Myabe try other browser. Or try close all other apps and try if problem persist. Or if you have some extensions , disable them.

That's why I've been using Firefox alongside Vivaldi until now.

I would not even know where to start, and it doesn't make sense to tinker with scripts, style sheets, and settings while facing Smaug, to try to make Firefox look and behave as Vivaldi does when the latter already has all the things I wish for and looks and behaves the way I like. It would be trying to reinvent the wheel only to end up with an inferior, bloated version once everything's done. :-)

You can't imagine, how happy your reply made me! I immediately went to look, downloaded and installed it, and now I can finally make a full switch. What you could not know is that, when I last checked in early 2023 it wasn't available or could not be installed at that time.

I would not consider myself a power user, and I'm barely scratching the surface regarding all the options and functions it has to offer that I might not even be aware of.

While I'm not hoarding tabs, they have a nasty habit of accumulating quickly, especially when a book chapter contains a long list of references. That's where named Workspaces come in handy - the ability to click on a tab and send it from General to Books or Additional Resources, or to organise them by titles I'm currently reading.

If I had to name a single thing that makes it stand out for me, it's the fact that everything can be done while staying in the browser, from extracting downloaded files to using a single browser window instance. There is much to like and while I liked Firefox, and used it for almost as long as it exists, 20 years this year, I got to like Vivaldi more. :-)

Headphones, playing white noise. Does wonders for tinnitus...

Mean something like this

There's a addon called "new tab override" that brings the functionality back with a few other options as well. That and UBlock are my must-install in any Firefox.
Glad I could help :)

With that said, the Vivaldi version I have in this computer is 4.1.* wich dates from August 2021, I cannot remember if I updated or installed at that time but Ublock was installed on the very same day as the browser.

You click on the home button and a predefined webpage shows like magic :)
Joking of course.

One of the reasons is to limit my web search through the "search bar", for several reasons including the way I have the browser setup and how work with it.
There's also the privacy issue (not much for me though, can't care less) of the browser logging every search that is done through the search bar.
Another reason that is very valid for me is just plain old habit, I'm just used to. My homepage differs with browser and computer used, in the case of the browser I'm typing now, www.start.duckduckgo.com is my default homepage and new tab page (I wonder why da heck they are not the same but whatever), so I don't have to constantly close and open new tabs. As previously mentioned I have a lot of tabs open and use some in "hibernated" state to be always available whwnever I click them, pretty much stopped using bookmarks other that for "important" sites.

I'm referring to what the browser itself has, not addons. Addons may be broken by browser updates or taken over by malicious actors, happened before. I did initially use New Tab Homepage, that just set the new tab page to be the same as the homepage, but when FF made that major change that no longer worked and the author didn't seem to want to bother to make it work with the new FF, so that was the complete end of it for me.

As for Vivaldi, I have 5.6, last one available for Win 7.

Yep. That's right there on the "home" tab of the settings.

I was having the same issue, go onto a games store page and it would autoplay every video in the background with only the sound. It turn out to be my Malware Bbytes extension in Edge. Turning that off has fixed the issue for me.

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/308503-embedded-youtube-videos-autoplaying-when-browser-guard-is-on/

Looks like the Malware Bytes team are aware and may have it fixed with the next version.

What I see in the help is that the only options for the new tab page are Firefox Home (default) and Blank Page (what you also have selected), not a custom page or making it the same as the homepage.
Huh, if the OP confirms they have MB, I believe we have the on-topic answer to this otherwise odd issue.

That's technically true but there's also sideloading :)

Oooo thank you - I could KISS you! Long life to you friend. x

HEAR THAT?!? YOU'RE NEXT, ELMO!!!