In the recent major update of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, they have added some interesting new features. One of these features is the ability to copy links without the tracking code portion in the Firefox browser of the original link. This feature helps with avoiding unnecessary tracking when you click on the links.
Similarly, there is a new feature introduced in the version 120 of the Firefox browser using which we can completely disable printing of any kind. This feature is useful on shared computers or on the computers available publicly such as in the public library.
In order to disable printing in Firefox browser completely, we have to enable an enterprise policy. This is done in several ways, but on Windows we can simply add a registry value. Here is how:
- Press the hotkey Win+R to open the Run dialog. You can also click on Start and select Run from there. In the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter. This will open the Windows Registry editor.
- In the Registry Editor, navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox. If this key does not exist then you have to create these keys.
- On the right-side, right-click and choose to create a new DWORD 32-bit value. Name this new value PrintingEnabled and change its value to 0 (zero). A value of 0 disables the printing altogether using Firefox.
- Close the Registry Editor and relaunch Firefox browser. You will notice that you cannot print using any of the known methods from Firefox. The Print menu is disabled and the Ctrl+P hotkey does not work.
If after following these steps, you can still print from Firefox then you have to check whether the enterprise policy is correctly enabled. For this you can enter about:policies in the Firefox address bar and see which of the policies have been enabled. The policy PrintingEnabled should be set to false.
You should also upgrade Firefox to version 120 and restart Firefox for the policies to take effect. If even after this the policy is not working, then you should check for mistakes made during the registry key process.