diff --git a/tests/desktop_browser.pm b/tests/desktop_browser.pm
index 90b7b9a6..1c243752 100644
--- a/tests/desktop_browser.pm
+++ b/tests/desktop_browser.pm
@@ -3,19 +3,6 @@ use strict;
 use testapi;
 use utils;
 
-sub _open_new_tab {
-    # I hate life. ctrl-t seems to not always be reliable in openQA
-    # tests since 2019-01 or so, but the 'new tab' button is not
-    # always visible because GNOME might pop up a notification that
-    # blocks it. so, we try both.
-    if (check_screen 'browser_new_tab') {
-        assert_and_click 'browser_new_tab';
-    }
-    else {
-        send_key 'ctrl-t';
-    }
-}
-
 # we are very paranoid with waits and typing speed in this test
 # because the system can be very busy; it's effectively first boot of
 # a freshly installed system and we're running Firefox for the first
@@ -38,13 +25,13 @@ sub run {
     sleep 5;
     # open a new tab so we don't race with the default page load
     # (also focuses the location bar for us)
-    _open_new_tab;
+    send_key 'ctrl-t';
     wait_still_screen(stilltime=>2, similarity_level=>45);
     sleep 3;
     # check FAS, typing slowly to avoid errors
     type_very_safely "https://admin.fedoraproject.org/accounts/\n";
     assert_screen "browser_fas_home";
-    _open_new_tab;
+    send_key 'ctrl-t';
     wait_still_screen(stilltime=>2, similarity_level=>45);
     sleep 2;
     type_very_safely "https://kernel.org\n";
@@ -60,7 +47,7 @@ sub run {
     # using Firefox by default so we do this unconditionally, but we
     # may need to conditionalize it if we ever test desktops whose
     # default browser doesn't support add-ons or uses different ones
-    _open_new_tab;
+    send_key 'ctrl-t';
     wait_still_screen(stilltime=>2, similarity_level=>45);
     sleep 2;
     type_very_safely "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/\n";