JavaScript: Forcing IE into opening new tab instead of window?

JavaScript: Forcing IE into opening new tab instead of window? - javascript

I want a script that makes a user's Internet Explorer open a new tab instead of a new window whenever someone clicks on a (target="_blank") link/banner on my webpage.
I hate how Internet Explorer defaults to opening new windows instead of new tabs when a link/banner is clicked. All the other popular browsers (e.g. Chrome, Opera, Firefox) open tabs by default.
Preferably this script would need to work in all versions of IE that support tabs.
So... How to, using JavaScript force IE into opening new tab instead of window, which is it's default behaviour?

This isn't possible; it's a browser setting/behavior which is not callable from a script loaded on the page.
Programmatically open new pages on Tabs

In IE11 at least, the default user setting is to 'Let Internet Explorer decide how popups should open' (Off-hand, I'm not sure what the default was in previous versions). Some context around the IE behaviour with this default setting can be found here: https://superuser.com/questions/713743/what-rules-apply-when-ie9-decides-how-to-open-popups
Per others' answers/comments here, generally speaking, we as web programmers have little control over how popups are opened. However, provided users have not changed their default selection (in IE11 at least!), you can approximate the behaviour you want through appropriate invocation of the window.open() method. Specifically, if you pass less than three arguments to the method, IE will generally open a new tab, while passing the specs (third) argument (even if with a null or undefined value <- this caught me out initially!) results in IE popping a separate window.
If you're happy to live with a solution that isn't guaranteed but works a fair amount of the time, this may help. The 'tyranny of the default' works in our favour in this instance at least!
Chrome at least is not quite so picky about the specs argument - if null or undefined, it will pop the tab instead of the window under default configuration.

What I did was to go to the tab settings of IE and under the section 'When a pop-up is encountered' select 'Always open pop-ups in a new tab'. I hope this helps.
To navigate to this menu open IE settings (Cog icon at the top-right, Internet Options) and click the tabs button under the Tabs section.
The below post show you how to navigate to the menu in the screenshot.
https://superuser.com/questions/507798/prevent-a-single-ie-window-with-multiple-open-tabs-from-being-displayed-as-multi
IE Settings

Related

closing browser window where angular application upon a button click [duplicate]

The issue is that when I invoke window.close() or self.close() it doesn't close the window. Now there seems to be a belief that in Chrome you can't close by script any window that is not script created. That is patently false but regardless it is supposed to still do it, even if it requires to pop up an alert to confirm. These are not happening.
So does anyone have real, functional and proven method of closing a window using something like javascript:window.close() or javascript:self.close() that actually does what is expected and something that happens just fine in every browser that is NOT Chrome based? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I am looking for Javascript specific solution, nothing JQuery or third party implementation.
Update: While much of what has been suggested has serious limitations and usability issues, the latest suggestion (specific to TamperMonkey) using // #grant window.close in the script header will often do the trick even on those tabs that normally can't handle the close method. While not entirely ideal and doesn't generalized to every case, it is a good solution in my case.

Ordinary javascript cannot close windows willy-nilly. This is a security feature, introduced a while ago, to stop various malicious exploits and annoyances.
From the latest working spec for window.close():
The close() method on Window objects should, if all the following conditions are met, close the browsing context A:
The corresponding browsing context A is script-closable.
The browsing context of the incumbent script is familiar with the browsing context A.
The browsing context of the incumbent script is allowed to navigate the browsing context A.
A browsing context is script-closable if it is an auxiliary browsing context that was created by a script (as opposed to by an action of the user), or if it is a browsing context whose session history contains only one Document.
This means, with one small exception, javascript must not be allowed to close a window that was not opened by that same javascript.
Chrome allows that exception -- which it doesn't apply to userscripts -- however Firefox does not. The Firefox implementation flat out states:
This method is only allowed to be called for windows that were opened by a script using the window.open method.
If you try to use window.close from a Greasemonkey / Tampermonkey / userscript you will get:
Firefox: The error message, "Scripts may not close windows that were not opened by script."
Chrome: just silently fails.
The long-term solution:
The best way to deal with this is to make a Chrome extension and/or Firefox add-on instead. These can reliably close the current window.
However, since the security risks, posed by window.close, are much less for a Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey script; Greasemonkey and Tampermonkey could reasonably provide this functionality in their API (essentially packaging the extension work for you).
Consider making a feature request.
The hacky workarounds:
Chrome is currently was vulnerable to the "self redirection" exploit. So code like this used to work in general:
open(location, '_self').close();
This is buggy behavior, IMO, and is now (as of roughly April 2015) mostly blocked. It will still work from injected code only if the tab is freshly opened and has no pages in the browsing history. So it's only useful in a very small set of circumstances.
However, a variation still works on Chrome (v43 & v44) plus Tampermonkey (v3.11 or later). Use an explicit #grant and plain window.close(). EG:
// ==UserScript==
// #name window.close demo
// #include http://YOUR_SERVER.COM/YOUR_PATH/*
// #grant GM_addStyle
// ==/UserScript==
setTimeout (window.close, 5000);
Thanks to zanetu for the update. Note that this will not work if there is only one tab open. It only closes additional tabs.
Firefox is secure against that exploit. So, the only javascript way is to cripple the security settings, one browser at a time.
You can open up about:config and set
allow_scripts_to_close_windows to true.
If your script is for personal use, go ahead and do that. If you ask anyone else to turn that setting on, they would be smart, and justified, to decline with prejudice.
There currently is no equivalent setting for Chrome.

