Bring back the option to group the private and normal Firefox windows in the taskbar together

[przemo20]

Starting release of Firefox 127.0 the “browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled” preference stopped working (I believe it was removed in the commit here: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/rMOZILLACENTRAL8adde2b08299cbe12d25785fcb0efdabb0057766) and now Firefox private and normal windows have their separate icon in the Windows taskbar. Could you restore that functionality? If not by bringing back the “browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled” preference on the about:config page, then e.g. add a new setting on the Firefox settings page that does the same thing.

[Jon]

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[Achromatic]

Reallow us to put private windows under the same taskbar icon

It seems the preference was disabled in one of the recent updates so that setting "browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled" to "false" no longer works, I'd like it if it was re-allowed to work the way it had before, because I don't want more clutter on my taskbar then there already is and I don't appreciate getting options taken away for no good reason.

[jakjawagon]

Separating them was a terrible idea in the first place. Now we can't even about:config it back the way it should be?

It didn't take much searching to find literally hundreds of negative responses to this change when it first rolled out in 106. I only saw one single positive comment on it, and maybe 2 or 3 neutral. Users don't like this. At least make it optional.

[Achromatic]

I would also like this, its annoying to have so many things open on the taskbar, and I don't really want people to glance at my screen and be able to tell instantly whether or not I opened private browsing, its not very private if they can see.

[Amare]

no comment

[FMozilla]

There is no voting Jon, revert the option ASAP, and stop making unwanted updates that nobody asked for, instead of fixing stability issues/performance so Firefox doesn't EAT ALL MY RAM.

[sI240HG2fFHDMe3]

This (now default behaviour) is really at odds with how all the other applications on my computer work. Private browsing is not a separate application - it is still FireFox, it is just a behaviour of that application. It does not need to give itself special treatment in how the OS treats it in regards to multitasking.

[abhate]

I don't get why it was removed in the first place.

[dafadllyn]

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@sI240HG2fFHDMe3  wrote:

This (now default behaviour) is really at odds with how all the other applications on my computer work. Private browsing is not a separate application - it is still FireFox, it is just a behaviour of that application. It does not need to give itself special treatment in how the OS treats it in regards to multitasking.

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I fully agree! Please revert this poor behavour!

[rex4748]

This is a terrible "feature", and we need the option to disable it.

[tiwuno]

Going back to Chrome until a better solution presents itself. I absolutely hate being forced into changes like this... for all its problems, at least Chrome maintains customizability rather than arbitrarily getting rid of user settings.

[datre]

Doesn't this also go against the idea of a private window. If someone sees the task bar, they will immediately recognize it.

[Haagee]

Every single time Firefox gets an upgrade, I find out from it just hard-restarting my session and everything I was doing, and I get to play the fun game of finding out what feature they broke this time and if it is even fixable.

Guess this one is going on the "no" pile. Sigh.

[NeonValkyrie]

Backing this. I can't think of a single good reason for separating the two in the first place, but at least previously we had the option to change it back. Now it's gone? Who or what was this simple visual option negatively impacting? It makes no sense to remove it.

[ipodparf]

I can't imagine anything thinking this was a good change. It should be reverted immediately