How to Stop Accidentally Closing Your Browser All the Time

If you’re anything like me, you love using keyboard shortcuts to zip around your computer without moving your mouse—some say it’s laziness, I say it’s efficiency. Hitting Control-W or Cmd-W in Chrome or Firefox, for example, lets me easily close a tab once I’m done reading ’19 Reasons ‘Rose’ From Titanic Is a Feminist Hero.’

But if you are anything like me, you also have a nasty habit of hitting the wrong keys about 37% of the time. And guess what’s right next to “W?” That’s “Q,” which, when pressed along with that Control/Cmd key, totally closes your entire browser. Annoying!

Well, there’s something you can do about it.

If you’re using Chrome on a Mac, click “Chrome” on your top toolbar, then check “Warn Before Quitting.” Now, you’ll need to either hold down the Q button or tap it twice to fully close Chrome—no more accidental Cmd-Qs when you meant to Cmd-W. Chrome for Windows lacks this nifty feature, but if you restart Chrome and hit Control + Shift + T, it’ll reopen all the tabs you had open when you accidentally closed Chrome.

For Firefox users on Windows or Mac, the trick takes a little more work. First, open Firefox’s preferences panel and head over to the “Tabs” section. Check “Warn me when closing multiple tabs.” Then, open a new Firefox tab and in the address bar, type about:config. Filter those results by “warnon,” and set all the options that appear to “true.” Then filter for “quit,” and set the “showQuitWarning” to “true.” Huzzah! Now any time you’ve got more than one Firefox tab open, it’ll warn you before quitting.

Happy browsing, Chrome and Firefox users.

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