It’s that time of the month again: a new version of Mozilla Firefox web browser is available — but what’s new?
Well, a fair bit.
Firefox 145 includes, amongst other changes, new comment/note taking tools in the built-in PDF editor, rounder tabs, buttons and input fields, and better browser fingerprinting protection.
As a refresher, last month’s Firefox 144 added Google Lens image search options, made the browser’s profile manager available to more users, and expanded on-device translations to convert to/from more languages (including Icelandic – Þá var tími!).
For a closer look at the latest crop of changes, read on.
Firefox 145 Highlights
Firefox 145 looks a little different to 144. Horizontal tabs have rounder corners to match the way vertical tabs look. Similarly, action buttons, drop-down fields, search boxes and the URL address bar use larger radii to boost visual consistency.
Sticking with tabs, hovering over a collapsed tab group title will (after a small pause) show a list of tabs within. Click on one to ‘focus’ the tab without expanding the whole group (a feature added last month).
The hover action doesn’t seem to work if the tab group has no title set – so be sure to set one.
Managing passwords in Firefox is less fric-titious in this release. You can (optionally) enable a passwords section in the sidebar, saving the need to switch away from the page you’re viewing to access them. Enable passwords from the sidebar’s settings section.
Firefox continues to improve its built-in PDF viewer with a range of editing tools. In this update, you can add, edit and remove comments within PDFs (and save changes). A comment sidebar gives an overview of all comments, handy for collaborative documents.
Last year saw Firefox 131 add support for opening text fragments links, which are links that jump to specific sections of text on a web page.
You’re able to create URL fragments links in Firefox 145: select text on a page then right-click and choose the Copy Link to Highlight option.
If you click on the Extensions toolbar icon with no extensions installed there’s now an upsell on their usefulness and a link to visit Firefox Add-ons store.
Other changes:
- Better translation behaviour when languages use different script directions
- New ‘Open links from apps next to your active tab’ setting available
- Local translation models are now compressed with Zstandard saving space
- Matroska support for AVC, HEVC, VP8, VP9, AV1, AAC, Opus, and Vorbi codecs
- New automation defaults to ‘better support’ agentic browsing using AI agents
- New desktop launcher on Windows, replacing the old shortcut
- Fresh set of security fixes
You’ll also find selection of New Tab wallpapers featuring the new Firefox mascot Kit are available to users in this update (and the last, but ssh). Click on the pencil icon on the New tab page and go to Wallpapers > Firefox to peruse and apply one.
In Firefox Labs, you can opt-in to try new Timer and Task List widgets for the New Tab page. These are no-frills, but no-doubt useful for some.
Privacy Protections
Per Mozilla, Firefox 145 “introduces a new phase of privacy protections, building on our research on reducing browser fingerprinting. These new defenses cut the percentage of users seen as unique almost in half” (sic).
Those improvements only apply when Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) is enabled and set to Strict, or you’re using Private Browsing mode.
Also of note, Enhanced Bounce Tracking Protection’s stateless mode is now enabled by default in ETP Strict. This nixes those scummy redirects that make it hard to leave a web page.
Reminder: No 32-bit Linux Support
This version of Firefox drops support for for 32-bit Linux machines. If you (somehow) still use a 32-bit CPU with a 32-bit Linux distro as your daily driver, you can stay with Firefox 144 (no further updates) or use Firefox 140 ESR (support until October 2026).
Download Firefox 145
Firefox is free, open-source software available to download for Windows, macOS and Linux from the official Firefox website.
On Ubuntu, Firefox comes preinstalled as a Snap package. This downloads and applies updates in the background as you use your computer. If you keep Firefox open a prompt will appear to let you know when the update is ready to apply.
Linux Mint users can update to the latest Firefox release via the Mint Update tool (or apt at the command line) as Firefox continues to provided as a traditional .deb package on this distro.
If you use Ubuntu, but uninstalled Firefox and want it back, you have ample choices: the official Snap or Flatpak build; the Mozilla APT repo for a Firefox DEB; and a distro-agnostic Linux binary which you can download from the Mozilla website.