Chrome Fixed the security issues on version 36.0.1985.125
Chrome 36.0.1985.125 WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
Release note
From my observation, this update fixed the issue on using window.close() to close the popup window. You will see this in the console when it fail, "Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it.". That means The hacky workarounds (Brock Adams's answer) may not work in the latest release.
So, in the previous Chrome released builds, the below code block may worked but not with this update.
window.open('', '_self', '');
window.close();
For this update, you have to update your code accordingly to close the popup window. One of the solution is to grab the popup window id and use
chrome.windows.remove(integer windowId, function callback)
method to remove it. Chrome extension windows API can be found at chrome.windows.
Actually my chrome extension MarkView was facing this issue and I had to update my code to make it work for this Chrome Update. By the way, MarkView is tool to read and write Awesome Markdown Files, it provides features including Content Outline, Sortable Tables and code block syntax highlight with line number.
I also created this post, any comments are welcome.

In tampermonkey now you can use
// #grant window.close
And then just simply call
window.close();

Requrements for this to work:
You have to open the window/tab from a window launcher to get a javascript handle to have it work, as it does not always work on a tab that was not opened via a window-launcher script. This test page shows you how:
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
If you don't see it working from my launcher, posting your browser, your device and versions are necessary. Browsers of different versions act differently on different devices. (Such as Firefox and Chrome on iPads which are NOT what they say they are. They are Safari with a different skin!)
So it is important to say for example 'I am using Safari 10.14 on an iPad using iOs 14.5' so I (or some other helpful individual here at stackoverflow) can research it for you and post results to help other users. Thanks in advance for doing that. If you use the launcher and it works on my example for you, then it works.
I am using the method posted by Brock Adams and it even works in Firefox, if it's user initiated by being launched by button or link from another window.
open(location, '_self').close();
I am calling it from a button press so it is user initiated, and it is still working fine using Chrome 90, Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Safari 7-10 and ALSO Firefox 35 & 88. I tested using version 8.1 & 10 of Windows and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.9 & 10.10 & 10.14 if that is different.
Self-Closing Window Code (on the page that closes itself)
The complete code to be used on the user-opened window that can close itself:
window_to_close.htm
JavaScript:
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" name="Quit" id="Quit" value="Quit" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" />
Here is that test page again with a working example: (Now tested in Chrome 90.0 and Firefox 88.0 -- both on Windows 10 and Mac 10.14 Mojave)
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
Window Opener Code (on a page that opens the above page)
To make this work, security-imposed cross browser compatibility requires that the window that is to be closed must have already been opened by the user clicking a button within the same site domain.
For example, the window that uses the method above to close itself, can be opened from a page using this code (code provided from my example page linked above):
window_close_tester.htm
JavaScript:
function open_a_window()
{
window.open("window_to_close.htm");
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />

Many people are still trying to find a way to close the Chrome browser using javascript. The following method only works when you use Chrome as APP launcher - kiosk for example!
I have tested the following:
I'm using the following extension: Close Kiosk
I'm following the usage instructions and it seems to work just fine (make sure you clear the cache while doing the tests). The javascript I use is (attached to click event):
window.location.href = '/closekiosk';
I hope that helps somebody, as it's the only working solution I have found.
Note: It seems the extension runs in background and adds a Chrome tray icon. It has the following option checked: "Let Chrome run in background" (or similar text). You may need to play with it, until it work for you. I unchecked it and now it works just fine!

Despite thinking it is "patently false", what you say "seems to be a belief" is actually correct. The Mozilla documentation for window.close says
This method is only allowed to be called for windows that were opened by a script using the window.open method. If the window was not opened by a script, the following error appears in the JavaScript Console: Scripts may not close windows that were not opened by script
You say that it is "supposed to still do it" but I don't think you'll find any reference which supports that, maybe you've misremembered something?

