Automatically restore previous browsing session in Firefox on Windows

With every new update or release, a browser maker intends to bring some additional utility to the existing version, not necessarily seen earlier. So, as a measure for improving Firefox browser experience with Windows users, Mozilla announced few changes to its scheme of things. Notable among these was support for an automatic restoration of browsing session when Windows gets restarted.

Automatic Restoration of previous browsing session Firefox

Mozilla in its release notes had added,

Firefox adds support for automatically restoring your Firefox session after Windows restarts. Currently, this feature is not enabled by default for most users but will be gradually enabled over the coming weeks.

While there’s no precise timeline given, Firefox users could enable this feature via a simple hack without waiting any longer. Here’s how!

Launch Mozilla Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and hit Enter, When prompted with a warning message, ignore it and proceed further by hitting ‘I accept the risk’ button.

Next scroll down to find the following entry,

toolkit.winRegisterApplicationRestart

Or, you can copy the above entry and paste it in the ‘Search’ bar located at the top.

When found, double-click it to change the value to ‘True’.

Alternatively, you can simply copy and paste the following code right in the address bar of Mozilla Firefox to move directly to the setting.

about:config?filter=toolkit.winRegisterApplicationRestart

The value for both the settings above is set to ‘False’, by default. This means the feature is disabled. All you need to do is simply double-click the entry in the about:config screen to change the value from false to true. So long the value is set to true, the feature will remain enabled. Should you wish to disable the original configuration follow the same procedure and set the pre-configured value to false.

All of this has been made possible as Mozilla has registered Firefox with Windows Restart Manager. The current Firefox 61.0.2 supports this feature.

If you are a Firefox user, you would be required to enable the feature after updating the browser to the latest version 61.0.2. Following this, whenever your browsing session is interrupted by a system reboot, Firefox will automatically restore all tabs.