Windows' "Make text bigger" accessibility setting affecting UI in Firefox v103

[Kycok]

Make the feature switchable! The new combined scaling of text and UI is horrible!

It was OK in previous versions of Firefox. I have 125% font size in Windows settings. The text was big and UI was normal.

Now the UI just eats 25% more space of the desktop. It's not ergonomic and absolutely useless.

For now, rolling back to v102 and disabling updates.😤

[largertextpls]

I posted downthread - I tried this fix, but all it seems to be doing is resetting the text to 100% while still keeping the interface impossibly large, which is the opposite of what I want.

[jscher2000]

---

@largertextpls wrote:

I posted downthread - I tried this fix [ui.textScaleFactor => 100], but all it seems to be doing is resetting the text to 100% while still keeping the interface impossibly large, which is the opposite of what I want.

---

You also could modify the following preference:

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

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.display.os-zoom-behavior and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to 0 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change. How does that look?

Available values:

• 0 => Ignore the OS-level scaling (historical behavior on Windows/Mac)
• 1 => Apply OS-level scaling as proportional zoom [default] (historical behavior on Linux)
• 2 => Apply OS-level scaling as text-only zoom

[Anonymous]

I welcome the feature itself, but I'm not happy with the further reduction in UI density.

[Luanne43]

Agree.  It's now a mess.  Icons so big and no way to change the size.  Text, I now have to zoom out or it covers much of the page.  This FF 301.0 is a complete mess.  Why do tech people mess with something that isn't broke.  It even affected my Gmail.  Finally got the Gmail back to normal but before I monkeyed around with it, I could only see 3 emails at a time, they took up 2 lines and the text was gigantic.

[Luanne43]

How do I roll back to the previous version?  The last time I did a roll back, I lost bookmarks and had to reinstall them. Nothing is easy anymore.

[Kycok]

Download Firefox 102.1.0esr from here.

Edit: Push Ctrl+Shift+O to backup/restore bookmarks.

[HLMSPL]

This change sucks! I'm also reverting to v102 until Mozilla undoes this.

[RODKAY]

Yep!... Not only was the UI resized into uselessness it also deleted my tabs (all of them!)... Good Job!... NOT!!!... You want to shill for donations how about paying us for the time spent retweaking your browser so we can use it!... or maybe next time just leave well enough alone!... SMGDH!

[WinterGreen]

The toolbar takes up almost half my screen but doesn't show me all my tabs! I hate this new update. Why did you make the tabs so big? Now I can't see everything I need to look at, I have to go to the top and scroll. It was bad enough already that we had to open two windows to easily access all of our tabs, but now we need FOUR windows!
Why didn't you allow personalized resizing of tab sizes? The text is still just as small, it's just floating around in empty space up there, preventing me from seeing more of the actual websites I am trying to use.

[BL1]

a firefox update should NOT require any user to then have to go into their windows set-up to fix issues created by said update - We see you firefox 103.

i.e. the latest firefox 103 update zoomed-in/enlarged everything and the typical view %'s could not fix it necessitating people having to go into their primary & long term window's set-ups, that is just lazy & sloppy on Firefox's/Mozilla's part

be better firefox

[largertextpls]

Updated today and have this issue too. Windows text size 125% now makes Firefox interface take up too much space -  and the text is still too small!  And 125% was actually my compromize that made the text just barely big enough, while not at the same time increasing interface the size of the too much - this usability update did the opposite of what I need!

The ui.textScaleFactor workaround does not help. Afaikt it just reproduces the problem.

The problem is that the setting changes the size of the text AND the interface. I need a setting that would increase the text size to 150% while still retaining the size of the interface (or at least not making it any larger than absolutely necessary). There's too much padding around the tiny text!

I have no idea how this slipped through usability testing. Maybe everybody had huge screens? (Maybe that's why this text box ony shows four lines of text too.)

[ChrisR770]

Adding my two cents to the pile that this was a poor decision. Woke up today to find the UI taking up 33% more space than it should, and all webpage elements blown up to the point of unusability. The Windows "Make Text Larger" option should only do what it says. "Make TEXT Larger". This is a problem with arrogant software development teams - work the way we think you should work, not the way you know works best for you.

Glad I found the ui.textscalefactor tip.

[clb3chey]

everything is messed up and not at all satisfactory with this new update "...i agree with everyone as users" it is not our job or desire to create workarounds".

     please fix this firefox 103. disater PLESAE PLEASE PLEASE firefox are you listening?....the browser is unusable this way ! 

[clb3chey]

i could not wait for a update response from firefox as i need my browser to work ...i reverted back" to the earlier version and all is well so far...and MUCH BETTER to use.im sorry firefox , but please notice all these comments and fix the new update so we all can use this browser with out the bigger " problem..it just trows all the sites out of wack  ..its wacky nonsense !!   giggle !!

anyway i just had to thank the post that gave us a older version link..its the easiest way to fix" this problem for now ..thank you community ! 

[loudell]

Go back to previous screen sizing.

I can't stand the new 103 screen

[paulfischer]

I'm visual impaired and I need to enlarge the windows 11 scaling system. However, since the latest 103 firefox update, everything appears too large, ribbons and menus take too much space on the screen. I need to downgrade firefox to the 102 update to be able to use it.

I

[asaltlick]

I use windows 11 and Firefox version 103.0.1 sucks, everything is zoomed out of the page.  I had to go back to version 101.0.1 in order to use Firefox. 

[KA]

I'm not happy with the latest Firefox update. Everything is too big. Website pages will not fit properly. I had to scale everything down to 67% size to get the web pages to work. Also the toolbar everything is too big. I can't get all my apps to fit as nicely as before the update. The previous update worked great, I had everything set up just perfect on my toolbar. It would be a great help if you could adjust the length of the address bar.

[lilbit14]

The same thing is happening to me. I'm trying to juggle "make text bigger" and "make everything bigger" in Microsoft with the text size setting in Firefox, but it's not working too well. Add to that some personal visual problems, and I'm really unsatisfied with this update. I don't want to go back to a previous version because it sounds like I'll lose my favorite bookmarks and who knows what else. How soon can another Firefox update come along and straighten this mess out?

[Kycok]

Look here for workarounds:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/windows-quot-make-text-bigger-quot-accessibility-setting/...

[lilbit14]

Thanks for trying to help.  I'm not computer savvy; I'm not going do perform the about:config workaround because I don't understand it at all and if I make a mistake I might mess my PC up even more.  Not to mention it's not supported and not guaranteed to work, etc.  I'm just having to try to get used to it. 

[gmajic]

There's another option you can try if you have two computers that both use FF and the same login on both; it worked for me. I have 3 PC's so I went to the one that wasn't updated to 103.0.1 and went to Tools on the menu and did a SYNC NOW. To get to the MENU bar if it's not showing go to the very top of the page in a blank space and right click, where you see "Menu bar" click it and then go to "Tools" click it and find "SYNC NOW" and click it that should fix everything the last update did; it worked for me.

[GMeier]

HELPPPP ...In Nederland werkt het niet:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/windows-quot-make-text-bigger-quot-accessibility-setting/...

[jscher2000]

At the risk of repeating what you already found in another thread:

Firefox 103 now applies the Windows "Make text bigger" setting as a zoom multiplier (Release Notes). You can either modify your Windows setting (if you don't need it in other applications) or add a new Firefox preference.

Windows Setting. On Windows 10, this is in the Display control panel. You can find it by typing make text bigger in the system search box:

---

---

Firefox Preference. Firefox 103 has 3 interrelated hidden settings that control the overall zoom level and whether it considers information from the system. This one seems to be working for many people to revert the latest change:

(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 ui.textScaleFactor and pause while the list is filtered

Normally, Firefox will display a bar with Boolean Number String and a plus button. If Firefox displays a row that already has a number value, skip to step 5.

(3) Click the circular button in front of Number and then click the + button to create a new preference.

