Firefox

General

• Home page - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
• Keyboard shortcuts - http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/keyboard

"Secrets"

About:

• about: - info on Firefox's version number, copyright, etc.;
• about:config - configuration console
• about:cache - displays a summary of both your memory and file cache, with a link to full file listings
• about:buildconfig - lists the compiler options that were used to create your version of Firefox
• about:plugins - enumerates your installed add-ons
• about:credits - displays the names of developers and testers who worked on the product

Configuration and Optimization

Links

• Brian Livingston's Secrets of Firefox 1.0
• Firefox tips and tricks
• Firefox Tweak Guide
• Speeding up Firefox the Right Way

Fix memory leak in Firefox 1.0

Firefox is supposed to dynamically release memory from its RAM cache to other Windows applications as needed. Unfortunately, Firefox 1.0 seems to consume more memory than it should, which hurts performance, when set to the default of 51200 KB (51 MB).

To solve this, Firefox power users recommend limiting the memory cache using the Configuration Console. This frees up memory for other apps, speeding up everything to a greater or a lesser extent, depending on your machine and the applications you run. Here's how the trick works:

1. Type about:config into Firefox's Address Bar and press Enter. 2. Right-click any row, then click New, Integer. Type or paste the following preference name into the dialog box that appears (this is a hidden preference that doesn't exist in the Configuration Console until you create it):

browser.cache.memory.capacity

3. Click OK, then enter the following integer number into the next dialog box, representing 16 MB of RAM for the cache:

16000

4. Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart it.

For a lengthy discussion of this option, see Mozillazine's forum topic 172041.

Extensions

General Sites

• https://update.mozilla.org/extensions/?application=firefox
• http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/
• http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/
• http://www.extensionsmirror.nl

Must Haves

IEView

• Provides menu item to view cutrrent page in IE.
• http://ieview.mozdev.org/

miniT

• Adds a few tab related functions.
  • docShell.allow* attributes can be changed via tab context menu
  • Tabs can be switched by turning the mousewheel on the tab bar
  • Browser is refocused on UI middle click
  • New tabs can be opened by double clicking on any tab
  • Tabs can be dragged. If dropped within the tab bar the tabs will be reordered, otherwise the URL is dropped as text/x-moz-url, text/html, or text/unicode
• http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/minit

Sitebar (via Online Bookmarks)

• Provides sidebar to access Sitebar installations (online bookmark management)
• http://onlinebookmarks.co.uk/

Weblinks

• Provides menu item to add current page to Sitebar bookmarks
• http://onlinebookmarks.co.uk/

Resize Search Box

• Adds a resize thumb to the toolbar which can be used to resize the search box.
• http://dragtotab.mozdev.org/resizesearchbox/

Tabbrowser Preferences

• Comprehensive UI for changing a number of the hidden tabbed browsing preferences in Firefox. It also provides the ability to control how internal and external links are opened in the browser and how the browser will react when links are sent to it.
• http://www.pryan.org/mozilla/site/TheOneKEA/tabprefs/

Tiny URL Creator

• It will convert a long URL into a smaller, more managable one which is easier to share through email and instant messanger. When you access the new "tiny" URL in your browser it will autmatically send you to the original one. This extension uses the extremely popular and useful site, TinyUrl.com, to generate URLs.
• http://jgillick.nettripper.com/tinyurl/

BugMeNot

• Bypass compulsory web registration via Firefox's right-click context menu.
• http://extensions.roachfiend.com/index.php

AdBlock

• A content filtering plug-in for the Mozilla and Firebird browsers. It is both more robust and more precise than the built-in image blocker. Adblock allows the user to specify filters, which remove unwanted content based on the source-address. If this sounds complicated, don't worry: it's not. Just add a few filters. Every time a webpage loads, Adblock will intercept and disable the elements matching your filters. See?- nothing to it.
• http://adblock.mozdev.org/
• Adblock filters:
  • http://www.geocities.com/pierceive/adblock/
  • http://www.thejackol.com/index.php?p=18

Hit-a-Hint

• Hit-a-Hint provides a way to click elements on the page without a mouse. User can press '<' button to activate typing mode, and then numbered hints will appear on every link. Typing the number inside the hint over a link and then pressing <enter> will 'click' the link. Read more on the extension's homepage.
• http://www.hut.fi/~psillanp/hah_hp/

Troubleshooting

MPEG movies are displayed via Quicktime plug-in

• Make sure Quicktime is not default player for MPEG movies
  • In Quicktime player:
    • Edit -> Preferences -> Quicktime Preferences
    • File Type Extensions -> File Types
    • Unselect everything under MPEG branch
• Make sure browser plug-in is not default player for MPEG MIME type
  • In Quicktime player:
    • Edit -> Preferences -> Quicktime Preferences
    • Browser Plug-in -> MIME Settings
    • Unselect everything under MPEG branch

-- KevinJarnot - 04 Dec 2004
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