I found a new way that works for me perfetly
var win = window.open("about:blank", "_self");
win.close();

The below code worked for me -
window.open('location', '_self', '');
window.close();
Tested on Chrome 43.0.2357.81

This might be old, but let's answer it.
I use top.close() to close a tab. window.close() or other open...close didn't work for me.

In my case, the page needed to close, but may have been opened by a link and thus window.close would fail.
The solution I chose is to issue the window.close, followed by a window.setTimeout that redirects to a different page.
That way, if window.close succeeds, execution on that page stops, but if it fails, in a second, it will redirect to a different page.
window.close();
window.setTimeout(function(){location.href = '/some-page.php';},1000);

I wanted to share my "solution" with this issue. It seems like most of us are trying to close a browser window in a standard browser session, where a user is visiting some website or another, after they've visited other websites, and before they'll visit some more.
However, my situation is that I am building a web app for a device that will essentially be the only thing the device does. You boot it up, it launches Chrome and navigates to our app. It's not even connected to the internet, any servers it talks to are on our local Docker containers. The user needs a way to close the app (aka close Chrome) so they can access the terminal to perform system updates.
So it boots up, launches Chrome in kiosk mode, at the correct address already. This happens to easily satisfy the second option in the spec:
A browsing context is script-closable if it is an auxiliary browsing context that was created by a script (as opposed to by an action of the user), or if it is a top-level browsing context whose session history contains only one Document.
So simply calling window.close() from my kiosk app just works!

If you can't close windows that aren't opened by the script, then you can destroy your page using this code:
document.getElementsByTagName ('html') [0] .remove ();

For those that are using an anchor tag to open the child window, this article describes a workaround for this issue.
My understanding is that in new versions of Chrome, the rel attribute is set to noopener by default for anchor tags with target _blank. So by setting it to opener you have the old behaviour back.
Please be aware that this was introduced to avoid tab-napping attacks.

Only if you open a new window using window.open() will the new window be able to close using code as I have mentioned above. This works perfectly for me :) Note : Never use href to open the page in a new tab. Window.close() does not work with "href" . Use window.open() instead.

You can also try to use my code below. This will also help you to redirect your parent window:
Parent:
<script language="javascript">
function open_a_window()
{
var w = 200;
var h = 200;
var left = Number((screen.width/2)-(w/2));
var tops = Number((screen.height/2)-(h/2));
window.open("window_to_close.html", '', 'toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no, copyhistory=no, width='+w+', height='+h+', top='+tops+', left='+left);
return false;
}
// opener:
window.onmessage = function (e) {
if (e.data === 'location') {
window.location.replace('https://www.google.com');
}
};
</script>
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />
Popup:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body onload="quitBox('quit');">
<h1>The window closer:</h1>
<input type="button" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" value="Close This Window/Tab" />
<script language="javascript">
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
window.opener.postMessage('location', '*');
window.open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

For TamperMonkey:
#grant window.close
Ref: https://www.tampermonkey.net/documentation.php#_grant

Try something like this onclick="return self.close()"

Close current tab using javascript/jquery [duplicate]

The issue is that when I invoke window.close() or self.close() it doesn't close the window. Now there seems to be a belief that in Chrome you can't close by script any window that is not script created. That is patently false but regardless it is supposed to still do it, even if it requires to pop up an alert to confirm. These are not happening.
So does anyone have real, functional and proven method of closing a window using something like javascript:window.close() or javascript:self.close() that actually does what is expected and something that happens just fine in every browser that is NOT Chrome based? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I am looking for Javascript specific solution, nothing JQuery or third party implementation.
Update: While much of what has been suggested has serious limitations and usability issues, the latest suggestion (specific to TamperMonkey) using // #grant window.close in the script header will often do the trick even on those tabs that normally can't handle the close method. While not entirely ideal and doesn't generalized to every case, it is a good solution in my case.

Chrome Fixed the security issues on version 36.0.1985.125
Chrome 36.0.1985.125 WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
Release note
From my observation, this update fixed the issue on using window.close() to close the popup window. You will see this in the console when it fail, "Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it.". That means The hacky workarounds (Brock Adams's answer) may not work in the latest release.
So, in the previous Chrome released builds, the below code block may worked but not with this update.
window.open('', '_self', '');
window.close();
For this update, you have to update your code accordingly to close the popup window. One of the solution is to grab the popup window id and use
chrome.windows.remove(integer windowId, function callback)
method to remove it. Chrome extension windows API can be found at chrome.windows.
Actually my chrome extension MarkView was facing this issue and I had to update my code to make it work for this Chrome Update. By the way, MarkView is tool to read and write Awesome Markdown Files, it provides features including Content Outline, Sortable Tables and code block syntax highlight with line number.
I also created this post, any comments are welcome.

