How do you set dark mode for Firefox private-browsing windows?

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The default for dark/light mode in Firefox’s private-browsing windows seems to be light mode. At least that’s what I see in about:config because browser.theme.dark-private-windows is set to false. But, when I set it to true, nothing changes. Is there some other way to get dark mode for private browsing?

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I’ve never done a thing to that setting and my private windows always open in dark mode. Upon looking at that preference, it’s set to true and that’s also the default setting because it isn’t in bold type like the settings that have been altered from their default values are.

When I clicked the back and forth arrows to change it from true to false, the listing changed from normal type to bold type, and clicking those arrows a second time changed it back to true from false and changed the setting’s typeface from bold back to normal. I also made these back and forth changes with the private browsing window closed, not open or minimized.

I just checked if these changes had any effect on the private browsing window itself, and they did indeed. Upon making the change from the default, I opened the window to find it in light mode and then closed it. Made the change back to default and opened it to find it in dark mode.

So, if changing that value doesn’t work for you, there might be something preventing it from working properly, such as another setting within about:config.

 

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WCHS

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What you describe in about:config for the unbold for the true-default and the bold for false is also the case for me. My setting is the unbold true-default, but the Window is always light no matter whether in private-browsing or not.

Maybe the Windows system ‘Colors’ is interfering. What are all of your settings for Settings>Personalization>Colors – Choose your color, Choose your default Windows mode, Choose your default app mode, Transparency effects, Automatically pick an accent color from my background, Show accent color on the following surfaces (Start, taskbar, action center and Title bars and windows borders?

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Bob99 wrote:

…there might be something preventing it from working properly, such as another setting within about:config.

And one of those things might be a theme besides one of the default ones included with Firefox. If there recently was an update to the theme, that could be what is overriding your setting in about:config.

I have only ever used the one labeled “System theme-auto” and have never installed any others nor enabled any of the other ones that are included in Firefox by default.

P.S. I just reread your initial post and you make it sound like the setting was set to “false” when you first went in to look at it and that, until that moment, you had never changed it knowingly on your own. If that’s true, then something went in and changed it, such as an add-on that you might have installed or, as mentioned above, a theme you enabled or installed.

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Bob99 wrote:

P.S. I just reread your initial post and you make it sound like the setting was set to “false” when you first went in to look at it and that, until that moment, you had never changed it knowingly on your own. If that’s true, then something went in and changed it, such as an add-on that you might have installed or, as mentioned above, a theme you enabled or installed.

Yes, that’s the case. When I started looking into this, about:config said that browser.theme.dark-private-windows was false. Since I had never changed it, I thought it was the default. At the time, I did not know that ‘no bold’ means the setting is the FF default and ‘bold’ means that the setting is not the FF default. When I changed it to ‘true’ (no bold), I thought that I would get private-browsing dark windows, but I didn’t. I just left it ‘true’ because I thought that if the problem got fixed, the private-browsing windows would become dark, like they should.

I’ll check out my theme and my extensions. Right now my theme is ‘Microsoft Edge Light’. I can enable ‘System theme -auto’ instead to see what happens. I have only a few extensions, two of which are FF sponsored (‘Facebook Container’ and ‘Firebox Multi-Account Containers’ and are not allowed in private browsing.) The remaining extensions are allowed.

Do you get dark private-browsing windows when Troubleshoot Mode is ON (extensions, themes, and custom settings are temporarily disabled)? Or does this ‘Safe Mode’ disabling stand in the way of dark mode for any FF Window?

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WCHS wrote:

I’ll check out my theme and my extensions. Right now my theme is ‘Microsoft Edge Light’. I can enable ‘System theme -auto’ instead to see what happens.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. The theme I had been using – Microsoft Edge Light — was the problem. With the ‘System theme – Auto’ theme, the Menu, Tabs, Navigation, and Bookmark Bars are in dark mode At the top, the Title Bar is the color set by what is checked at the bottom of the Windows 10 Settings>Personalization>Colors display. This Title Bar shows up because I have checked the box for ‘Title bar’ at the bottom of the Navigation Toolbar window.

Some of my Desktop shortcuts/icons are URLs to web sites. I want to get some of these to open in a FF private-browsing window. If I just click on one of them from my Desktop, it will open in a non-private window, but that’s not what I want. I’ve discovered that if I have a private-browsing window active, I can drag the Desktop icon to the FF private window to open a new private-browsing tab for the website. Or if the URL is in my Bookmark Bar, I can right-click on it and get a dark mode window for it.

