Firefox 40 features a Windows 10 optimized theme

When Firefox 40 comes out, it will look different on Windows 10 systems as Mozilla plans to ship it with theme optimizations for the upcoming Microsoft operating system.

The last major change to Firefox's theme came in form of the Australis interface which Mozilla shipped with Firefox 29. The change, which was highly controversial at the time, included the removal of several features from Firefox which users of the browser could only restore with the help of add-ons like Classic Theme Restorer.

The interface changes that ship with Firefox 40 won't create nearly as much controversy as they mostly change the look of Firefox's tabstrip and toolbar to match the native Windows 10 theme.

With Firefox 40 on Windows 10, which you can download today using the Firefox Beta channel, we’ve matched the tabstrip and toolbar to the native Windows 10 theme. This includes refinements to our standard icon set, as well as much improved HiDPI (>1dppx) support. All of our first-tier icons now have 2× variants that are shipped with the browser, and the remaining icons buried in the depths of the browser should be fixed soon as well.

Observant Firefox users may notice other changes. The URL Bar and Search Bar ship with increased height and larger font sizes which you will notice when you compare the following two screenshots.

The first shows the unchanged interface of Firefox 39.

The second screenshot shows the new interface of Firefox 40+ when run on Windows 10.

It appears that the actual height of the main toolbar has not changed much, if at all. You will notice on closer inspection that the margins of the toolbar were modified to ensure that so that Mozilla is simply making better use of the toolbar.

This should improve the accessibility for Firefox users with poor vision who previously had to resort to add-ons such as Theme & Font Size Changer to do that.

Mozilla notes that the text is "now on-par with competing browsers" without mentioning any. Google Chrome seems to use a similar font size while Microsoft Edge appears to use a slightly smaller size.

The organization plans to ship the change to other versions of Windows and other platforms as well in the future (post Firefox 42). The tracking bug that you need to follow to stay informed about the progress made in this regard is 1186562.

Closing Words

It is unlikely that the change will cause lots of incompatibilities, issues, or user outcry for the matter. If Mozilla would have increased the height of the toolbar itself by a lot, then that would be something else but since it does not seem to be the case, it is a change that may go by nearly unnoticed.

Now You: What's your take on these changes?