In tampermonkey now you can use
// #grant window.close
And then just simply call
window.close();

Requrements for this to work:
You have to open the window/tab from a window launcher to get a javascript handle to have it work, as it does not always work on a tab that was not opened via a window-launcher script. This test page shows you how:
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
If you don't see it working from my launcher, posting your browser, your device and versions are necessary. Browsers of different versions act differently on different devices. (Such as Firefox and Chrome on iPads which are NOT what they say they are. They are Safari with a different skin!)
So it is important to say for example 'I am using Safari 10.14 on an iPad using iOs 14.5' so I (or some other helpful individual here at stackoverflow) can research it for you and post results to help other users. Thanks in advance for doing that. If you use the launcher and it works on my example for you, then it works.
I am using the method posted by Brock Adams and it even works in Firefox, if it's user initiated by being launched by button or link from another window.
open(location, '_self').close();
I am calling it from a button press so it is user initiated, and it is still working fine using Chrome 90, Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Safari 7-10 and ALSO Firefox 35 & 88. I tested using version 8.1 & 10 of Windows and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.9 & 10.10 & 10.14 if that is different.
Self-Closing Window Code (on the page that closes itself)
The complete code to be used on the user-opened window that can close itself:
window_to_close.htm
JavaScript:
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" name="Quit" id="Quit" value="Quit" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" />
Here is that test page again with a working example: (Now tested in Chrome 90.0 and Firefox 88.0 -- both on Windows 10 and Mac 10.14 Mojave)
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
Window Opener Code (on a page that opens the above page)
To make this work, security-imposed cross browser compatibility requires that the window that is to be closed must have already been opened by the user clicking a button within the same site domain.
For example, the window that uses the method above to close itself, can be opened from a page using this code (code provided from my example page linked above):
window_close_tester.htm
JavaScript:
function open_a_window()
{
window.open("window_to_close.htm");
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />

Many people are still trying to find a way to close the Chrome browser using javascript. The following method only works when you use Chrome as APP launcher - kiosk for example!
I have tested the following:
I'm using the following extension: Close Kiosk
I'm following the usage instructions and it seems to work just fine (make sure you clear the cache while doing the tests). The javascript I use is (attached to click event):
window.location.href = '/closekiosk';
I hope that helps somebody, as it's the only working solution I have found.
Note: It seems the extension runs in background and adds a Chrome tray icon. It has the following option checked: "Let Chrome run in background" (or similar text). You may need to play with it, until it work for you. I unchecked it and now it works just fine!

Despite thinking it is "patently false", what you say "seems to be a belief" is actually correct. The Mozilla documentation for window.close says
This method is only allowed to be called for windows that were opened by a script using the window.open method. If the window was not opened by a script, the following error appears in the JavaScript Console: Scripts may not close windows that were not opened by script
You say that it is "supposed to still do it" but I don't think you'll find any reference which supports that, maybe you've misremembered something?

I found a new way that works for me perfetly
var win = window.open("about:blank", "_self");
win.close();

The below code worked for me -
window.open('location', '_self', '');
window.close();
Tested on Chrome 43.0.2357.81

This might be old, but let's answer it.
I use top.close() to close a tab. window.close() or other open...close didn't work for me.

In my case, the page needed to close, but may have been opened by a link and thus window.close would fail.
The solution I chose is to issue the window.close, followed by a window.setTimeout that redirects to a different page.
That way, if window.close succeeds, execution on that page stops, but if it fails, in a second, it will redirect to a different page.
window.close();
window.setTimeout(function(){location.href = '/some-page.php';},1000);

I wanted to share my "solution" with this issue. It seems like most of us are trying to close a browser window in a standard browser session, where a user is visiting some website or another, after they've visited other websites, and before they'll visit some more.
However, my situation is that I am building a web app for a device that will essentially be the only thing the device does. You boot it up, it launches Chrome and navigates to our app. It's not even connected to the internet, any servers it talks to are on our local Docker containers. The user needs a way to close the app (aka close Chrome) so they can access the terminal to perform system updates.
So it boots up, launches Chrome in kiosk mode, at the correct address already. This happens to easily satisfy the second option in the spec:
A browsing context is script-closable if it is an auxiliary browsing context that was created by a script (as opposed to by an action of the user), or if it is a top-level browsing context whose session history contains only one Document.
So simply calling window.close() from my kiosk app just works!

