How To Securely Disable About:Config In Firefox

The Firefox Configuration Editor, commonly known as about:config, contains an array of settings that allows you to customize and tweak the browser according to your preference and usability. The majority of the content however, Is not straightforward and any Incorrect edits, can cause significant Instability and/or loss of functionality. As such, In this tutorial, I will show you how to securely disable access to the about:config page In Firefox.


Before I make a start, here's what I'm referring to. When you type about:config In the address bar In Firefox, a warning message will be displayed as per the Image below. And rightly so, because great care must be taken when deciding to make changes. To enter the Configuration Editor, hit I accept the risk!

You will then see a heap of (advanced) settings, that predominantly do not make much sense to the average user.

Unless you research and know exactly what to apply, you shouldn't make any changes. On the other hand, If you're well-Informed, then go ahead and customize It to your heart's content. However, If you have multiple users sharing your computer, there's nothing stopping them from doing as they please. Well, not until now!

I will demonstrate how to securely disable access, by using a neat little tweak via the Windows Registry Editor. It does Involve quite a few steps, but stay with me and you'll find that the process Is rather simple. So without further delay, let's rip Into this tutorial.

Step One:

To access the Registry Editor, open the Run menu, enter regedit and hit OK as shown below.

Step Two:

The Registry Editor will now open, so navigate to the following directory.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies

Then right-click on Policies, and select New > Key.

Step Three:

Now name the new key (that you've just created above), as Mozilla.

Step Four:

Right-click the Mozilla key (that you've created above), and select New > Key.

Step Five:

Name the new key (that was created above) as Firefox. The folder structure should look similar to mine, as per the Image below.

Step Six:

On the right pane, right-click on a blank area and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step Seven:

Give the new Value (that you've created above) a name of BlockAboutConfig.

Step Eight:

Finally, double-click BlockAboutConfig and In the Value data field, give It a value of 1. Then hit OK to finalize the process.

Last Step:

If your Firefox browser Is actively running, close It and open It again. In my case, I've typed about:config In the address bar and as you can see, It's been blocked, hence cannot be accessed by any means.

Final Thoughts:

Although this may seem like a somewhat lengthy process, you'd be surprised that It takes less than 5 minutes to apply from start to finish. If you find that the change did not take effect, simply reboot your computer. To reverse the change and have the Configuration Editor functioning as per It's original state, refer to Step Eight above and enter 1 In the Value data field. Don't forget to hit OK thereafter.