Mozilla released a new version of the organization's Firefox web browser to the release channel on August 8, 2018.

Firefox 61.0.2 is a bug fix release for the most part but it introduces a new feature on Windows as well.

Firefox users who run the a release channel version of the web browser can use the browser's automatic update functionality to download and install the new version.

Just select Menu > Help > About Firefox to run a manual check for updates. Firefox should pick up the new version automatically and install it.

Firefox 61.0.2 is also available on the official Mozilla website for download if that is preferred.

Tip: Offline installers for Firefox are also available.

Firefox 61.0.2

Firefox includes a new feature on Windows that enables the automatic restoration of the Firefox session on Windows restarts. Mozilla has not enabled the functionality for all Firefox users on Windows but plans to roll it out gradually over the course of several weeks.

The feature is controlled by the preference toolkit.winRegisterApplicationRestart which you can modify manually to turn the new feature on or off as you see fit. While not mentioned explicitly by Mozilla, I think it is only available for Windows 10 and not previous versions of Windows.

  1. Load about:config?filter=toolkit.winRegisterApplication Restart in the Firefox address bar to get started.
  2. If you get a warning prompt confirm that you will be careful.
  3. Double-click on the preference.

A value of true means that the feature is enabled, a value of false that it is turned off. If set to true, Windows will load the Firefox session automatically if you shut down or restart Windows without closing Firefox prior to that.

Set it to false to disable the feature so that Windows won't start Firefox automatically on start if you did not terminate the program at the end of the last session.

Firefox 61.0.2 includes three additional changes:

  • Fixed a crash for users who have select accessibility tools enabled in the browser.
  • Certain extensions led to broken Developer Toolbar panels.
  • Retained Display List feature enabled to improve website rendering.

You can check out the full release notes here. You may also want to check out our Firefox 61.0.1 and Firefox 61.0 release overviews if you have not already.