Claiming back right-click on Firefox, LibreWolf, Waterfox

Many websites disable or hijack your right-click context menu. Common reasons include:

Copy protection - Preventing users from copying text or saving images
Paywall enforcement - Blocking "view source" or "inspect element"
Custom menus - Replacing browser context menu with site-specific options

Fortunately, Firefox and its derivatives LibreWolf and Waterfox make it easy to reclaim control. Here are two methods.

Quick fix: Hold Shift + Right-Click

The fastest solution requires no configuration changes:

Hold the Shift key, then right-click.

This temporarily suppresses the contextmenu event, bypassing any JavaScript that would block or replace your menu. Works immediately on any site.

Reference: MDN Web Docs - contextmenu event

Permanent fix: Disable contextmenu event globally

To permanently restore right-click on all sites:

Type about:config in the Firefox address bar and press Enter
Click "Accept the Risk and Continue" if prompted
In the search box, type dom.event.contextmenu.enabled
Click the toggle button to set the value to false
Restart Firefox

Your right-click context menu now works everywhere.

Note on side effects

Disabling the contextmenu event globally may affect sites that use custom right-click menus for legitimate purposes, such as:

Google Docs (formatting options)
Design tools like Figma or Canva
Web-based IDEs

If you encounter issues, you can re-enable the setting by toggling it back to true.

Other browsers

This guide is Firefox-specific. For Chrome/Edge users, the Shift+right-click trick does not work. Consider browser extensions like "Allow Right-Click" or "Enable Right Click" as alternatives.

Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash