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.😤

[jscher2000]

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@moznewbie wrote:

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.

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You scroll down and click the version number you want, then you click the link for your platform, then you click the link for your language-locale, then you get the installer(s). For example, Firefox 102.1.0esr for 64-bit Windows with U.S. English:

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/102.1.0esr/win64/en-US/

More info about the ESR releases: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/switch-to-firefox-extended-support-release-esr

[themGuru]

the update as of today 30, July 2022... now all sites are scaled up to an amount that is ugly at best, having a hidpi sceen using scaling of 150% everytrhing was fine until this update
is this also now like other browsers not respecting high-dpi settings of the os it is running on ? this is NOT an improvement, on the contrary. So please remove that "feature", i do not need a login field filling the whole screen, who the hell makes such nonsense decisions ??

[Vman]

I am having this problem too. It is making this browser useless!!

[jscher2000]

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@Vman wrote:

I am having this problem too. It is making this browser useless!!

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In case you didn't get a notification, see: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/windows-quot-make-text-bigger-quot-accessibility-setting/...

[jscher2000]

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@themGuru wrote:

the update as of today 30, July 2022... now all sites are scaled up to an amount that is ugly at best, having a hidpi sceen using scaling of 150% everytrhing was fine until this update
is this also now like other browsers not respecting high-dpi settings of the os it is running on ? this is NOT an improvement, on the contrary. So please remove that "feature", i do not need a login field filling the whole screen, who the hell makes such nonsense decisions ??

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This is Firefox 103 applying the Windows "Make text bigger" setting as a zoom multiplier (Release Notes). If that makes everything too large, 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:

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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.

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

[themGuru]

yes this works, but why we have to do that, it is plain wrong what FF-devs did here
just because other browsers have no idea about dpi scaling, FF doesn't have do do it also.
making things multiple times wrong doesn't make it right.

[HLMSPL]

In regards to your comment about other browsers, when I first saw v103 I thought it looked suspiciously like a Chromium base. To support this, ever since installing v103 I get 'Edge Chromium must be closed...' whenever I do my CCleaner cleanup after web browsing. This never happened b4 v103 and without me using Edge Chromium at a user facing level. Has FF jumpwd the shark on Chromium?

[jscher2000]

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@HLMSPL wrote:

In regards to your comment about other browsers, when I first saw v103 I thought it looked suspiciously like a Chromium base. To support this, ever since installing v103 I get 'Edge Chromium must be closed...' whenever I do my CCleaner cleanup after web browsing. This never happened b4 v103 and without me using Edge Chromium at a user facing level. Has FF jumpwd the shark on Chromium?

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No, Firefox still is not based on Chromium. The only connection I've ever seen between Firefox and Edge is that Edge is the default PDF viewer on some systems.

[BL1]

In response to jscher2000

‎08-03-2022 09:19 AM

jscher2000,

you missed the point of my post. a browser update should not require any user to go into their windows settings to fix what the browser update has caused.

In your own words about the back door fix "changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future."

Hence, my original point that Mozilla was lazy and sloppy by putting the onus on their loyal users to fix the problems that Mozilla itself created in Firefox 103

[budu]

Just updated to version 103 and now Firefox windows are improperly scaled. Everything is much bigger.

This change was apparently made to respect some Windows 10 settings, but it doesn't make sense as Firefox windows are now scaling UI elements way bigger than any other applications that are using these settings.

This is a huge regression.

[Luca_Pavan]

Perhaps you can always decrease text size or zoom out if you see stuff too big, set an higher screen resolution (if available) or decrease text and other elements size on Windows settings.

[ajp1228]

I hope Firefox will be working to fix this issue.  I found what seems to be a related post on the Buzzilla site, so I posted a comment with a link to this thread.  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1781613  UPDATE:  This bug pertains to Linux operating system.  Please see my next post below for the correct bug pertaining to Windows. 

[ajp1228]

Please ignore the Bugzilla link I posted above unless you use Linux OS.  The Bugzilla report for Windows is https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1782287.  They are considering making changes, possibly to allow us to choose to change the setting.  I vote for reversing the change.  If you have screenshots of what happened, as well as screenshots of the same page in other browsers, go to this bug and post them as a comment.