If you can't close windows that aren't opened by the script, then you can destroy your page using this code:
document.getElementsByTagName ('html') [0] .remove ();

For those that are using an anchor tag to open the child window, this article describes a workaround for this issue.
My understanding is that in new versions of Chrome, the rel attribute is set to noopener by default for anchor tags with target _blank. So by setting it to opener you have the old behaviour back.
Please be aware that this was introduced to avoid tab-napping attacks.

Only if you open a new window using window.open() will the new window be able to close using code as I have mentioned above. This works perfectly for me :) Note : Never use href to open the page in a new tab. Window.close() does not work with "href" . Use window.open() instead.

You can also try to use my code below. This will also help you to redirect your parent window:
Parent:
<script language="javascript">
function open_a_window()
{
var w = 200;
var h = 200;
var left = Number((screen.width/2)-(w/2));
var tops = Number((screen.height/2)-(h/2));
window.open("window_to_close.html", '', 'toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no, copyhistory=no, width='+w+', height='+h+', top='+tops+', left='+left);
return false;
}
// opener:
window.onmessage = function (e) {
if (e.data === 'location') {
window.location.replace('https://www.google.com');
}
};
</script>
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />
Popup:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body onload="quitBox('quit');">
<h1>The window closer:</h1>
<input type="button" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" value="Close This Window/Tab" />
<script language="javascript">
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
window.opener.postMessage('location', '*');
window.open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

For TamperMonkey:
#grant window.close
Ref: https://www.tampermonkey.net/documentation.php#_grant

Try something like this onclick="return self.close()"

Close own tab after confirm accepted in Js [duplicate]

The issue is that when I invoke window.close() or self.close() it doesn't close the window. Now there seems to be a belief that in Chrome you can't close by script any window that is not script created. That is patently false but regardless it is supposed to still do it, even if it requires to pop up an alert to confirm. These are not happening.
So does anyone have real, functional and proven method of closing a window using something like javascript:window.close() or javascript:self.close() that actually does what is expected and something that happens just fine in every browser that is NOT Chrome based? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I am looking for Javascript specific solution, nothing JQuery or third party implementation.
Update: While much of what has been suggested has serious limitations and usability issues, the latest suggestion (specific to TamperMonkey) using // #grant window.close in the script header will often do the trick even on those tabs that normally can't handle the close method. While not entirely ideal and doesn't generalized to every case, it is a good solution in my case.

Chrome Fixed the security issues on version 36.0.1985.125
Chrome 36.0.1985.125 WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
Release note
From my observation, this update fixed the issue on using window.close() to close the popup window. You will see this in the console when it fail, "Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it.". That means The hacky workarounds (Brock Adams's answer) may not work in the latest release.
So, in the previous Chrome released builds, the below code block may worked but not with this update.
window.open('', '_self', '');
window.close();
For this update, you have to update your code accordingly to close the popup window. One of the solution is to grab the popup window id and use
chrome.windows.remove(integer windowId, function callback)
method to remove it. Chrome extension windows API can be found at chrome.windows.
Actually my chrome extension MarkView was facing this issue and I had to update my code to make it work for this Chrome Update. By the way, MarkView is tool to read and write Awesome Markdown Files, it provides features including Content Outline, Sortable Tables and code block syntax highlight with line number.
I also created this post, any comments are welcome.

In tampermonkey now you can use
// #grant window.close
And then just simply call
window.close();

Requrements for this to work:
You have to open the window/tab from a window launcher to get a javascript handle to have it work, as it does not always work on a tab that was not opened via a window-launcher script. This test page shows you how:
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
If you don't see it working from my launcher, posting your browser, your device and versions are necessary. Browsers of different versions act differently on different devices. (Such as Firefox and Chrome on iPads which are NOT what they say they are. They are Safari with a different skin!)
So it is important to say for example 'I am using Safari 10.14 on an iPad using iOs 14.5' so I (or some other helpful individual here at stackoverflow) can research it for you and post results to help other users. Thanks in advance for doing that. If you use the launcher and it works on my example for you, then it works.
I am using the method posted by Brock Adams and it even works in Firefox, if it's user initiated by being launched by button or link from another window.
open(location, '_self').close();
I am calling it from a button press so it is user initiated, and it is still working fine using Chrome 90, Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Safari 7-10 and ALSO Firefox 35 & 88. I tested using version 8.1 & 10 of Windows and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.9 & 10.10 & 10.14 if that is different.
Self-Closing Window Code (on the page that closes itself)
The complete code to be used on the user-opened window that can close itself:
window_to_close.htm
JavaScript:
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" name="Quit" id="Quit" value="Quit" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" />
Here is that test page again with a working example: (Now tested in Chrome 90.0 and Firefox 88.0 -- both on Windows 10 and Mac 10.14 Mojave)
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
Window Opener Code (on a page that opens the above page)
To make this work, security-imposed cross browser compatibility requires that the window that is to be closed must have already been opened by the user clicking a button within the same site domain.
For example, the window that uses the method above to close itself, can be opened from a page using this code (code provided from my example page linked above):
window_close_tester.htm
JavaScript:
function open_a_window()
{
window.open("window_to_close.htm");
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />

