diff --git a/testing/talos/talos.json b/testing/talos/talos.json
index 6ae5ac3192f7..3561feb469b6 100644
--- a/testing/talos/talos.json
+++ b/testing/talos/talos.json
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 {
     "suites": {
         "chromez-e10s": {
-            "tests": ["tresize"]
+            "tests": ["about_preferences_basic", "tresize"]
         },
         "chromez-profiling-e10s": {
             "talos_options": ["--geckoProfile"],
-            "tests": ["tresize"]
+            "tests": [ "about_preferences_basic", "tresize"]
         },
         "dromaeojs-e10s": {
             "tests": ["dromaeo_css", "kraken"]
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@
         },
         "h1-e10s": {
             "tests": ["ts_paint_heavy"]
-            },
+        },
         "h2-e10s": {
             "tests": ["tp6_google_heavy", "tp6_youtube_heavy", "tp6_amazon_heavy", "tp6_facebook_heavy"],
             "mitmproxy_release_bin_osx": "mitmproxy-2.0.2-osx.tar.gz",
diff --git a/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/lh_fnbpaint.js b/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/lh_fnbpaint.js
index dae63f65333c..a74b1d92352a 100644
--- a/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/lh_fnbpaint.js
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/lh_fnbpaint.js
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
 /* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
  * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
  * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
-var gRetryCounter = 0;
 var gErr = "Abort: firstNonBlankPaint value is not available after loading the page";
-
+var gRetryCounter = 0;
 
 function _contentFNBPaintHandler() {
   var x = content.window.performance.timing.timeToNonBlankPaint;
@@ -11,15 +10,17 @@ function _contentFNBPaintHandler() {
     sendAsyncMessage("PageLoader:Error", {"msg": gErr});
   }
   if (x > 0) {
+    dump("received fnbpaint value\n");
     sendAsyncMessage("PageLoader:LoadEvent", {"time": x,
                                               "name": "fnbpaint"});
+    gRetryCounter = 0;
   } else {
     gRetryCounter += 1;
     if (gRetryCounter <= 10) {
-      dump("fnbpaint is not yet available (0), retry number " + gRetryCounter + "...\n");
+      dump("\nfnbpaint is not yet available (0), retry number " + gRetryCounter + "...\n");
       content.setTimeout(_contentFNBPaintHandler, 100);
     } else {
-      dump("unable to get a value for fnbpaint after " + gRetryCounter + " retries\n");
+      dump("\nunable to get a value for fnbpaint after " + gRetryCounter + " retries\n");
       sendAsyncMessage("PageLoader:Error", {"msg": gErr});
     }
   }
diff --git a/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/pageloader.js b/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/pageloader.js
index 22db00017350..39dc732106b2 100644
--- a/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/pageloader.js
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/pageloader.js
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ var forceCC = true;
 
 var useMozAfterPaint = false;
 var useFNBPaint = false;
+var isFNBPaintPending = false;
 var useHero = false;
 var gPaintWindow = window;
 var gPaintListener = false;
@@ -311,6 +312,10 @@ function plLoadPage() {
   // record which page we are about to open
   TalosParentProfiler.mark("Opening " + pages[pageIndex].url.pathQueryRef);
 
+  if (useFNBPaint) {
+    isFNBPaintPending = true;
+  }
+
   startAndLoadURI(pageName);
 }
 
@@ -392,6 +397,14 @@ var plNextPage = async function() {
     await waitForIdleCallback();
   }
 
+  if (useFNBPaint) {
+    // don't move to next page until we've received fnbpaint
+    if (isFNBPaintPending) {
+      dumpLine("Waiting for fnbpaint");
+      await waitForFNBPaint();
+    }
+  }
+
   if (profilingInfo) {
     await TalosParentProfiler.finishTest();
   }
@@ -448,6 +461,19 @@ function plIdleCallbackReceived() {
   isIdleCallbackPending = false;
 }
 