(4) Firefox should display an editing field, and show a value of 0 -- edit the value to 100 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

(5) If the current value of ui.textScaleFactor is NOT 100, then double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to 100 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

---

Let us know whether that works for you -- fully, partially, or not at all.

[KA]

Thank you very much for the information on how to make the web pages smaller, and the toolbar is manageable again. I'm now able to set everything the way I like it in the toolbar.

Thanks again, KA

[rwiener1947]

The latest Firefox update changed everything in appearance making everything larger and it does not make it easy to work with. How can I fix this?

[jscher2000]

Firefox 103 now applies the Windows "Make text bigger" setting as a zoom multiplier (Release Notes). You can either modify your Windows setting (if you don't need it in other applications) or add a new Firefox preference.

Windows Setting. On Windows 10, this is in the Display control panel. You can find it by typing make text bigger in the system search box:

---

---

Firefox Preference. Firefox 103 has 3 interrelated hidden settings that control the overall zoom level and whether it considers information from the system. This one seems to be working for many people to revert the latest change:

(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 ui.textScaleFactor and pause while the list is filtered

Normally, Firefox will display a bar with Boolean Number String and a plus button. If Firefox displays a row that already has a number value, skip to step 5.

(3) Click the circular button in front of Number and then click the + button to create a new preference.

(4) Firefox should display an editing field, and show a value of 0 -- edit the value to 100 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

(5) If the current value of ui.textScaleFactor is NOT 100, then double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to 100 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

---

Let us know whether that works for you -- fully, partially, or not at all.

[Kwoosh]

I'm with rwiener1947 on this, I hate how Firefox has changed the layout and colours, it looks awful now. I fixed mine by restoring a backup then disabled updates completely (easy to do with a regedit fix) so I'm back to v102 and will stick with that. I would appear that Mozilla wants to alienate it's users and they'll leave in droves, if they haven't already. I thought the proton update was bad enough but I managed to get around that with some tweaks and css add ons. I hate chrome and edge but FF is getting there now too. Bloody updates! It's getting as bad a Microsoft for pissing off it's users.

[serdis]

This is because of the new UI feature (Windows' "Make text bigger" accessibility setting now affects all the UI and content pages, rather than only applying to system font sizes.) introduced in v.103 release. See discussion in this thread

[RickLFT]

Just installed the latest update of 103: now at 103.0, on my desktop.  The font size of the entire screen is much larger.  Of course I can change the font size of web sites I visit, but how can I permanently change the font size of the firefox framing, i.e. the bookmark tool bar, menu bar, tabs bar.  Is this new "feature" for OLD people with bad eye sight?  This is incredibly annoying that I must now click the "more" symbol (>>) to get to the rest of my bookmarks - all because the font is so big that they all won't fit in the line an anymore.

[RickLFT]

Here is an example.

left - before, right - after

[jscher2000]

Firefox 103 now applies the Windows "Make text bigger" setting as a zoom multiplier (Release Notes). You can either modify your Windows setting (if you don't need it in other applications) or add a new Firefox preference.

Windows Setting. On Windows 10, this is in the Display control panel. You can find it by typing make text bigger in the system search box:

---

---

Firefox Preference. Firefox 103 has 3 interrelated hidden settings that control the overall zoom level and whether it considers information from the system. This one seems to be working for many people to revert the latest change:

(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 ui.textScaleFactor and pause while the list is filtered

Normally, Firefox will display a bar with Boolean Number String and a plus button. If Firefox displays a row that already has a number value, skip to step 5.

(3) Click the circular button in front of Number and then click the + button to create a new preference.

(4) Firefox should display an editing field, and show a value of 0 -- edit the value to 100 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

(5) If the current value of ui.textScaleFactor is NOT 100, then double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to 100 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

---

Let us know whether that works for you -- fully, partially, or not at all.

[RickLFT]

Thank you so much, ischer2000 !  Your instructions are exactly perfect !

All is back to the way it was and what I want.

[themGuru]

sorry, but as a developer: this is complete nonsense.
Eevery other application does it right, at some point all browsers started to act ugly, firefox was the exception, now is also does it wrong
When you code something, you have to do absolutely nothing to get it scaled correctly.

