How to Disable Tab Menu in the Opera Browser

In the beginning of this year, we posted about the new Tab Menu feature in the Opera browser (it was relatively new feature for Opera back then) and how you can toggle it easily through the Opera browser’s settings. But it appears that Opera has removed this option from the usual settings and you are now no longer be able to disable the Tab Menu even if you do not like it. But after some inspection into the matter, I found out that Opera has actually moved this feature into the Advanced features list in the latest version (earlier it was in the Experimental features section). Opera enables the Tab Menu by default , so you may want to disable it if you are not so excited about accessing all the open tabs via a special tabs menu.

Anyhow, you can follow these two steps to disable the Tab Menu feature in Opera if you do not find it useful or you do not like it or for some other personal reason of your own (tested to work in Opera 30.0.1835.125) :

  1. Open the Opera web browser, type opera://flags in the address bar and press the Enter key. This will open the experimental features section. Type tab menu in the search box and when the Tab menu with recent tabs feature appears, change its state to Disabled. You will have to relaunch the browser by clicking on the Relaunch button for the settings to take effect.Disable Tab Menu in Opera
  2. After Opera has restarted, type opera://settings in the address bar and press the Enter key. This will open the Opera settings page. You can also use the hotkey Alt+P to open Opera settings.
  3. Scroll down to the very bottom of the settings page and check the checkbox Show advanced settings. This will make Opera display even more settings.Opera Toggle Tab Menu
  4. In the Search box, type tab menu to narrow down the setting we are looking for.
  5. Now you will be able to see the setting we are interested in. Uncheck the checkbox labeled Enable tab menu in order to disable tab menu feature.Opera Toggle Tab Menu
  6. The setting takes effect immediately. The Tab Menu disappears instantly and there is no need of restarting the browser.

Synopsis: Opera has moved the Tab Menu feature to the advanced features section. In order to toggle the Tab Menu, now you can make the changes from under the Opera advanced features section.

19 comments

  1. 5 years later, v. 69.0.3686.36, the flag is called opera://flags/#search-in-open-tabs

  2. Tab menu preview most annoying feature. Remove this feature or add an option to disable it

  3. Tab Menu Preview most annoying feature. Remove it or add an option to disable it

  4. By the way, you can also undo this UX evil by just overwriting your shortcuts.

    Seems like Opera reserved the term ‘cycle tabs’ for the Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab keys. This refers to the silly preview screen for a tab you already know is there and for which you need no preview whatsoever. Anyway, they’ve broken this fairly standard window behaviour only half way (to their credit, well done) because Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down still do the same thing.

    So you can hit Alt+P to go to settings, search for Shortcuts, click on Configure shortcuts, then search for switch. Then hover over Switch left through tabs, then click on Type shortcut. You can then type Ctrl+Tab (or Ctrl+Shift+Tab, whichever you prefer).

    You’ll get some nag message that you’re going to fix the way Opera broke Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab behaviour. This is what you want to do.

    Thank goodness there is a way to fix this mess. Please keep it this way, Opera. Don’t go the Chrome or Firefox route whereby you make decisions on users’s behalf and then force them to stick with the changes.

      1. In Opera, yes. I gave up on Opera and I’m back on Chrome purely because in Chrome I can do away with this annoying gremlin.

        1. Yepp…, but all “Chromium” browsers – Chrome, Yandex, maybe Vivaldi…Citrio… and not so Chromium ones – Mozilla …. – IMHO they all are way more vulnerable to ads/pup’s than Opera, don’t you agree ?

          I already got infected Chrome and Yandex by installing not well considered soft, don’t even bother to clean them up except with AdwCleaner but with no complete success. No Mozilla FF on this machine, so can’t say whether it is the same case as them, but the point is that Opera went out clean of the mess.

          “Unchecky” not always helps 😉 And the software i downloaded expressly stated that it is bundled with bloatware or whatever, cause I am downloading it’s free version… 😉

          1. They are, yes. I also got infected in Chrome but I did something stupid.

            There are only 2 things I miss from Opera: The built-in VPN and the square tabs at the top. I tend to accidentally hit mute on a tab which I do not want muted more often than infecting myself with browser hijackers. I’d rather recover from that once in a blue moon than having to put up with serious user interface problems all the time.

  5. Dear Opera browser gurus
    You should never, ever, ever, ever, never, ever, ever EVER EVER fiddle with default, standard short-cut behaviour, such as for example alt+tab or ahem ctrl+tab. Ever. Not even if it will save the lives of AIDS orphans.

    1. Update Opera to latest version and then try again the updated instructions. In the older version experimental features was working. Now in new version, this option is back in the settings section.

      1. Hmm.. Maybe it’s because I’m on beta, that doesn’t exist on 31.0.1889.74. 🙁

        1. Hey bud, I found out how to get the option to show up. I’m on Opera 31.0.1889.99(latest as of August 6th) and all you have to do is go into the “opera://flags/” menu(just copy/past that into your URL bar) and search for “Tab menu with recent tabs” and then Disable it. Relaunch Opera and then go into the settings and the “Enable tab menu” option should be there.

          Cheers!

          1. Hmm.. I had to manually download, and now I have .98, and it still says the latest version. Did go to opera flags. Disabled tab menu. Relaunched opera. Tab menu is disabled in settings, but still when I control tab, that menu still pops up. How did you get 99.

          2. Not sure, I checked for updates and it said that I could relaunch Opera and that was the new version number. When I do CTRL+Tab the menu does pop up, but the button is gone.

          3. Opera developers are crazy. In the version 31.0.1889.99 the “Enable Tab Menu” setting appears in the regular settings page (open it with Alt+P and search for tab menu) after you disable “tab menu with recent tabs” in opera://flags. These guys are totally messing things up.

          4. I agree, kinda weird how they’re doing things. I only found it because my cousin didn’t like the Tab Menu being so close to Minimize and wanted it gone, then found this page and then started looking in the Flags menu and messed around in there because I didn’t see it in my Settings menu.

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