Recently, Mozilla launched Firefox with GPU Sandboxing enabled by default on Windows. The feature had a conflict with the third-party Windows program and broke mouse wheel scrolling in Firefox. If you’re affected by one or more such issues, you can disable GPU Sandboxing in Firefox, here is how to do that.
What is GPU Sandboxing?
GPU Sandbox boosts Firefox security even further. It isolates the GPU process from other processes and makes it difficult for malware to target other processes.
The feature has its benefits and drawbacks.
Mozilla has mulled over activating GPU sandbox In Firefox on Windows over several years as it may result in graphical glitches, performance issues, or others.
While the company is aware of the issue there was a conflict between X-Mouse Button Control and Firefox GPU Sandbox that breaks wheel mouse scrolling, the organization has gone ahead and released Firefox 110.
We have been surprised by the number of users reported about the wheel scrolling issue.
While there is not yet data or reports available if Firefox’s GPU Sandboxing causing other issues if there are any, you can disable the feature.
How to disable GPU Sandboxing in Firefox
- Open Firefox.
- In the address bar, type “about:config” (without quotes) and press Enter.
- Click on the “Accept the Risk and Continue” button
- In the search bar, type “sandbox” (without quotes).
- Look for the “security.sandbox.gpu.level” preference and double-click on it.
- In the “Enter integer value” dialog box that appears, change the value to 0.
- Click the “OK” button to save the changes.
- Close and then re-open Firefox for the changes to take effect.
Note: “Security.sandbox.gpu.level” is the preference that controls GPU Process sandbox strength on Windows.
The about: support page reflects the GPU Sandbox security level and the about config preference.
To re-enable GPU Sandbox in Firefox again
- Visit about:config in address bar
- Set security.sandbox.gpu.level pref value to 1
- Restart Firefox
Do note neither Mozilla itself nor we, doesn’t recommend turning off GPU Sandbox, however, if you want you can.
What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments below
Summary: While GPU Sandboxing may improve Firefox security, it may also cause some problems. Despite the conflict between the GPU Sandbox and X-Mouse Button Control, Mozilla shipped the feature with Firefox 110 release. It was evident that GPU Sandbox may result in an issue or two when enabled in Firefox, here is how you can turn it off.