Full screen mode in browsers like IE, Firefox and Chrome is really helpful if your screen size is small or your browser's page area isn't enough to see something completely.

All browsers - Chrome, IE, Firefox and Opera use the F11 key as keyboard shortcut for toggling full screen mode. But if you are die-hard fan of the full screen mode, hitting F11 every time is a bit boring. Instead, you can actually set full screen mode as default.

1. Full screen mode as default in IE and Firefox.

The full screen mode of Internet Explorer and Firefox almost behave the same way. Once you go full screen, just drag your mouse to the top of the screen and you get the address bar and close buttons. To make full screen the default in both IE and Firefox,

  1. Open the Firefox or IE browser.
  2. Press F11 to go full screen.
  3. Drag your mouse to the top so the close button appears. Just close the browser and open it again.

Once you re-open the browser, it will come up in full screen by default. If you ever want to disable the default full screen, just press F11 again to disable full screen and re-start the browser.

2. Full screen mode as default in Google Chrome and Opera.

The Chrome and Opera browsers behave a bit different from Firefox and IE. Once you go full screen, there is no option to bring back the address bar and close buttons other than exiting the full screen mode. But if you ever want Chrome or Opera to open a website in full screen mode by default, you can use the "kiosk" mode.

Please note that "kiosk" mode is a bit different from the full screen mode in that you won't be able to escape from full screen by pressing F11. If you want to close the browser, you would have to use Alt-F4 or use Alt-Tab and close the browser tab from task-bar.

To use the "kiosk" mode in Chrome,

  1. Right click on the browser shortcut on your desktop and click "Properties".
  2. Modify content of target textbox to add "-kiosk http://google.com" at the end.
  3. Open chrome by double clicking the shortcut and Chrome will open google.com in full screen. You can replace google.com with the website of your choice.

For Opera, you have to add "-kioskmode" in the target textbox. Also, you can't give a site name. Opera will open what ever site you have set as your home page in full screen mode.

Finally, here's a video which shows IE, Firefox and Chrome being made full screen by default -