Two of the settings that I mentioned, browser.link.open_external and browser.link.open_newwindow, can be set through Firefox Preferences. (Preferences – Tabs – New windows should be opened in:)

The third one, browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction, is not configurable from Preferences, hence the reason for setting it from about:config.

As the post was a bit on the long side, I decided to show how to change all 3 settings from about:config, as it was quicker than going through Preferences and about:config.

Regarding the default status, when I initially changed my settings, the status showed as “user set”, but when I checked them later on, the status was “default” – I don’t know, but it looks like that’s just the way that Firefox displays the status.

When I first used about:config browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction was set to 1, which I then changed to 2.

Regards,
Paul.

OK, so now I pull up about:config and check what I have. The values are the same as you listed, but all show as being the default value.