Closed Bug 1553745 Opened 6 years ago Closed 6 years ago

Firefox67 ignores "main-window.ico"

Categories

(Core :: XUL, defect, P3)

Product:
Core
Component:
XUL
Version:
67 Branch
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
VERIFIED FIXED
Milestone:
mozilla69
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
firefox69 --- verified

People

(Reporter: savino.lovergine, Assigned: florian)

References

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

Bug 1553745 - Introduce a toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon preference to allow users to enable per-window icon, r=mconley.
47 bytes, text/x-phabricator-request
Details | Review

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:67.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/67.0

Steps to reproduce:

  • Put an icon named "main-window.ico" in the "browser\chrome\icons\default" directory.
  • With all versions before Firefox67, it worked fine.
  • It doesn't work anymore.

Actual results:

Firefox67 ignores the "main-window.ico" that should override the standard Firefox icon.

Expected results:

The "main-window.ico" should be the preferred icon of Firefox.
Some people really need/want to use a custom icon for Firefox.
Why did this feature disappear from Firefox?

This is an intentional change introduced in bug 1531836 to improve startup performance. The window icons article has already been updated to note this. :florian please confirm there's no intention to support this feature.

Blocks: 1531836
Component: Untriaged → XUL
Flags: needinfo?(florian)
Product: Firefox → Core

(In reply to Rastignac from comment #0)

Some people really need/want to use a custom icon for Firefox.

If you provide more details about what you are actually trying to do, we might find another way for you to get what you need.

Why did this feature disappear from Firefox?

It was slowing down startup for everybody, for something used by very few people.

(In reply to Gingerbread Man from comment #1)

:florian please confirm there's no intention to support this feature.

I confirm.

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(florian)
Resolution: --- → INVALID

This had been a feature of the browser for more than ten years and I think the key problem here is that, as indicated in the comments in Bug 1531836, it was mistaken as being superfluous.

(In reply to Florian Quèze [:florian] from comment #2)

If you provide more details about what you are actually trying to do, we might find another way for you to get what you need.

Its use is to give any given Firefox install a distinct icon. One may do this for cosmetic reasons alone, but a more practical use is when running multiple instances of Firefox when one's Windows taskbar buttons are not set to "combine". Normally this will result in a row of Firefox taskbar buttons that all look the same (especially problematic when new windows are used with the various instances). The removed icon feature was the longstanding workaround for that problem.

It was slowing down startup for everybody, for something used by very few people.

The decision to remove it on the basis of optimisation seemed correct insofar as it was considered superfluous - the problem is that it's not. Its removal is a significant practical issue for those that used it, while surely something that was a non-issue for performance in the mid-late 2000s is causing problems for no-one in 2019.

(In reply to Shane from comment #3)

a more practical use is when running multiple instances of Firefox

So what's the use case for this? If it's to have separate accounts on the same websites, the containers feature might be what you are looking for.

Otherwise, if you run Nightly and Firefox release, they'll have different icons.

List of use cases I've seen so far:

  • Your Company refuses that you use Firefox or Chrome at work. Only Internet Explorer is allowed. So, you install Firefox and change its icon to the Blue E. Nobody will catch you.

  • Your boss is always looking at the employees' taskbar. No Net apps allowed during workday, only serious office apps. If he sees a burning vixen, you are fired. Change Firefox's icon to a calculator icon, and your taskbar is safe.

  • Your Company wants its own logo on the browser.

  • Grandparents are calling every week because their Windows PC is full of viruses and malwares and adwares. Install Linux and Firefox. Change Firefox's icon to the Blue E, so the grandparents can "click the E-nternet".

  • You have Firefox for work apps (company portal, etc), and Portable Firefox for personal apps (mail, etc). Change at least one icon to find your way between the two foxes.

  • You create your own Linux distribution, and you want your own icons everywhere.

  • Etc.

Thanks.

All of the examples at comment 5 are covered by changing the icons for start menu shortcuts, desktop shortcuts, and the taskbar. The only thing left over is the icon in OS application switchers like Alt+Tab.

(In reply to Florian Quèze [:florian] from comment #4)

So what's the use case for this? If it's to have separate accounts on the same websites, the containers feature might be what you are looking for.

Multi-account containers is a neat feature, but much less powerful than multiple installs/instances which can have their own sets of extensions and browser settings, so not everyone can switch. Much like each container in multi-account containers is given its own color-coded tabs, main-window.ico was used to give each install/instance its own icon.

Can also concur with the purposes Rastignac described, although my use differs from all of those.

It's true these are niche uses, but of considerable value to those who would go to the trouble of setting it up. I feel with this change we have been overlooked and presented with a significant usability issue, without it being clear there's any significant gain for everyone else.

(In reply to Gingerbread Man from comment #6)

All of the examples at comment 5 are covered by changing the icons for start menu shortcuts, desktop shortcuts, and the taskbar.

That's probably the very first thing anyone who's sought to change the icon has tried - the problem is it doesn't necessarily work in practice thanks to Windows UI quirks (e.g. the custom icon may display while Firefox is not running but revert as soon as it's run, or an additional icon may be spawned and you end up with two for the same window). main-window.ico has long been the workaround that makes it work properly.

