Firefox "captures" images of the pages you visit and displays "thumbnails" of the most frequently/recently visited ones on the newtab page. I guess the images get resized as needed for your window size.

»support.mozilla.org/en-U ··· op-sites

actions · 2013-Feb-2 7:50 pm ·

Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

Cartel

Premium Member

2013-Feb-2 9:36 pm

If you are concerned about your privacy, you can turn this feature off completely:

In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter.
The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
Type browser.newtab.url in the search box.
Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and change the url from about:newtab to about:blank. Alternately, you can change it to about:home for the Firefox Google home page, or type in your preferred home page, for example google.com.
Click OK and close the about:config tab.

Got it thanks

actions · 2013-Feb-2 9:36 pm ·

NoHereNoMo
join:2012-12-06

1 recommendation

NoHereNoMo

Member

2013-Feb-3 8:29 am

I think to stop Firefox from collecting the screenshots you need to create the following preference (in about:config):
browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled
and set it to 'true'.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 8:29 am ·

Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

4 edits

Cartel

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 2:55 pm

OMG this thumbnail folder is a GOLDMINE of screenshots of searches, what I copy pasted......ya not cool.

that's brutal!

From the looks of it, they are not securely deleted when they do is unknown too.
Also Ccleaner does not clean then by default either.

ok I did browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled;true and it is still bulding the screenshots thumbnails after restart.

browser.newtab.url;about:blank
browser.newtabpage.enabled;false
browser.newtabpage.storageVersion;1
browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled;true
browser.pagethumbnails.storage_version;2

actions · 2013-Feb-3 2:55 pm ·

NoHereNoMo
join:2012-12-06

NoHereNoMo

Member

2013-Feb-3 4:11 pm

I believe the thumbnails are also used for panorama, but I don't know if there's some other preference for that (yet). Also, https: pages aren't supposed to be captured in any case.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 4:11 pm ·

Robotics
See You On The Dark Side
Premium Member
join:2003-10-23
Louisa, VA

Robotics to Cartel

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 4:16 pm

to Cartel

This is happening to me to. I was going to post that ccleaner doesn't even get rid of it, let alone FF's own delete all history/etc. but you beet me to it.

I don't like this one bit. And don't recall FF doing this in the past. Unless it was doing it in an unknown folder.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 4:16 pm ·

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY

·Greenlight Netwo..

·Frontier FiberOp..

Racerbob to NoHereNoMo

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:15 pm

to NoHereNoMo

said by NoHereNoMo:

I think to stop Firefox from collecting the screenshots you need to create the following preference (in about:config):
browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled
and set it to 'true'.

Exactly. Then the Thumbnail directory is not even created after you go in and delete it and then restart Firefox.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:15 pm ·

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW to NoHereNoMo

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:32 pm

to NoHereNoMo

said by NoHereNoMo:

I think to stop Firefox from collecting the screenshots you need to create the following preference (in about:config): browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled and set it to 'true'.

Thanks for that. I'd already set browser.newtab.url to about:blank a while back but the thumbnails were still being created. Now they're not.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:32 pm ·

Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

Cartel to Racerbob

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:32 pm

to Racerbob

It's still doing here and does not delete when ff closed

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:32 pm ·

Cartel

Cartel to Racerbob

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:37 pm

to Racerbob

said by Racerbob:

said by NoHereNoMo:

I think to stop Firefox from collecting the screenshots you need to create the following preference (in about:config):
browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled
and set it to 'true'.

Exactly. Then the Thumbnail directory is not even created after you go in and delete it and then restart Firefox.

It is here, I deleted the folder it was recreated Today, February 03, 2013, 2:36:11 PM

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:37 pm ·

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY

2 edits

Racerbob

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:38 pm

OK...you are right...the folder was recreated for me, but there is nothing in it.

EDIT: I take that back. Monitoring it now and I do not see the directory being created.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:38 pm ·

Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

2 edits

Cartel

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:46 pm

fixed

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:46 pm ·

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY

Racerbob

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 5:55 pm

Create this in about:config

browser.pagethumbnails.capturing_disabled
and set it to 'true'.

I have no further answers for you.

actions · 2013-Feb-3 5:55 pm ·

Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

1 edit

Cartel

Premium Member

2013-Feb-3 6:11 pm

see below

actions · 2013-Feb-3 6:11 pm ·

Forums → Software and Operating Systems → Mozilla Software	« [FireFox] Firefox to block Silverlight and Java -- but not Flash • [FireFox] Rearrange objects in status bar? »
This is a sub-selection from [FireFox] Firefox thumbnails?