3 and Xmarks 3.9.5. Smart Bookmarks Bar failed to convert the Bookmarks into icons and Xmarks failed to synchronize the bookmarks databases, after successfully logging in!
Viewing Remy Juteau’s Smart Bookmarks Bar page was of no help. Un-installed the Smart Bookmarks Bar Add-on, restarted Firefox, and re-installed the same directly from Firefox Add-ons. Restarted Firefox, yet again, and there . . . it worked: the Bookmarks in the Bookmark Bar became icons! No instance of right-clicking a link automatically opening a new tab. Hmmm . . . all is well now? I wondered!
After finding out that Xmarks was recently acquired by another company, LastPass, viewing My Xmarks was a surprise. What the hell! There were four [4] copies of each bookmark in the database. Every and EACH bookmark was quadruplicated!!! This was probably the cause why the bookmarks’ synchronization failed? Or was this in any way connected to the defective right-click menu context, such as a defective synchronization changed something in the menu context?
Imported an archive copy of the bookmarks, particularly a day old, from the Firefox Portable stored in a USB to the Firefox installation in this Compaq Presario 2100 notebook. Tried synchronizing the notebook and Xmarks bookmarks. Xmarks pop out a Message Box announcing that it observed a substantial size change of the bookmarks database, or words to that effect, being that the bookmarks in this notebook was smaller [816 KB] than the existing bookmarks database [2,242 KB] contained in Xmarks. WTF! Not to worry, it virtually said, that this was normal if the user recently deleted a bunch of bookmarks. Probably, Xmarks should include in the said Message Box that Xmarks bungled the database by creating four [4] copies of each bookmark instead of including only the recently bookmarked ones! Uploaded the new bookmarks [816 KB] to Xmarks, i.e., replacing the defective database. At least for now, the Xmarks and this notebook Firefox’s bookmarks were the same!
While at Xmarks, viewed the users forum and was not surprised that a number of users were complaining the same for at least a year or so. The most recent was about a few minutes ago. Complaints ranged from unsynchronized bookmarks, defective bookmarks database, missing bookmarks, server unavailability, etc. At least in the first two pages in the user forum, no complaint was lodged about bookmarks growing quadruple!
In retrospect, I wondered whether these Xmarks events were in anyway connected with the official release of FirefoxSync? I also used FirefoxSync, one time or another, but without a users’ website for whatever was synchronized, as most of these were stored in the Firefox profile, I decided against it and un-installed the FirefoxSync Add-on.
Synchronized the bookmarks to see whether both database contained the same entries. The synchronization was a success. And then it happened!
Notes:
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