There is one serious drawback to this method, however. To initiate private browsing, I have to remember to first open a private browsing window and then to drag the Desktop icon to it or find the Bookmark and right-click on it. Is there a way to set some parameter somewhere (maybe in FF settings or in the icon’s properties) to get a private-browsing window to automatically open when I click on certain Desktop icons? For example, the Properties dialog box shows the https:// URL. Is there some kind of argument you could add to this URL that says “open the URL is a private browsing window”? {I’m just thinking off the top of my head, here}, but hopefully you have some idea of how to make this happen.

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WCHS wrote:

Do you get dark private-browsing windows when Troubleshoot Mode is ON (extensions, themes, and custom settings are temporarily disabled)?

I’ve been fortunate enough not to have ever needed to use troubleshooting mode in Firefox. I’ve either been able to figure things out myself or, as with many folks, with some good help from others, such as the crowd here at AskWoody.

Because of that, I can’t say anything about what happens in troubleshooting mode in Firefox if I haven’t read about it somewhere reliable, such as their site.

WCHS wrote:

To initiate private browsing, I have to remember to first open a private browsing window and then to drag the Desktop icon to it or find the Bookmark and right-click on it.

Since you’re on Windows 10, right click the Firefox entry on the Start menu’s list on the left side and then select the “New private window” option. That will open FF in a private window right from the start. Here’s the “long” description of how to do that:

Left click the start menu icon to bring up the Start menu, scroll down the list on the left side with the program names and icons if needed to display the entry that says “Firefox” and has the FF icon. Hover the mouse over the entry to highlight it and then right click the entry. That will bring up the menu with the “New private window” option.

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Bob99 wrote:

I’ve been fortunate enough not to have ever needed to use troubleshooting mode in Firefox.

Sometimes I have to put a FF screen into the Troubleshooting mode because I need to disable the UBlock Origins extension because I’ve connected to a website that needs to have what UBlock Origins is blocking. I could temporarily disable UBlock Origins, but I temporarily put FF in Troubleshoot mode instead.

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Bob99 wrote:

right click the Firefox entry on the Start menu’s list on the left side and then select the “New private window” option. That will open FF in a private window right from the start.

I still have to remember to start up a private-browsing window that way. And then get the URL into the private-browsing window by a) typing into the private-browsing URL field or b) dragging a desktop web-site shortcut into the private-browsing window, or c) clicking on the FF Bookmark for it and right-clicking on it to bring up a private-browsing window with the URL ready to go. I’d like to avoid all of this extra navigational effort by simply clicking on a desktop icon and getting a private-browsing window with the URL already in it.

Right now, even if a private-browsing window is up (no matter how it was brought up, even in the way you describe), clicking on a desktop web-site shortcut brings up a non-private window. In other words, right now the desktop web-site icons will open only a non-private window. There’s nothing anywhere (not in the browser, not in the icon itself) that tells FF to initiate a private-browsing window for that Desktop web-site shortcut.

I’ve tried dragging a URL from a private-browsing window to the Desktop, but then clicking on it from the Desktop brings up a non-private window, even though it was created from a private-browsing window.

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Hi WCHS,

What you can do is install the “Dark Reader” add-on extension for Firefox

Then go into the Manager Extension, Run in Private Windows
Allow or Don’t Allow
When allowed, the extension will give you Dark Mode

Hope this helps

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I just want some indication that I am in a Private Window, other than the words “Private Browsing” in the Title Bar (the color of the Title Bar does not change — just the phrase “Private Browsing” is added, which is barely noticeable.)

But the about:config preference for browser.theme.dark-private-windows can be switched from ‘false‘ (the default) to true. This in addition to using the ‘System theme – Auto’ theme.

This puts the Menu Bar, the Tab Bar, the Navigation Bar, and the Bookmarks Bar in dark mode. That’s an adequate visual clue for me. The URL’s webpage is still in light mode, which is fine with me; it’s not necessary to have everything in dark mode.

So, changing the preference is a workable solution for my needs. No need to use Dark Reader.

P.S. The Multi-Account Containers extension is not allowed in Private Windows,so I open only 1 tab is a Firefox session.

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WCHS

As sudo mentioned re Dark Reader:

I also use the “Dark Reader” extension in Firefox and Brave and it works well.  Take some time to experiment with its settings.

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1 user thanked author for this post.

WCHS

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