Unwelcome menu-bar additions

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I just noticed today that something has made some unwelcome additions to my FF menubar (as outlined by the red box in the attached screenshot).

This is FF 38.01 on a relatively new machine and installation under Win 8.1 only a few weeks old.

As some may be able to tell, I am using an addon called PlainOldFavorites, which imports my bookmarks (‘favorites’) from IE. Since the added commands appear to be related to Favorites, I explored this addon’s options but there was nothing about adding commands to the menubar.

I tried to use customize to remove the commands but they are off limits through toolbar customization.

This all happened in the last day or two and it is bugging me that I can’t figure out what is responsible.

Given that I have 52 addon’s installed, I don’t really want to have to go through them one by one to see if I can identify a culprit.

Has anyone seen anything similar?

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Are they still there if you disable PlainOldFavorites and restart Firefox?

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.2359 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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Are they still there if you disable PlainOldFavorites and restart Firefox?

I did not try that obvious test because POF works fine in PaleMoon. But after you pointed it out, I tried disabling it and restarting in FF. Which, of course, removed the entries! [lol] And they came back when I re-enabled the addon.

So the question is WHY is this happening? There aren’t any apparent POF options that would do this, so I sent a query to the guy who is maintaining the addon and need to wait to see if he will reply.

Thanks.

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You might take a look in the Extensions folder on your hard drive (a subfolder in your Firefox profile folder) and check the dates on the entries.

The one that is closest to when you first noticed the issue would be the one to disable first in Firefox.

The easier way would be to click on the gear icon and select View Recent Updates in the Add-ons Manager.

The issue has already been narrowed down to one add-on.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.2359 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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Also, Firefox uses Australis whereas Pale Moon doesn’t, Australis is less amenable to sensible customisations.

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And I also have a different combination of addon’s in PM than in FF, in case something is impacting it. I’ll see if the owner replies to my email.

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And I also have a different combination of addon’s in PM than in FF, in case something is impacting it. I’ll see if the owner replies to my email.

I have yet to receive a return response from the extension owner. Which is disappointing. And which guarantees that he will never receive a donation from me as he asks for on the extension.

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Why do you need an add-on to import Favorites from Internet Destroyer? Firefox will do it for you.

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Why do you need an add-on to import Favorites from Internet Destroyer? Firefox will do it for you.

This add-on doesn’t actually import them, just enables their use within Firefox:

Some users still wish to keep some or all their bookmarks in the Windows Favorites folder. There can be several reasons for this. First, some new Firefox users might find the transition to Firefox smoother if they can still use their familiar Favorites folder. Also, a link to the Favorites folder can be found in several places throughout Windows, which makes it a convenient option for storing links. PlainOldFavorites allows using the Favorites folder directly from Firefox without needing to import or synchronize the bookmarks first.
PlainOldFavorites

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.2359 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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Why do you need an add-on to import Favorites from Internet Destroyer? Firefox will do it for you.

I prefer the IE Favorites to the FF bookmarks. And I have about 5000 of them. So I don’t want to import them all into FF. With this extension, I can still maintain the structure through IE, PaleMoon or Firefox.

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OIC. Just wondered. Since I have been using Firefox since about version 3.x I didn’t know.

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I am still scratching my head as to why these extra commands appear in FF but NOT in PaleMoon.

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Pale Moon is not Firefox: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CT9YLUjMyb5Xf8HHcQ66lVh-SALb7cWTmUKgeJOvk00/pubhtml

The differences since that was last updated have almost certainly increased.

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Mozilla’s addon page for the Plain Old Favorites says the addon is “not available” for Firefox v38. As the addon does not appear to have been updated for a while, it may die on you soon — as of FF v40, only signed addons will be supported.

Meanwhile… if the addon is working for you, maybe the Menu Wizard addon (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/s3menu-wizard/?src=ss) will let you remove those entries from the menu.

To be honest, I don’t think it will, but it’s worth a try: if the POF addon is adding to a menu, it will show up in the Menu Wizard; if the POF addon is adding a new menu, it might show up in the Menu Wizard. If not, then you will have to get into modifying the CSS for FF if the addon author does not update and sign his addon. (I can’t help you with the CSS modifications.)

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There is a post in the comments of POF that points a release that worked on the owner’s website.

I’ll give Menu Wizard a try.

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There is a post in the comments of POF that points a release that worked on the owner’s website.

I’ll give Menu Wizard a try.

Yea! Menu Wizard works!!

When I restart, I see the commands reappear but then MW (apparently) removes them for the session).

I am still going to try and chase the owner down though.

Thanks!

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