Hasta La Ideas

Browser tabs and windows have a nasty habit of multiplying. It’s easy to find yourself with a half-dozen browser windows open, each one having several tabs active. As you might expect, this has a serious effect on general system performance and stability.

To mitigate this particular problem, I use a Firefox add-on called Window and Tab Limiter. It allows you to set a limit on the number of windows and tabs Firefox will keep open. Depending on the mode that is selected in the add-on’s preference window, one of the following three things will happen when the user exceeds their own specified maximum number of open widows and tabs:

• Suggestion Mode: The user is presented with a list of active windows and tabs. They can then either select one or more windows or tabs to close, or simply ignore the warning and continue working.
• Force Mode: The user is presented with a list of active windows and tabs. They must close at least one window from the list to remain under the limit so they can continue working.
• Silent Mode: Windows are closed automatically without any user interaction.

Although the Silent Mode option may sound dangerously automatic, I find it works quite well, provided the window and tab limit is not set too low. (I keep mine set at 7.)

If you use Chrome, you might want to try No More Tabs. It has fewer options, but it provides the same basic functionality.

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