EDIT [10/17]: I’ve tested this and can confirm it to still work on Shiretoko beta 1.

If you don’t already know, Shiretoko is the codename for Firefox 3.1 alpha 1.

So, Shiretoko alpha 1 is out and it looks exciting because of expanded HTML5 support, faster JavaScript execution, an awesome bar with more awesome, and the new tab switcher. But you dislike the new tab switching mechanism that Shiretoko boasts, and it could be because:

  • It doesn’t navigate left and right in the tab bar, but instead between your most recently-used tabs.
  • You simply don’t like the idea of tab preview.
  • It feels sluggish or even redundant.

Now, please be reminded that Shiretoko is still in its alpha stage as of this writing. It isn’t really intended for general daily browsing yet. As the Shiretoko alpha start page says:

Note: The build you are using is NOT A FINAL VERSION of Firefox, it has been made available for testing purposes only, with no end-user support. If that sounds scary, you’d probably be better off with the latest version of Firefox that you can download here.

But if you still wish to find out how to get rid of that new feature, read on…

First off, you can still use Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn for switching to next and previous tabs respectively. If you’re fine with those two keyboard shortcuts, you’re just about done! Happy tabbed browsing!

However, if you must, and I mean must, continue using Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to navigate your tab bar, you can easily disable the tab switcher using about:config. I would suggest keyconfig, but it doesn’t support Firefox 3 yet, much less Shiretoko, so…

In the location bar (enough of awesome for now), type about:config. Here, Shiretoko (and all other versions of Firefox) warns you that things may go wrong if you mess around with those settings. Select I’ll be careful, I promise! (and keep your promise!), and in the Filter text box, type tab, and you’ll see a list of configuration settings appear before you.

Look for browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed, and double-click it to set it to false. The whole line will embolden to indicate it’s been altered into a user setting, but that’s fine.

The last thing to do now is to restart Shiretoko. And hey presto! Not only has the tab previewer vanished, but you also get back the traditional tab-switching order. Happy tabbed browsing!

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