[JACKCYCLES]

Holy cow! Latest update takes up 1/3 of my laptop screen Windows 10. CTRL scroll wheel changes size ONLY in text, not in user interface.  I don't want monster-icons to be foisted on me; ditto space eating bars of UI!  After 20 years and saved data, settings, etc. do I have to go to Vivaldi and numerous other browsers?

How about telling us IN ADVANCE of an update, however minor, how we will be affected!  With every update do I have to go to settings to get what I want--if I can even do so?  I'm in favor of frequent security updates, but not someone justifying his/her job by coming up with improvements not wanted or given option to choose!

[ajp1228]

Yes!  There was another annoying change - I think it was something to do with the Bookmarks menu - sometime back which messed things up (but not nearly THIS bad) for many of us.  They need to stop changing the browser behavior without warning us and without providing us an easy setting which allows us to opt out of the change if we wish.

Did you see the solutions above?  There is a setting we can add in about:config which fixes this problem.

[SebastienPhod]

With the last version, 103, It's a big problem with the size ..

1- with a new star, the parameter i have choosen in the past, return to 100%

2-as for others products offer ^possibility to choose his personnal size = actually it's 100, ..6, 50

...please offer us to define 'our' size

[Meow12]

My computer updated on the same update and on firefox my print is so big along with everything on the screen got bigger. I can't play games on Facebook as I have to use the slider bar to scroll down to the bottom of the game. My side bars with groups are gone along . Please fix this update or tell me how to uninstall Firefox completely as I can't use this. I even tried to reduce the print.

[jscher2000]

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@Meow12 wrote:

My computer updated on the same update and on firefox my print is so big along with everything on the screen got bigger.

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Could you take a look this post over on the Mozilla Support forum: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1385230#answer-1525000

[Kwoosh]

Firefox has really scored an own goal with this latest update. While I'm sure you're just trying to help jscher2000, you keep repeating the same 'advice'. No one should have to go into Windows Settings to change what FF has screwed up, no one. Think about your user base for once, most people don't come to forums if they have a problem, they'll either suffer with the changes or ditch FF altogether, it's only nerds and the like that will look for a solution in places like this and a lot of users won't be comfortable making changes to Win settings. I'm not going to mess about trying to fix FF screw ups and I shouldn't have to - ever!

For myself, I tried copying all the FF files in various places from a backup but that didn't work, so I restored my complete system from an Acronis Disk Image, the whole Windows operating system, which tbh was a lot quicker than trying to fix it but was a good deal inconvenient to say the least. I shouldn't have to go to those lengths should I? It took me 10 mins to restore my system completely so a much quicker fix for me but not everyone has that option unfortunately.

Regarding the update, I didn't notice the text or icon size changes, what did it for me was as soon as I launched the updated FF all my colours had changed, it went all pale with no Windows theme colours and was hard for me to see and that's when I tried to restore the previous version, I don't want it looking like chrome or edge and the FF themes look awful to me so no use whatsoever. I don't have the time or patience to spend hours changing this or that just to fix a f*** up.

It really is not on and yes I'm steaming mad at the changes thrusted upon my (once) favourite browser by some trendy dev that thinks they know what I want, they don't, I want it to stay looking the same so it matches the rest of my windows. I can understand the need for updates to keep out the nasties but to change the theme completely is unacceptable and totally unnecessary imo. And given the posts here I'm not the only one that hates the recent changes. Who ever decided it was a good idea wants a **bleep** good hard kick in the privates tbh.

OK, rant over but I won't ever be in a hurry to update FF ever again from this latest fiasco. If anyone wants to kill updates after loading a previous version then run regedit and look for: "[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox] "DisableAppUpdate"=dword:00000000" and change that last 0 to a 1. JD.

[jscher2000]

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@Kwoosh wrote:

While I'm sure you're just trying to help jscher2000, you keep repeating the same 'advice'. No one should have to go into Windows Settings to change what FF has screwed up, no one. Think about your user base for once, most people don't come to forums if they have a problem, they'll either suffer with the changes or ditch FF altogether, it's only nerds and the like that will look for a solution in places like this and a lot of users won't be comfortable making changes to Win settings. I'm not going to mess about trying to fix FF screw ups and I shouldn't have to - ever!