Many people are still trying to find a way to close the Chrome browser using javascript. The following method only works when you use Chrome as APP launcher - kiosk for example!
I have tested the following:
I'm using the following extension: Close Kiosk
I'm following the usage instructions and it seems to work just fine (make sure you clear the cache while doing the tests). The javascript I use is (attached to click event):
window.location.href = '/closekiosk';
I hope that helps somebody, as it's the only working solution I have found.
Note: It seems the extension runs in background and adds a Chrome tray icon. It has the following option checked: "Let Chrome run in background" (or similar text). You may need to play with it, until it work for you. I unchecked it and now it works just fine!

Despite thinking it is "patently false", what you say "seems to be a belief" is actually correct. The Mozilla documentation for window.close says
This method is only allowed to be called for windows that were opened by a script using the window.open method. If the window was not opened by a script, the following error appears in the JavaScript Console: Scripts may not close windows that were not opened by script
You say that it is "supposed to still do it" but I don't think you'll find any reference which supports that, maybe you've misremembered something?

I found a new way that works for me perfetly
var win = window.open("about:blank", "_self");
win.close();

The below code worked for me -
window.open('location', '_self', '');
window.close();
Tested on Chrome 43.0.2357.81

This might be old, but let's answer it.
I use top.close() to close a tab. window.close() or other open...close didn't work for me.

In my case, the page needed to close, but may have been opened by a link and thus window.close would fail.
The solution I chose is to issue the window.close, followed by a window.setTimeout that redirects to a different page.
That way, if window.close succeeds, execution on that page stops, but if it fails, in a second, it will redirect to a different page.
window.close();
window.setTimeout(function(){location.href = '/some-page.php';},1000);

I wanted to share my "solution" with this issue. It seems like most of us are trying to close a browser window in a standard browser session, where a user is visiting some website or another, after they've visited other websites, and before they'll visit some more.
However, my situation is that I am building a web app for a device that will essentially be the only thing the device does. You boot it up, it launches Chrome and navigates to our app. It's not even connected to the internet, any servers it talks to are on our local Docker containers. The user needs a way to close the app (aka close Chrome) so they can access the terminal to perform system updates.
So it boots up, launches Chrome in kiosk mode, at the correct address already. This happens to easily satisfy the second option in the spec:
A browsing context is script-closable if it is an auxiliary browsing context that was created by a script (as opposed to by an action of the user), or if it is a top-level browsing context whose session history contains only one Document.
So simply calling window.close() from my kiosk app just works!

If you can't close windows that aren't opened by the script, then you can destroy your page using this code:
document.getElementsByTagName ('html') [0] .remove ();

For those that are using an anchor tag to open the child window, this article describes a workaround for this issue.
My understanding is that in new versions of Chrome, the rel attribute is set to noopener by default for anchor tags with target _blank. So by setting it to opener you have the old behaviour back.
Please be aware that this was introduced to avoid tab-napping attacks.

Only if you open a new window using window.open() will the new window be able to close using code as I have mentioned above. This works perfectly for me :) Note : Never use href to open the page in a new tab. Window.close() does not work with "href" . Use window.open() instead.

You can also try to use my code below. This will also help you to redirect your parent window:
Parent:
<script language="javascript">
function open_a_window()
{
var w = 200;
var h = 200;
var left = Number((screen.width/2)-(w/2));
var tops = Number((screen.height/2)-(h/2));
window.open("window_to_close.html", '', 'toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no, copyhistory=no, width='+w+', height='+h+', top='+tops+', left='+left);
return false;
}
// opener:
window.onmessage = function (e) {
if (e.data === 'location') {
window.location.replace('https://www.google.com');
}
};
</script>
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />
Popup:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body onload="quitBox('quit');">
<h1>The window closer:</h1>
<input type="button" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" value="Close This Window/Tab" />
<script language="javascript">
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
window.opener.postMessage('location', '*');
window.open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

