Hi I updated my FF to v29. Now is sadly the add-on bar not more included:shock:. So I installed the Classic Theme Restorer to get it back.
by Martin Brinkmann on March 08, 2017 in Firefox - Last Update: March 29, 2017 - 148 comments
The Classic Theme Restorer add-on for Firefox will stop working when Mozilla releases Firefox 57.0 Stable, and Firefox 59.0 ESR.
Classic Theme Restorer was developed as a direct response to Mozilla refreshing Firefox with the Australis theme release in Firefox 29.
The add-on allows Firefox users to restore many theme features that Mozilla removed and changed with the Australis launch, or introduced with it.
The extension grew quickly, and features an immense set of features and tweaks nowadays that give you control over many features of the browser. Check out 10 reasons for Classic Theme Restorer to find out more about the add-on's functionality.
The death of Classic Theme Restorer for Firefox
Back in November 2016, we suggested that Classic Theme Restorer might be dead once Mozilla makes the full switch to WebExtensions exclusively in Firefox.
We based this on posts by Aris, the developer of the add-on who stated that the extension will be dead by the end of 2017. Reasons given at that time were that Mozilla had not come up with WebExtension APIs that would allow the add-on to be ported, and then continued as a WebExtension.
If you check out the official add-on page of Classic Theme Restorer on Mozilla's AMO site today, you will notice the following paragraph at the top:
This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017 and Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons. It should still work on Firefox 52 ESR until ESR moves to Firefox 59 ESR in 2018 (~Q2).
There is no 'please port it' or 'please add support for it' this time, because the entire add-on eco system changes and the technology behind this kind of add-on gets dropped without replacement.
Aris posted a request on Bugzilla to get Mozilla to introduce APIs that would allow him to port the add-on, but Mozilla marked the request as Wontfix. This means basically, that Mozilla won't create the APIs required to port Classic Theme Restorer, and many of the other add-ons that require this kind of access.
While the new theme API may introduce some features, it is too limited to create a viable WebExtension version of Classic Theme Restorer.
![Classic Classic](http://i.imgur.com/0Cr2ZVi.png)
Classic Theme Restorer, at the time of writing, is one of the highest rated add-ons on AMO. It has a five star rating based on 1176 user reviews, and more than 413,000 users at the time of writing.
413,000 users may not be much when compared to Firefox's total population. Most of these users have -- likely -- used Firefox for years, even before the Australis days.
There is not much Firefox users can do about it if they rely on add-ons that cannot or won't be ported to WebExtensions. Sticking with the last working build may work for a time, but it means that security issues will pile up, and that support for new web technologies won't find its way into the browser either.
Switching to third-party ports may be an option, but it remains to be seen how many of those will survive the year 2017. The developer of Cyberfox stated recently for instance that the browser will reach end of life with the release of Firefox 52.x ESR.
Pale Moon will survive, but that is the only web browser based on Firefox that we know of that will do so.
Now You: If you are affected by the change, what's your plan moving forward?
The death of Classic Theme Restorer for Firefox
Description
The Classic Theme Restorer add-on for Firefox will stop working when Mozilla releases Firefox 57.0 Stable, and Firefox 59.0 ESR.
Author
Ghacks Technology News
Logo
AdvertisementClassic Theme Restorer supports Firefox 45-56, Waterfox and Basilisk browsers.
Users of Debian 9 or later and Ubuntu 16.04 or later:
apt-get install xul-ext-classic-theme-restorer
This add-on restores squared tabs, the application button with application menu (known from Firefox for Windows), the add-on bar, bookmarks/history menu/sidebar buttons and other buttons. It moves star & feed buttons into location bar, adds status bar element to the ui and allows many items to be movable. All features are fully optional. Some buttons have to be moved to toolbars manually using browsers 'customizing' mode.
Main features (on options window)
- Tab appearance: Squared classic tabs
- Tab appearance: Curved tabs (all colored and visible)
- Tabs not on top + [tabsontop='false/true'] attribute
- Tabs height settings
- Tabs min/max-width settings
- Tab close on all tabs, active tab, toolbars start/end
- Custom colors for tab backgrounds, text and text shadow
- Application button on toolbars
- Application button on titlebar [Windows only]
- Own title for application button on titlebar [Windows only]
- Predefined/custom application button colors
- Small navigation toolbar buttons
- Movable back-forward buttons
- Star button in location bar
- Rss-Feed button in location bar
- Movable status-bar panel
- Combine stop & reload buttons
- Hide location bars stop & reload buttons
- Hide private browsing mask
- Findbar on top or bottom
- 'Icons & Text' and 'Text only' modes
- Add [iconsize='large']/[iconsize='small'] attributes to #nav-bar node
- Compact panel menus (bookmarks, history...)
- Green/blue site identity button for verified websites and secure connections
- Replace context menu icons with labels (Back, Forward...)
- Add up to 20 additional toolbars
- Restore tabs empty favicon
- Replace generic favicon (empty and dotted) with sheet favicon
- Favicon in urlbars identity box (location bars left)
- Different padlock icons
- AeroBlue toolbar colors for Windows 8/XP/Classic, Linux, MacOSX
- Hide navigation toolbar
- Inverted (white) toolbar button icons
- Double click on tabs toolbar opens a 'new' tab [Windows only]
- Hide tabs toolbar with one visible tab
- Toolbar settings to alter colors, sizes, borders
- Disable some ui animations
- Switch between old and new search
- ...and more
Features (not on options window)
- Enable/disable 'Add-on Bar' (toolbar context menu)
- Toggle 'Add-on Bar' using 'Ctrl + /' btw. 'Cmd + /'
- Enable/disable 'Additional Toolbar' (toolbar context menu)
- Spaces, Flexible spaces, Separators
- Activity indicator on toolbars
- Bookmarks menu & sidebar buttons
- History menu & sidebar buttons
- Additional movable reload & stop buttons
- Movable urlbar container
- Movable (Firefox main) menu button
- Movable alltabs-button, webrtc-status-button, social-share-button
- ...and more
Squared tabsDefault 'curved tabs' can be optionally replaced with classic 'squared tabs'.Tabs on MacOSX look more like Windows tabs with MacOSX colors on purpose.
