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Whether it is Chrome, Firefox or Safari, I always encounter this problem. I stream this video and let it loads for like 30 minutes so I can watch. Meanwhile, I navigate through my 10 other tabs. At some point I want to check how's the progress on the streaming video download. But all of a sudden, I accidentally click on the little cross that's hidden to close on the video tab and al the download is lost!

I'm using Safari, so I need a fix for this browser, maybe Chrome too. I noticed that if I'm on Safari and the page is a form and I accidentally close the tab, it warns me if I'm sure I want to close the tab. I wish it could do the same for any tab.

Does anyone know a trick or extension that would help?

2 Answers 2

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In Firefox, you could use the Pinned Tab feature.

Pinned Tabs allow you to always keep your favorite web apps like Facebook, Gmail and Twitter open and just a click away. Pinned Tabs are small, can't be closed accidentally and open automatically when you start Firefox.

To create a pinned tab just "ctrl click" on it and select pin tab. Now you can not accidentally close it.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pinned-tabs-keep-favorite-websites-open

In Safari you would use the Top Sites feature displaying thumbnail images of the web sites you visit most often. There you can Pin a Tab.

pin top

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  • I like this Firefox extension Buscar웃SD because I thought about the problem of having to constantly click on the are-you-sure-you-want-to-close-this-tab button when I would only need it for some sensitive tabs such as loaded video I wouldn't want to reload again. I didn't get your last sentence though for Safari and how it would help to not accidentally close a tab. Jun 14, 2015 at 2:15
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Instead of using your mouse you can use the keyboard to cycle through the tabs. The keys Ctrl+Tab will go forward through your ten tabs and Ctrl+Shift+Tab will go backward. At no time will these key commands close a tab by mistake.

Should you want to close a tab however you can achieve this with Command+W. Once you've finished using your browser you can close it with Command+Q.

Edit: Further to my answer in the latest version of Safari you have the ability to pin tabs. Once a tab is pinned the only way to close it is to right click it with the mouse and select "close tab" Even the Command + W keyboard combination won't close it.

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  • Thanks Nathaniel, that's an idea. However I think this is one particular case where using shortcut here would be slightly slower than using the mouse. I use tons of shortcut including the 2 last ones you mentioned to save time instead of moving the mouse but I personally prefer to use the mouse in this very specific case. But you're right, with this method no risk to close a task by accident. Jun 14, 2015 at 2:10

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