Everything you need to know about Firefox 45

Firefox 45 is out for Desktop PCs and for Android. This release will have long term support (ESR), which means it will get updates for the duration of an entire year. Firefox 46 will now become the beta branch and Firefox Developer Edition will get version number 47.
firefox 45The key changes in Firefox 45 are as follows:

Removed Panorama/Tab Groups
According to Mozilla's telemetry data, only 0.01% of users actually used this feature. For those who are still interested in this feature, there is an addon which provides the same look and feel.

Disabled Hello and API Service Workers in ESR builds
In ESR builds like Firefox 45, the Firefox Hello messaging feature and its API Service Workers are disabled out of the box. You might also be interested in reading how to disable and uninstall Firefox Hello add-on.

Tab Sharing in Firefox Hello
In Firefox 45's Hello feature, active tab sharing is implemented. When you are using Hello, you can share your tab with the person with whom you are communicating.

Special appearance for synced tabs
Tabs synced with other devices will now be visible in the suggestions drop down of the address bar. In addition, there is a special new button to show synced tabs through the Firefox Accounts service.

.onion DNS blocking
There is a new preference in about:config which allows you to block requests to TOR's .onion domains at the DNS level. It is named network.dns.blockDotOnion.

Firefox for Android
Firefox 45 for Android features some interesting new options.

  • The ability to load images only when you are on Wi-Fi. If you are on a limited data plan, this can be very useful.
  • The device administrator can disable access to microphone and camera for other Android device users.
  • New settings appearance.

Firefox 45 also includes a huge number of security fixes. The full list is available HERE.

That's it. According to the new release cycle, Firefox 46 is expected to be released on April 19 and Firefox 47 on June 7. Mozilla also has postponed add-ons signature requirement till Firefox 46.

Firefox Download Links

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

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