The windows setting above says "Make Text bigger", see the word TEXT ?
this is now scaling images too in the browser.

The percentage slider above is NOT for content, it is for icons, file-browsers and such.
ie notepad is not affected, code in IDE of visual studio is not affected, or buttons/lists of other applications are not scaled, etc, etc.

So, why scaling content of a browser ? This was not one of the brightest decisions.
Sure you can change as described above, but do you really think the average user will find this post ?
Why there isn't a simple checkbox in settings, to disable that "feature" ?
Was this a management decision? a normal developer would never do such things.
Do you want to scare your users away ?

[Kokore]

Sorry, aber bei meinem Rechner hat es auf diese Art funktioniert

[rojo72]

themguru got it right do the updates right or don't do them at all. Firefox seems to be getting worse with all these MICKEY MOUSE changes and this one is right at top of the list. Fortunately I was able to find this post but I am seriously considering FLUSHING FIREFOX DOWN THE TOILET.  

[moznewbie]

I tried the settings 0 & 2 option, (suggested 1 day or so after the update), and that didn't really do what I wanted. I went the full hog and reset the PC from a 12 week old system image disk to get an earlier version of Firefox. It was quicker to do 3 months of WIn10 updates than sort out Mozilla's mess. It takes an incident like this to realise Mozilla have gone a long way down the wrong way. Earlier versions of Forefox aren't compatible with the latest version so yo have to start again with a completely new profile. Additionally they make it darn near impossible to get an older version from them. I wanted to play safe and upgrade from 99 to 101 rather than the old 102. I had to get it from a 3rd party website. As I said - a  long way down the wrong way. I will stick with 101 for now and trial other browsers. Trust broken.

[jscher2000]

---

@moznewbie wrote:

I tried the settings 0 & 2 option, (suggested 1 day or so after the update), and that didn't really do what I wanted.

---

This would have been a good case to take to the Mozilla Support site. They have a team of support volunteers to troubleshoot malfunctions with your currently installed version of Firefox, while this site is focused on idea submissions for future versions of Firefox (looking ahead anywhere from 8 weeks to many months). Here's a link to the new question form (for Windows/Mac/Linux) if you want to try again: https://mzl.la/3y1vQUQ

---

Earlier versions of Forefox aren't compatible with the latest version so yo have to start again with a completely new profile. Additionally they make it darn near impossible to get an older version from them. I wanted to play safe and upgrade from 99 to 101 rather than the old 102. I had to get it from a 3rd party website.

---

Older versions of Firefox won't use a profile folder after it has been updated to a newer version. This was done starting in Firefox 67 to resolve stability issues encountered by older versions when dealing with files whose formats have updated. There is a workaround for this in case you want to try to "downgrade" a profile. And of course Mozilla clearly documents where you can get every previous release from an official source; you never need to use a third party website to download Firefox.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/dedicated-profiles-firefox-installation (has instructions for how to try downgrading a profile)
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/install-older-version-firefox (links to previous version and the archive with all old versions)

But I appreciate the more general point that even if this change improves accessibility for many users, it sometimes has unintended consequences, and Firefox should have a selector for overall enlargement right on the Settings page rather than requiring tweaking of any of the 3 interrelated preferences.

[moznewbie]

Can I give you negative kudos for trolling?

Is there a Firefox .exe file in any of the directories in the...

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

...link you posted. Other people are asking the same question.

Firefox's official position is this:

"If you dislike new features in the latest version of Firefox, your first reaction might be to go back to the previous version. Rather than downgrading, try getting used to the new features".

A long way down the wrong way.

[themGuru]

If you dislike new features in the latest version of Firefox, your first reaction might be to go back to the previous version. Rather than downgrading, try getting used to the new features".

whut ?? we make BS, get used to it ?
THIS IS NOT A FEATURE, DAMNIT, its "BEEP"
well then, get used to no users anymore, good luck with that

the next feature is? only supports i-phones, get used to it
i would fire the management after such a statement, we don't need you, you need us.

removing FF now... bye