Stop sites from resizing windows in Firefox

Jun 30th, 2007 by Jared Schwager annoyances, firefox

Ever visit a site which automatically resizes your browser window? This may be a big no-no in web design, but some people still do it regardless of what may be good and right in webdev rulebook. There’s an easy way to stop sites from doing this, assuming you’re using Firefox (which you should be).

In Firefox, go to “Options” under the “Tools” menu. Find your way to the “Content” section in the Options. Next to the “Enable Javascript” option you will see an Advanced button. Click on that and in the dialog that pops up uncheck the Move or resize existing windows option.

Once you save all your changes, Firefox will not be bothered by those nasty window resize scripts. There is also a more involved method of configuring the same option by using about:config, but I won’t get into that since the above method is much easier to do and follow.

10 reader comments

July 2nd, 2007 at 12:51 am rus says:

cool, thanks! i hate when sites do that…
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:07 pm Samela says:

For Mac users, the option is not under Tools but under Preferences.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:09 pm MK says:

Ah, thank you muchly. I never really had a problem with that until I started using stumble, since then I’ve stumbled across several sites that want to screw with my browser.
July 4th, 2007 at 2:20 pm ian says:

thanks that really got my goat … all fixed now
July 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am I am ME says:

Great tip…
It’s hidden so deep under that I really do not know where it is…
Thanks for helping me find it.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:39 am Matthias Köbrich says:

that´s what i was looking for. i always thought i have my browser under control…now i do again!
thanks for sharing
July 16th, 2007 at 8:45 am m says:

Does not work in vista. no box to uncheck.
July 16th, 2007 at 6:32 pm Jared Schwager says:

m, I took the screenshot from my installation of Vista, so it must be something specific to your copy of Firefox. Are you using the latest version?
July 17th, 2007 at 2:17 pm JoblessPunk says:

ty man, I’ve been trying to figure that out for a month

Also, “m” make sure you go to the “Content” section in Options not the “Advanced” section. I did that the first time I read the article and thought that it didn’t work.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:04 pm Apoc says:

thanks JoblessPunk, i had the same problem