Make Open Tabs Reappear When You Restart Your Browser

I tend to keep a lot of tabs open in my browser. Some of them are pages I haven't had a chance to read yet, while others are items I'm queuing to write about in the coming days. The thing is, I don't want to leave my computer running just so I can keep all these tabs "live." Nor do I want to bookmark them, as I don't intend to store them permanently.

Fortunately, my browser offers an easy way to keep tabs open from one session to the next. And there's a good chance yours does, too - no plug-ins or extensions required. This option is available in Chrome and Firefox. Alas, if there's a way to do likewise in Internet Explorer 9, I haven't found it.

Here's how to enable the option in Chrome:

1. Click the little wrench at the far right of the address bar.

2. Click Options.

3. In the Basics section, enable Reopen the pages that were open last. Then close that Options tab. (It's weird how Chrome doesn't really have a Save option, but that's how it rolls.)

It's a very similar process in Firefox:

1. Click the orange Firefox button, mouse over Options, then click Options. (If you don't have the orange button, click Tools, Options.)

2. In the General tab, click the pull-down next to "When Firefox starts," then choose Show my windows and tabs from last time.

3. Click OK.

In both browsers, the change goes into effect immediately, meaning that when you close the browser, whatever tabs you currently have open will reappear when you run it again. Handy, no?

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