There used to be an option called browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled, which ever since Firefox 106 back in October 2022 resulted in separate taskbar icons for normal and private Firefox windows. In version 127, this option has gone away, removed in this code change. Users complained on Mozilla’s forums and on Reddit at the time, but it was at least possible to recombine the icons with the option in about:config – but no longer.
As you might imagine, people are not happy, although according to the official response in this complaint, it looks like the change will be reverted in Firefox 128…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The latest Firefox 127 appeared on June 11 with a modest list of changes – automatically reloading the browser when the OS reboots, closing duplicate tabs, and requiring more authentication to access stored passwords.
A change Mozilla didn’t mention in the release notes has users complaining online, though.
Users complained on Mozilla’s forums and on Reddit at the time, but it was at least possible to recombine the icons with the option in about:config – but no longer.
As you might imagine, people are not happy, although according to the official response in this complaint, it looks like the change will be reverted in Firefox 128:
According to this thread, users of Firefox on Apple iOS are finding that if you have both a main and private Firefox instances open, when the main one is closed, all the tabs in the private instance are closed too.
Slip-ups like this suggest to us that, as has long been the case, the Firefox developers lack a good understanding of how its remaining followers use it, and why they stick with it.
The original article contains 406 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Bad bot. Completely missing the points.