Hotkey to open Preferences in Firefox under Linux/Windows?

Question

Is it possible to configure a hotkey/keyboard shortcut to open Preferences in Firefox Quantum under Linux/Windows?

As one who needs to use the settings relatively often it'd be really handy. Under macOS it's got the conventional Cmd+, but so far I've found no way to configure this under Linux/Windows. I tried several extensions but none of them worked. Actually I noticed that if I execute window.open('about:preferences') in console it'll end up with an access denied error.

Currently the best I can do is adding the "Open preferences" button to my toolbar. But still a hotkey would make my life easier.

Answer 1

This is the native way to do in Firefox on cross-platform.

User can open preferences in Firefox using Alt+Home, which is one of the built-in keyboard shortcuts, provided the homepage is set with custom URL. There are three steps as follows.

1. Go to Edit > Preferences (or Tools > Options) in Firefox
2. Under Home - New Windows and Tabs, change Homepage and new windows from "Firefox Home (default)" to "Custom URLs..." and a text field will appear unde the newly selected option
3. In the text field, copy-paste or type about:preferences and close the tab to finish.

As a result, Firefox can now open the preferences using keyboard shortcut.

That will work, but probably not good enough as it is. User who wants to have more control should take note of known behaviours of homepage in Firefox and the workarounds as follows.

Firefox behaviour 1: When homepage is set, Firefox will also open the homepage in each new window; this may not be desired by some users. Hence three more steps for a better user experience as follows.

1. Open the hidden configuration (in the location bar, type about:config and press Enter, then under the disclaimer text, click I accept the risk! to confirm)
2. In the input field of Search, type the keyword browser.startup.page
3. Look for the entry browser.startup.page and double-click the row to change the integer value from 1 (default) to 0 and click OK to finish.

The integer value has been documented on MozillaZine Knowledge Base as follows.

Name: browser.startup.page
Type: Integer
Meaning of value: Page to open on browser startup
0: Blank
1 (default): Home (a.k.a. browser.startup.homepage)
2: Last (works in Firefox 2 and above)

As a result, Firefox will open a blank page in a new window instead of homepage.

That means user will have the control: Open the homepage only when needed by using keyboard shortcut or home button on the toolbar. The integer value is subject to changes: If homepage is reverted to default and later changed to custom URL again, then user must do additional steps again as well.

Firefox behaviour 2: Unlike the preferences menu and button on toolbar, Firefox will open the preferences that has been set as homepage in the current tab. To open preferences in a new tab instead, use one of the suggested methods as follows.

• Easy: Do a middle-click on the home button on toolbar, or

• Flexible: Create a new bookmark with location about:preferences and a unique keyword (I use a single character n, which is the access key for preferences in Firefox on Linux), then save it in any folder under All Bookmarks. In the current tab, type the keyword (for example, n) and press Alt+Enter.

Either way will open the preferences in a new tab and switch to the tab immediately.

Simplified: Use hidden configuration for less tedious setup. Experienced users can modify browser.startup.homepage with appropriate string value and browser.startup.page with appropriate integer value to set custom URL and change default behaviour at one place instead of steps above.

TL;DR Use homepage with custom URL to open the preferences, which make use of the built-in keyboard shortcut. Extensions might not help, given that Firefox Quantum add-ons are limited by design.