Under the Hood

How to unlock Under the Hood in Cheevos by visiting about:config, Firefox's real settings page. Worth 20 XP.

The story

Partner. You went past the settings menu. You went to the real one.

Most people who use Firefox never see anything beyond the tidy Preferences page. Toggles. Dropdowns. A search bar. All of it padded and labeled for comfort. Cache has nothing against comfort. But he knows there is another layer underneath, and he has been waiting for you to find it.

That layer is about:config. No icons. No friendly explanations. Just a long list of raw preference names and raw values, and a warning screen standing guard in front of it, daring you to keep going.

You kept going.

Cache does not think of this page as scary. He thinks of it as honest. It shows the browser exactly as it is, with nothing smoothed over for the reader. He has spent a long time appreciating things that refuse to smooth themselves over for anyone.

The turn is small but real: Cache expected you to bounce off the warning screen like most people do. You didn't. That tells him something about the kind of partner he picked. Into the bag. Never let go.

The catalog entry

BROWSER CONFIGURATION PAGE Acquired: Visited about:config or chrome://flags. Condition: Handle with care. No returns. Rarity: RARE. Most users never go here. Cache's Notes: This is where the browser keeps its actual controls. Not the comfortable settings panel. The real ones. The ones with warning messages. You went here. You are not a default user. Cache respects this. Into the bag.

Spoiler: how to unlock it

This one is a straight trip to the engine room.

  1. Open a new tab in Firefox.
  2. Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter.
  3. Click through the "Proceed with Caution" warning to reach the preference list.

about:config exposes the full set of internal preferences that control how Firefox behaves, most of which have no equivalent toggle in the regular Settings page. Each row shows a preference name, its type, and its current value, and you can search, modify, or reset any of them. Chromium-based browsers expose a similar layer at chrome://flags, though that page focuses on experimental features rather than the complete preference database. Both are meant for people who want direct control, and both come with the same implicit warning: change things you don't understand and you can break your browser's behavior in ways the support page won't explain.

Where it fits in the Stash

Cache keeps a shelf for the interfaces regular users skip past, the ones built for people who want to see the wiring. This page sits right at the front of it. To meet the raccoon who thinks warning screens are an invitation, read the story.