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I don't work for Mozilla, and it's not my nature to stand idly by when people ask for a workaround and one exists.

Firefox started applying applying system-level scaling to overall browser sizing in version 22, released on June 13, 2013. Over the years, I and others have suggested having a control for this on the Settings page because it was complicated for users to set `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx`. We finally got a selector for the default page zoom, but not for the overall scaling or UI zoom. Now that we have this crisis, hopefully we can finally get one. But until then, it's workarounds of one type or another.

[ajp1228]

If you will scroll up and review earlier posts on this forum, "jscher2000" has a post explaining how we can fix this using changes in the about:config settings.  We have to add a new setting and also make sure another setting is set back to it's old default value of 0.  It's not as complicated as it sounds.  There is also a "Bugzilla" report about this, so hopefully the Firefox developers are looking into a solution.

[cgowlv1965]

I too have this problem. I have a small monitor and the "new" upgrade (v103) has caused the top portion (menu bar, tabs, toolbar with search bar and bookmark toolbar) to be so oversized it takes up two inches (2.5") of space.

I am able to hide the Bookmark Toolbar by right-clicking above the Tabs, clicking Bookmark Toolbar, then checking "Never Show." --- I am also able to Hide the Menu Bar, by right-clicking above the Tabs, then Unchecking the "Menu Bar," However whenever I need to open a new Bookmark, I need to re-check the "Menu Bar" to get it to show again and have access to it. --- Or and lastly, I can put the whole screen in Full-Screen, hiding everything. I just need to mouse over the toolbar area, and the tabs and search toolbar are in view again, but not the Menu Toolbar nor the Bookmark Toolbar. All will disappear again once you move the mouse away from the area.

This is really a hassle. But if I want more space on my screen, this is what I have to do, for now.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I have to zoom out from 100% to 67% just to have everything fit on my screen.

So, Mozilla Firefox, not everyone has a monitor the size of a HDTV. In the next upgrade, change these features back to v102 style, with real upgrades that complement what already exists. Don't take features away that DO NOT give users control. People use many devices to use your browser and its unique add-ons, extensions, etc, from mobile phones, tablets, laptops, pc's/mac, and smart tv's. Each need to be able to control its zoom features for the menu bar, tabs, toolbar with search bar and bookmark toolbar and body of screen.

I look forward to v104 upgrade, where we users get the access control back in our hands to toggle the preferences to our zoom up or down for all the menu, toolbars, bookmarks, and body of screen.

There was a saying in the computer world in the early 80's, "User Friendly." User friendly referred to keeping it simple and not complicating the use of a computer and the Internet for everyone. Get back to the basics. Upgrades should only be applied if its going to complement what already exists, not going backwards and creating chaos for the users.

Thank you for your service and for your prompt response to my concerns and many others herein.

PS: I plan to stay with Mozilla Firefox as my default browser, period. But I'd like controls back in my hands to customize my use of your browser to my preferences.

[ajp1228]

Great post!  From what I see on the other topic about this problem, it appears that you found one of user jscher2000's posts and put the workaround in place.  It's working good for me with this workaround.  I have a 15.6" laptop with my DPI/"Make Everything Bigger" and my Windows font/"Make Text Bigger" set much higher than what is "normal."  I had to do this to be able to see the icons on my desktop and my taskbar and to make the text everywhere easier to read.  The changes in FF are not comparable to other browsers, such as Edge, because I only have to zoom out a little bit on Edge to get the webpage content to the correct size.  Edge no longer has a menu bar, so that's one reason it doesn't take up as much of the top section of the screen.  That's also the reason I don't like Edge at all.  They need to put FF back to the way it was, or at the very least give us an easy way to change the settings so we won't have to use "about:config."  I use Thunderbird for my laptop mail and calendar program; I hope they don't make the same change in a future release of Thunderbird!

[rxex]

I did exactly the same thing, down to v102. The new UI is atrocious and useless. Far too big, and while you can scale down the screen content (for each tab, so it's a chore) the tab bar and the address bar take an unnecessarily large amount of space and cannot be changed. It defies belief that the developers couldn't make it dynamic so large fonts only applied to phones and small screens but not to full-size PC screens. Seems pretty basic to me.