Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I create software for people that create software and I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

Browser size hijacking

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 17 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

29 Mar 2006

Anyone know of a Firefox extension (or have a handy greasemonkey script) that will prevent web sites from changing the size of my browser window?

Whether the work of arrogant web designers who apparently know better than me what size my browser should be set to, or designers to lazy and stupid to embrace the medium they’re designing for, these sites that take over aspects of my browsing preferences and change the way I choose to view the web.

I’ve had enough and I’d like a way to stop them.

DarkWulf
March 29, 2006 11:28 PM

Well, unless things have changed, its an actual preference in Firefox for me. (Mind you, I'm using an older version) So... tools->options, then web features, and theres an "advanced" button next to the enable javascript checkbox. In the popup that button spawns theres a list of checkboxes and one of the checkboxes is for "move/resize windows". Uncheck. smile.

Adam Kalsey
March 29, 2006 11:39 PM

Okay, I need to be more specific. Pop-up windows should be allowed to resize. Windows I open should not.

Jemaleddin
March 30, 2006 8:00 AM

Well, javascript windows that are opened at a given size will still work - they just can't change size. I only know of a few sites that are dynamically sizing javascript popups after they load - and I sure wish they'd quit it.

BillSaysThis
March 30, 2006 8:22 AM

The very first option in the Enable JavaScript Advanced dialog on the Content tab of FF 1.5.x Options specifies if JS should be able to resize _existing_ windows. Isn't that what you want?

Clay Loveless
March 30, 2006 3:32 PM

For those using Firefox on Mac OS X, you'd check in Preferences -> Content Next to the Enable JavaScript checkbox, click the Advanced ... button. In the sheet that drops down, uncheck "Allow scripts to Move or resize existing windows"

Chris
April 3, 2006 5:33 PM

try this in the address bar type 'about:config' in the filter type 'resiz' (note no e) try changeing the values of dom.disable_window_move_resize dom.disable_window_open_feature.resizable I dont know if this will help, dont know a page i can test it on.

Nick
April 14, 2006 6:33 AM

Chris was right. Change dom.disablewindowopenfeature.resizable to true

adam
April 24, 2008 10:52 AM

nice!! Changing dom.disablewindowopenfeature.resizable to true worked!!! Great find! Thanks

This discussion has been closed.

Recently Written

The Dark Side of Input Metrics (Nov 27): Using input metrics in the wrong way can cause unexpected behaviors, stifled creativity, and micromanagement.
Reframe How You Think About Users of your Internal Platform (Nov 13): Changing from "Customers" to "Partners" will give you a better perspective on internal product development.
Measuring Feature success (Oct 17): You're building features to solve problems. If you don't know what success looks like, how did you decide on that feature at all?
How I use OKRs (Oct 13): A description of how I use OKRs to guide a team, written so I can send to future teams.
Build the whole product (Oct 6): Your code is only part of the product
Input metrics lead to outcomes (Sep 1): An easy to understand example of using input metrics to track progress toward an outcome.
Lagging Outcomes (Aug 22): Long-term things often end up off a team's goals because they can't see how to define measurable outcomes for them. Here's how to solve that.
Tyranny of Outcomes (Aug 19): An extreme focus on outcomes can have an undesired effect on product teams.