I have been using main-window.ico for many years to distinguish multiple instances of Firefox. This feature removal makes my work really confusing. Is there any workaround how to customize the icon?

(In reply to Shane from comment #7)

without it being clear there's any significant gain for everyone else.

This kind of affirmation is a great way to make me want to just ignore the request here. And comment 3 already said pretty much the same thing.

(In reply to Vojtech from comment #9)

Is there any workaround how to customize the icon?

Nothing straightforward I'm afraid. The feature is still there in gecko for Thunderbird, just not enabled for Firefox. I think we could introduce a pref to enable it for the few people who want it without regressing perf; but I'm not sure there's enough users to justify it.

Hey Mike,

I attached a straightforward patch of what introducing a pref for this without regressing perf could look like, but I'm not sure we really want to support this. So feel free to r-/wontfix.

Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Ever confirmed: true
Flags: needinfo?(mconley)
Resolution: INVALID → ---

I think we could introduce a pref to enable it for the few people who want it without regressing perf; but I'm not sure there's enough users to justify it.

That would be great. I'm sure there are a lot of developers and other advanced users who use multiple instances. Probably just part of them was aware of the possibility of changing the icon, but if you add it to the prefs it could be appreciated as a practical feature.

(In reply to Vojtech from comment #13)

I think we could introduce a pref to enable it for the few people who want it without regressing perf; but I'm not sure there's enough users to justify it.

That would be great. I'm sure there are a lot of developers and other advanced users who use multiple instances. Probably just part of them was aware of the possibility of changing the icon, but if you add it to the prefs it could be appreciated as a practical feature.

You could have caught this way earlier and it would help the project a lot if we had more users running nightly.

(In reply to Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul] from comment #14)

You could have caught this way earlier and it would help the project a lot if we had more users running nightly.

That's a good point. I switched one of my instances to nightly.

(In reply to Florian Quèze [:florian] from comment #10)

This kind of affirmation is a great way to make me want to just ignore the request here. And comment 3 already said pretty much the same thing.

You're right and I apologize. After reflecting on my comments I understand now that I shouldn't have made those sorts of bold statements on the performance aspect and should have limited my input to the part I was actually familiar with (the use case).

Another use case:

  • Using a portable instance of FireFox that is configured to run through a proxy, while the default instance runs normally. Having an icon to identify this portable instance is quite useful.
Priority: -- → P3
Flags: needinfo?(mconley)
Pushed by fqueze@mozilla.com: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/fa7dcd1f369c Introduce a toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon preference to allow users to enable per-window icon, r=mconley.

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/fa7dcd1f369c

Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 years ago → 6 years ago
status-firefox69: --- → fixed
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → mozilla69
Assignee: nobody → florian

It would be useful if one of the people who requested this could verify that creating the toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon preference in about:config as a boolean set to true restores the previous behavior in today's nightly.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:69.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/69.0
20190529065901

Nightly starts with the default icon, which then switches to the custom icon. Same behavior in Firefox 66.0.5.

It would be useful if one of the people who requested this could verify that creating the toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon preference in about:config as a boolean set to true restores the previous behavior in today's nightly.

I can confirm it works as described in the latest nightly. Thank you for restoring the feature!

Thanks for confirming!

Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED

Hi there! Has this toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon preference been incorporated in the standard version of Firefox?

(In reply to archimedes21 from comment #25)

Hi there! Has this toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon preference been incorporated in the standard version of Firefox?

Yes, it's part of Firefox 69.

I can confirm it is still working in my version of Firefox 70. Thank you so much :florian for implementing this!

Hi all. We've been using a separate Firefox icon for years to differentiate different instances of Firefox that are always open. The custom icon instance is running our in-house app and we browse the web with the regular icon. I just upgraded Firefox from 56 to 77 (I was running a very important legacy add-on that was just updated) and I saw the main-window.ico stopped working.

I was so happy to find this thread and very thankful to the Firefox developers for adding a preference for it. Unfortunately, the preference toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon does not exist in my brand spanking new install of Firefox 77.0.1. (The preference toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets does exist.) Am I missing something or did it disappear again?

Thanks so much.

(In reply to Yosi Greenfield from comment #29)

Unfortunately, the preference toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.windowIcon does not exist in my brand spanking new install of Firefox 77.0.1.

As explained at comment 20, it must be created manually as a new boolean.

Thanks for you reply. I forgot to mention I had already done that and it didn't help, but after your reply, I realized I did it in the main (wrong) profile. When I added it to the custom profile, it worked for that profile. Thank you again very much.

With Firefox 89 and Windows 10 Pro 21H1 I see glitch then I use PPM on icon when program is Open:

  • Windows 10 enforces on task bar logo known for Firefox 70+
  • After pin icon to task bar this was pinned with default for Firefox 70+ but not mine "main-window.ico"

This is normal or bugged for Windows 10 only (may no possible reproduce with Windows 7)?

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