Firefox Just Made Your Tab Buttons Bigger…And Other Stuff

If you woke up yesterday and saw that the tabs on Firefox looked a little different, the problem isn’t your contact lenses. The recent updates to Firefox have done a few things, some of them aesthetic, and others vital to maintain some level of compatibility with the new Windows 10.

Of course, Microsoft’s latest toy has had some criticism, not the least of which have involved its browser, Microsoft Edge. As one expert put it, “Edge lacks so many basic browser features it’s almost unusable.” But Firefox fans who made the leap to Windows 10 quickly found out that their favorite browser didn’t function as well under the new Microsoft takeover–if it functioned at all since Edge was the automatic default browser unless users went through a lengthy multistep process, a fact that Firefox’s CEO was none too excited about.

Since the official launch, Firefox’s team has been working like mad to push out updates that address the compatibility obstacles, while still trying to put them out for every conceivable language that it operates in. But Firefox 40 doesn’t just address the Windows 10 or Edge automatic default browser issues that have plagued users. Since the folks at Mozilla were releasing these important updates anyway, they went ahead and launched some of the other features they’ve promised for a while.

There have been some changes, not just affecting those tab buttons, of course. One of these is the previously alluded to certification process for add-ons, which will eventually disable third-party add-ons that haven’t been certified by Mozilla. For now, users will just see a warning that their add-ons are not vetted. Firefox 40 also addresses an issue that Windows 10 users have had with the Siri/Echo-like Cortana virtual assistant, which was that its search capabilities automatically defaulted to using Bing instead of search engines like Google or the Mozilla pick, Yahoo. This update puts the power to choose back in users’ hands, as well as incorporates Google’s API into rooting out malicious weblinks and preventing installation.

For the update to Firefox 40 or to check out all the other software titles with updates, go to FileHippo by clicking HERE.