In older versions of Firefox (1.5 and previous), the close tab function was performed from an X to the right of the tabs. Whichever tab had focus is the tab that would be closed. With Firefox version 2+, the tabs each contain their own X to close. If you have trouble adjusting to the “new” way, as maybe you keep hitting the X’s by accident when just trying to switch tabs, you’ll be happy to know you have options.

To change the way Firefox displays the X, type about:config in your address location bar and hit enter.

For those of you not familiar with this screen, it allows you to modify your preferences to make customizations to your Firefox installation.

Look for browser.tabs.closeButtons in the listing and double click it (or right click on it and choose Modify). Now, you have four options:

0 – Display close button only on the active tab (that’s a zero, by the way)
1 – Display close button on every tab (this is the default)
2 – Never display close buttons
3 – Display single close button at the end of the tab strip (this is the old Firefox 1.x behavior)

I personally like the 0 option with having it display the X only on the tab that has focus.

See browser.tabs.closeButtons and about:config entries for more information.

[tags]close tabs, firefox, firefox 2[/tags]