For TamperMonkey:
#grant window.close
Ref: https://www.tampermonkey.net/documentation.php#_grant

Try something like this onclick="return self.close()"

Script to close the current tab in Chrome [duplicate]

The issue is that when I invoke window.close() or self.close() it doesn't close the window. Now there seems to be a belief that in Chrome you can't close by script any window that is not script created. That is patently false but regardless it is supposed to still do it, even if it requires to pop up an alert to confirm. These are not happening.
So does anyone have real, functional and proven method of closing a window using something like javascript:window.close() or javascript:self.close() that actually does what is expected and something that happens just fine in every browser that is NOT Chrome based? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I am looking for Javascript specific solution, nothing JQuery or third party implementation.
Update: While much of what has been suggested has serious limitations and usability issues, the latest suggestion (specific to TamperMonkey) using // #grant window.close in the script header will often do the trick even on those tabs that normally can't handle the close method. While not entirely ideal and doesn't generalized to every case, it is a good solution in my case.

Chrome Fixed the security issues on version 36.0.1985.125
Chrome 36.0.1985.125 WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
Release note
From my observation, this update fixed the issue on using window.close() to close the popup window. You will see this in the console when it fail, "Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it.". That means The hacky workarounds (Brock Adams's answer) may not work in the latest release.
So, in the previous Chrome released builds, the below code block may worked but not with this update.
window.open('', '_self', '');
window.close();
For this update, you have to update your code accordingly to close the popup window. One of the solution is to grab the popup window id and use
chrome.windows.remove(integer windowId, function callback)
method to remove it. Chrome extension windows API can be found at chrome.windows.
Actually my chrome extension MarkView was facing this issue and I had to update my code to make it work for this Chrome Update. By the way, MarkView is tool to read and write Awesome Markdown Files, it provides features including Content Outline, Sortable Tables and code block syntax highlight with line number.
I also created this post, any comments are welcome.

In tampermonkey now you can use
// #grant window.close
And then just simply call
window.close();

Requrements for this to work:
You have to open the window/tab from a window launcher to get a javascript handle to have it work, as it does not always work on a tab that was not opened via a window-launcher script. This test page shows you how:
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
If you don't see it working from my launcher, posting your browser, your device and versions are necessary. Browsers of different versions act differently on different devices. (Such as Firefox and Chrome on iPads which are NOT what they say they are. They are Safari with a different skin!)
So it is important to say for example 'I am using Safari 10.14 on an iPad using iOs 14.5' so I (or some other helpful individual here at stackoverflow) can research it for you and post results to help other users. Thanks in advance for doing that. If you use the launcher and it works on my example for you, then it works.
I am using the method posted by Brock Adams and it even works in Firefox, if it's user initiated by being launched by button or link from another window.
open(location, '_self').close();
I am calling it from a button press so it is user initiated, and it is still working fine using Chrome 90, Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Safari 7-10 and ALSO Firefox 35 & 88. I tested using version 8.1 & 10 of Windows and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.9 & 10.10 & 10.14 if that is different.
Self-Closing Window Code (on the page that closes itself)
The complete code to be used on the user-opened window that can close itself:
window_to_close.htm
JavaScript:
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" name="Quit" id="Quit" value="Quit" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" />
Here is that test page again with a working example: (Now tested in Chrome 90.0 and Firefox 88.0 -- both on Windows 10 and Mac 10.14 Mojave)
http://browserstrangeness.bitbucket.io/window_close_tester.htm
Window Opener Code (on a page that opens the above page)
To make this work, security-imposed cross browser compatibility requires that the window that is to be closed must have already been opened by the user clicking a button within the same site domain.
For example, the window that uses the method above to close itself, can be opened from a page using this code (code provided from my example page linked above):
window_close_tester.htm
JavaScript:
function open_a_window()
{
window.open("window_to_close.htm");
return false;
}
HTML:
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />

Many people are still trying to find a way to close the Chrome browser using javascript. The following method only works when you use Chrome as APP launcher - kiosk for example!
I have tested the following:
I'm using the following extension: Close Kiosk
I'm following the usage instructions and it seems to work just fine (make sure you clear the cache while doing the tests). The javascript I use is (attached to click event):
window.location.href = '/closekiosk';
I hope that helps somebody, as it's the only working solution I have found.
Note: It seems the extension runs in background and adds a Chrome tray icon. It has the following option checked: "Let Chrome run in background" (or similar text). You may need to play with it, until it work for you. I unchecked it and now it works just fine!

