topic Re: Please change the content of URL shortcut file in Discussions

Please change the content of URL shortcut file

zzzplayer — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 04:13:55 GMT

Hello,

I've been a long time Firefox user and thank you for the work you've done. I just have a feedback request.

I wonder if you can change the content of the URL shortcut file created on Windows?

If you visit a site with Firefox, and drag and drop the lock icon next to the URL address bar onto the desktop, it will create a URL shortcut file.

If you open the file in a text editor, it will look like the following:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://example.com/
IDList=
HotKey=0
IconFile=C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[alphanumeral_string]\shortcutCache\[some_random_string].ico
IconIndex=0

As you can see, there are problems with such file content. The primary being privacy, in which [username] is embedded above. The secondary being all data fields except the URL field are unnecessary.

=====

If you do the same thing on Chrome, such issue doesn't exist.

The file content will only have the URL field, like the following:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://example.com/

=====

Thank you.

Re: Please change the content of URL shortcut file

jscher2000 — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 03:10:37 GMT

This is controlled by a hidden setting. Here's how you can modify that:

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.shell.shortcutFavicons and pause while the list is filtered

(C) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

true: include site icon path
false: omit site icon path

I don't really know what the default should be, but it would be a good idea to make this easier to discover.

Re: Please change the content of URL shortcut file

zzzplayer — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 04:34:48 GMT

Thank you for the reply. The option works.

I don't really know what the default should be,

The default value for the option browser.shell.shortcutFavicons is currently true.

but it would be a good idea to make this easier to discover.

I think the proposed change on Firefox shall be that the default value be chaned to false, since few people need site icon path or will ever examine file content of the URL shortcut file, so including such path is bad for users since it causes privacy issues.