Open a Google Chrome Tab in Firefox, or a Firefox Tab in Chrome

I’ve put this application together to switch quickly between Chrome and Firefox as I often do. Simply put, this will allow you to open an active Google Chrome tab in Mozilla Firefox (and vice versa) using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F. The program itself is an executable that will run in the background and can be accessed from the system tray notification area (bottom right). It’s built with AutoHotKey.

Download
ChromeToFirefox.exe Standalone Executable Download

ChromeToFirefox.ahk Script (requires AHK) Download
AutoHotKey website Link

Note: If you want this to run every time you turn on your computer, place ChromeToFirefox.exe in the startup folder. The startup folder (for Windows 7) is located at C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

If there is a bug, it’s probably because Chrome recently updated and I haven’t had a chance to fix it yet. If it doesn’t work, let me know in the comments. Another possibility for error is that it is failing to locate firefox.exe or chrome.exe. It only works if the installation directory is the default location. I’ve included the script to edit, but you will need to download AutoHotKey to compile the exe.

I’ve used scripts from both here and here – wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t have them to work off of.

19 thoughts on “Open a Google Chrome Tab in Firefox, or a Firefox Tab in Chrome”

  1. Sweet! Thanks for doing this! Gmail is so slow on the current versions of FF that I have to load it in Chrome. But I do most of my work in FF, including bookmarking and various snipping and collecting of content, for which Chrome add-ons don’t exist. This does what I need!

  2. AWESOME~!
    I’ve been having huge problems with flash in chrome on my 64bit system, this will provide me with an affective work-around!
    Cheers!

  3. this is great. thank you! and thanks for supplying source. I run AHK so it’s much better to run the ahk (and customize it)

  4. Cheers on this helpfull script!

    However, the 64 bit version (with the different path to firefox) stopped working a week ago. It does open Firefox, but the URL address from Chrome is not copied/opened to Firefox. Maybe a change in Chrome? I used 13.0.782.32 beta-m on Win 7 64bit.

  5. I installed the beta release, and yeah, not working. I’ll take a crack at fixing it.

    Edit: I’ve fixed it, Gert. The change was Chrome_AutocompleteEditView1 to Chrome_OmniboxView1. I’ve also added checks to determine if 32 or 64 bit instead of two files.

    Here is the script and exe.

    Hope it works for you.

  6. latest version of chrome (chrome 19) breaks the script. chrome to firefox is broken, however firefox to chrome still works fine

  7. http://www.darktrojan.net/software/addons/openwith

    Is the Firefox addon I use to open firefox tabs in Chrome. I really like the one click button to open things. I was going to ask you Neil if you could create a Chrome add-on to open tabs in Firefox, but then I read:

    “Will you make a version for Chrome/Safari/XYZ browser? No. I would like to but their extension system isn’t currently capable of the things Open With needs to work.”

    How unfortunate. 🙁

  8. Hi,

    its 2014 and this awesome script is still working flawlessly.. Still there seems to be no extension for this basic feature in the chrome web store.
    Big Thanks@ Neil Popson!

    1. Delayed reply…. Glad to hear it still works and is still used! Just let me know if it ever stops working and I’ll fix her up.

      Edit: It doesn’t seem to work anymore. If anyone still uses it, let me know and I will fix it 🙂

  9. I don’t allow programs dump themselves in to whatever directory they please and I also don’t allow browsers to say, “Nah, you never need to do version testing!” because there is always a need to do version testing. I run Chrome Portable every month or so and create a portable version of Chrome. The install paths for installable browsers tend to look like so:

    C:\MEDIA\INTERNET\Chrome\32.0
    C:\MEDIA\INTERNET\Chrome\33.0
    C:\MEDIA\INTERNET\Chrome\322451345.0
    C:\MEDIA\INTERNET\Firefox\32.0
    C:\MEDIA\INTERNET\Firefox\33.0
    C:\MEDIA\INTERNET\Firefox\322451345.0

    In the registry you’d search for “InstallLocation” without quotes though I think it would be wise that if the default location and the registry location can’t be resolved to ask the user to manually set the path; it would be immensely much more useful. If you do end up actually doing this please contact me at my site please.

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