Despite thinking it is "patently false", what you say "seems to be a belief" is actually correct. The Mozilla documentation for window.close says
This method is only allowed to be called for windows that were opened by a script using the window.open method. If the window was not opened by a script, the following error appears in the JavaScript Console: Scripts may not close windows that were not opened by script
You say that it is "supposed to still do it" but I don't think you'll find any reference which supports that, maybe you've misremembered something?

I found a new way that works for me perfetly
var win = window.open("about:blank", "_self");
win.close();

The below code worked for me -
window.open('location', '_self', '');
window.close();
Tested on Chrome 43.0.2357.81

This might be old, but let's answer it.
I use top.close() to close a tab. window.close() or other open...close didn't work for me.

In my case, the page needed to close, but may have been opened by a link and thus window.close would fail.
The solution I chose is to issue the window.close, followed by a window.setTimeout that redirects to a different page.
That way, if window.close succeeds, execution on that page stops, but if it fails, in a second, it will redirect to a different page.
window.close();
window.setTimeout(function(){location.href = '/some-page.php';},1000);

I wanted to share my "solution" with this issue. It seems like most of us are trying to close a browser window in a standard browser session, where a user is visiting some website or another, after they've visited other websites, and before they'll visit some more.
However, my situation is that I am building a web app for a device that will essentially be the only thing the device does. You boot it up, it launches Chrome and navigates to our app. It's not even connected to the internet, any servers it talks to are on our local Docker containers. The user needs a way to close the app (aka close Chrome) so they can access the terminal to perform system updates.
So it boots up, launches Chrome in kiosk mode, at the correct address already. This happens to easily satisfy the second option in the spec:
A browsing context is script-closable if it is an auxiliary browsing context that was created by a script (as opposed to by an action of the user), or if it is a top-level browsing context whose session history contains only one Document.
So simply calling window.close() from my kiosk app just works!

If you can't close windows that aren't opened by the script, then you can destroy your page using this code:
document.getElementsByTagName ('html') [0] .remove ();

For those that are using an anchor tag to open the child window, this article describes a workaround for this issue.
My understanding is that in new versions of Chrome, the rel attribute is set to noopener by default for anchor tags with target _blank. So by setting it to opener you have the old behaviour back.
Please be aware that this was introduced to avoid tab-napping attacks.

Only if you open a new window using window.open() will the new window be able to close using code as I have mentioned above. This works perfectly for me :) Note : Never use href to open the page in a new tab. Window.close() does not work with "href" . Use window.open() instead.

You can also try to use my code below. This will also help you to redirect your parent window:
Parent:
<script language="javascript">
function open_a_window()
{
var w = 200;
var h = 200;
var left = Number((screen.width/2)-(w/2));
var tops = Number((screen.height/2)-(h/2));
window.open("window_to_close.html", '', 'toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no, copyhistory=no, width='+w+', height='+h+', top='+tops+', left='+left);
return false;
}
// opener:
window.onmessage = function (e) {
if (e.data === 'location') {
window.location.replace('https://www.google.com');
}
};
</script>
<input type="button" onclick="return open_a_window();" value="Open New Window/Tab" />
Popup:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body onload="quitBox('quit');">
<h1>The window closer:</h1>
<input type="button" onclick="return quitBox('quit');" value="Close This Window/Tab" />
<script language="javascript">
function quitBox(cmd)
{
if (cmd=='quit')
{
window.opener.postMessage('location', '*');
window.open(location, '_self').close();
}
return false;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

For TamperMonkey:
#grant window.close
Ref: https://www.tampermonkey.net/documentation.php#_grant

Try something like this onclick="return self.close()"

FF not setting size on window.open

I have a simple JS script including:
OpenWindow=window.open("", "newwin", "height=250, width=250,toolbar=no,scrollbars="+scroll+",menubar=no");
FF 21.0 opens it to the full size of the browser window.
Chrome and Opera correctly open it to the specified width and height.
Is this a known bug in FF? Is there some way around it?

You need to remove the space between height and width in your third argument.
See strWindowFeatures # MDN
Update:
As Pointy says, this doesn't seem to be the case (and from some testing it certainly doesn't affect me in FF 24). However, quoting from Firefox's tab preferences and settings page:
If you have chosen to open pages in new tabs, Firefox will ignore this option and will open a new window from a link if the page author specified that the new window should have a specific size, because some pages can only be displayed correctly at a specific size.
So this must have been changed from FF 21 til now. How are you triggering the window.open? I know some browsers differentiate based on event source, meaning you get different results on triggering it in Javascript vs. from a user-initiated event.

Voila! Pointy had the answer.
I hadn't noticed that the window was opening in a new tab.
I unchecked the browser open-in-a-new-tab option, and now I get the properly-sized window.
Thank You!

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