+function waitForFNBPaint() {
+  return new Promise(resolve => {
+    function checkForFNBPaint() {
+      if (!isFNBPaintPending) {
+        resolve();
+      } else {
+        setTimeout(checkForFNBPaint, 200);
+      }
+    }
+    checkForFNBPaint();
+  });
+}
+
 function forceContentGC() {
   return new Promise((resolve) => {
     let mm = browserWindow.getBrowser().selectedBrowser.messageManager;
@@ -618,6 +644,7 @@ function _loadHandler(paint_time = 0) {
 
   if (paint_time !== 0) {
     // window.performance.timing.timeToNonBlankPaint is a timestamp
+    // this may have a value for hero element (also a timestamp)
     end_time = paint_time;
   } else {
     end_time = Date.now();
@@ -645,7 +672,12 @@ function plLoadHandlerMessage(message) {
   // we can record several times per load.
   if (message.json.time !== undefined) {
       paint_time = message.json.time;
+      if (message.json.name == "fnbpaint") {
+        // we've received fnbpaint; no longer pending for this current pageload
+        isFNBPaintPending = false;
+      }
   }
+
   failTimeout.clear();
 
   if ((plPageFlags() & EXECUTE_SCROLL_TEST)) {
diff --git a/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/report.js b/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/report.js
index 738e01446131..58d4357a7eaa 100644
--- a/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/report.js
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/pageloader/chrome/report.js
@@ -67,6 +67,10 @@ Report.prototype.getReport = function() {
   report += "|i|pagename|runs|\n";
 
   for (var i = 0; i < pages.length; i++) {
+    // don't report any measurements that were reported for about:blank
+    // some tests (like about-preferences) use it as a dummy test page
+    if (pages[i] == "about:blank")
+      continue;
     report += "|" +
       i + ";" +
       pages[i].substr(prefixLen) + ";" +
diff --git a/testing/talos/talos/run_tests.py b/testing/talos/talos/run_tests.py
index 74401d878a17..1bff5e87dc76 100755
--- a/testing/talos/talos/run_tests.py
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/run_tests.py
@@ -75,9 +75,6 @@ def set_tp_preferences(test, browser_config):
             if _pref_name in test['preferences']:
                 del test['preferences'][_pref_name]
 
-    LOG.info("* RW * preferences are now:")
-    LOG.info(test['preferences'])
-
 
 def setup_webserver(webserver):
     """use mozhttpd to setup a webserver"""
diff --git a/testing/talos/talos/test.py b/testing/talos/talos/test.py
index 9d3778c544ad..90b9a5ce9358 100644
--- a/testing/talos/talos/test.py
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/test.py
@@ -996,3 +996,22 @@ class rasterflood_gradient(PageloaderTest):
                    'dom.send_after_paint_to_content': False}
     lower_is_better = False
     unit = 'score'
+
+
+@register_test()
+class about_preferences_basic(PageloaderTest):
+    """
+    Base class for about_preferences test
+    """
+    tpmanifest = '${talos}/tests/about-preferences/about_preferences_basic.manifest'
+    # this test uses 'about:blank' as a dummy page (see manifest) so that the pages
+    # that just change url categories (i.e. about:preferences#search) will get a load event
+    # also any of the url category pages cannot have more than one tppagecycle
+    tpcycles = 25
+    tppagecycles = 1
+    gecko_profile_interval = 1
+    gecko_profile_entries = 2000000
+    filters = filter.ignore_first.prepare(5) + filter.median.prepare()
+    unit = 'ms'
+    lower_is_better = True
+    fnbpaint = True
diff --git a/testing/talos/talos/tests/about-preferences/about_preferences_basic.manifest b/testing/talos/talos/tests/about-preferences/about_preferences_basic.manifest
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6164b5f1b25f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/tests/about-preferences/about_preferences_basic.manifest
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+about:preferences
+about:blank
+about:preferences#search
+about:blank
+about:preferences#privacy
+about:blank
+about:preferences#sync
\ No newline at end of file