Curved alternative tabsAll tabs are curved and use colours known from squared tabs.
Tabs 'not' on topSimulates 'tabs.onTop=false' setting and moves tabs below navigation toolbar. On MacOSX tabs also get a 'reversed appearance'.
Application button / application menu settings
Application button on [Firefox] titlebar [Windows only]The titlebar button is fixed on titlebars left like on Firefox since version 4.0. It is enabled by default on Windows systems.
Application button on toolbarsOn toolbars the button appears like a default toolbar button.
Application button coloursOn titlebar and tabs toolbar the application button can be orange, blue (Aurora), black (Nightly), blue (Palemoon), red, green and gray in normal browsing mode and purple in private browsing mode like on previous Firefox versions.
NoteThe new appmenu is not an exact copy of the old one, but looks as original as possible. The 'splitmenu' will not be restored and the appmenu popup/submenus also miss some non-replicable menuitems.
Small navigation toolbar buttonsNavigation toolbar buttons get alternative margins and paddings to simulate old 'small icon view'.
Hide 'Navigation Toolbar'Hiding navigation toolbar might be interesting after content got moved to other toolbars.
'Add-on Bar'A toolbar at the bottom of the window. All movable buttons and items can be placed on it. Add-on bar can be enabled/disabled using toolbars context menu (right-click on a toolbar) or using 'Ctrl + /' (Windows/Linux) btw. 'Cmd + /' (MacOSX).
'Additional Toolbar'A toolbar between navigation toolbar and bookmarks toolbar. It can be enabled/disabled using toolbars context menu (right-click on a toolbar).
Icons + text / text only modeSimulates old icons + text / text modes where text was displayed below toolbar buttons or button icons got hidden.
Bookmarks menu buttonA default 'menu button' which opens the 'classic' bookmarks menu. Positioned on bookmarks toolbar the button also displays its label.
Bookmarks and history sidebar buttonsButtons which toggle bookmarks and history sidebar.
Back-forward, reload and stop buttonsBrowsers default buttons got merged with urlbar and cannot be moved to different toolbar positions or to different toolbars. CTR adds duplicates of these buttons to the customization palette.
Combined reload-stop buttonPlace reload button AFTER stop button and enable the corresponding option on CTRs preference window. Hovering the option on preference window to get extra information.Toolbar: [something]...[stop-button][reload-button]...[something]
Spaces, flexible spaces and separatorsThese toolbar items appear in customizing mode and can be moved to toolbars like on previous Firefox versions.
Windows - Linux - MacOSXThis add-on was tested on Windows 7 (AeroBasic, AeroGlass, Classic) & 8(.1) & XP (Classic, Luna-Blue/Silver/Olive, Zune, Royale), Linux Mint KDE, Ubuntu and MacOSX 10.8/10.9. On other Systems or non OS-default themes tab colors may look wrong. Bookmarks, history, stop, reload, back and forward toolbar buttons use default OS icons (Firefox Windows icons on Windows systems, Firefox Mac icons on MacOSX and Firefox Linux icons on Linux systems).
Major problems with (discontinued?) Foxtab and Shareaholic add-onsIt is strongly recommended to remove Foxtab and Shareaholic before installing Firefox 29 or newer, because both break Firefox ui in Fx29+. Using Foxtab and/or Shareaholic with CTR breaks the ui even more.If one of these add-ons already has corrupted the ui, the add-ons manager has to be accessed via menubar (right-click on a toolbar -> select menubar, Tools -> add-ons) and CTR, Shareaholic and Foxtab have to be uninstalled.After Firefox has been restarted, 'restore defaults' in customizing mode has to be hit once. CTR can be reinstalled afterwards and will work properly.
Info, known 'issues', 'glitches'
- Application menus 'cut', 'copy' and 'paste' buttons do not always work like they should.
- Switching between AeroGlass and AeroBasic on Windows 7/Vista can change application buttons position, if the menubar is disabled. Maximizing/restoring browsers main window or restarting Firefox resolves the problem. This glitch is caused by Microsoft Windows and titlebars behavior and not by this add-on.
- Entering and leaving customizing mode 'disables' right-click menu items for bookmarks inside bookmarks menu button. A restart resolves this issue.
- Tab colors on MacOSX fit to current ui instead of using Firefox 28 colors. This is intended and not a bug.
- Do not install this add-on on pre-Australis Firefox (4-28). It is not intended to be used with old browser versions.
- This add-on was made for browsers default theme and will not work with all full/complete themes properly. However most Personas/LW-Themes work fine.
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It is recommended to switch to a clean new profile to avoid UI issues after upgrading from Firefox 28 (and older) to Firefox 29 (and newer). Profile Switcher can help too.
Note: Triggering 'Restore Defaults' in customizing mode to reset toolbar configuration is enough in most cases and much easier to perform.
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AVAST AV software,'Browser Cleanup' and disappearing Firefox add-ons
Current Avast versions offer a bugged version of 'Browser Cleanup', which accidentally removes Firefox add-ons without any proper reason!Although Avast is currently working on fixing this issues, it is highly recommended to remove or disable 'Browser Cleanup' until problems are fixed.
Look at gHacks, Mozillazine, Bugzilla or Avast forums for more info.
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