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Why does clicking on "Preferences" now take me to a web page?

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When I click on "Preferences" in the menu bar, it now takes me to a web page instead of letting me set them locally on my computer. I really hate this a great deal and feel that I must now abandon Firefox as a primary browser because it invades my privacy in a way that I think is unnecessary and contrary to Mozilla's claim to be the best site for privacy. The fact that my saved passwords seem now to be accessible on a web page just because I've clicked "Preferences" is horrifying to me. Is something set wrong after the latest update? How can I disable this?

I'm on a MacBook Air, running OS X 10.9.5 and Firefox 38.0.5.

Please help.

When I click on "Preferences" in the menu bar, it now takes me to a web page instead of letting me set them locally on my computer. I really hate this a great deal and feel that I must now abandon Firefox as a primary browser because it invades my privacy in a way that I think is unnecessary and contrary to Mozilla's claim to be the best site for privacy. The fact that my saved passwords seem now to be accessible on a web page just because I've clicked "Preferences" is horrifying to me. Is something set wrong after the latest update? How can I disable this? I'm on a MacBook Air, running OS X 10.9.5 and Firefox 38.0.5. Please help.

Chosen solution

The new in-content about:preferences page has replaced the previously used standalone Options/Preferences window. See Firefox’s Redesigned Preferences Feel More like the Web:


You can toggle browser.preferences.inContent to false on the about:config page: page via a double-click to restore the standalone Options/Preferences window that you had in previous Firefox versions.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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Seçilmiş Həll

The new in-content about:preferences page has replaced the previously used standalone Options/Preferences window. See Firefox’s Redesigned Preferences Feel More like the Web:


You can toggle browser.preferences.inContent to false on the about:config page: page via a double-click to restore the standalone Options/Preferences window that you had in previous Firefox versions.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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Thank you very much, cor-el! Your solution seems to have worked perfectly.

Now if I could only convince Twitter to work properly with this version and my existing OS, I'd be all set -- but that's a whole 'nother problem. ;)