My collection of Firefox tweaks.

Firefox Speed Up for broadband

To jump start the speed of Firefox ability to load pages faster, check out these settings edits.

First, type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. You'll see a bunch of settings. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a Web page at a time.
When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

Next, alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true" by right clicking on it and choosing "Toggle".
Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Adobe Reader Slowness in Firefox

The Adobe Reader is the most common tool used to read PDF files, but, by default, it opens up within Firefox and this can sometimes be problematic. PDFs taking a minute to launch is not an uncommon occurence, even on a fast machine.

The Fix

Since the Adobe Reader can also open PDF files directly, why not just have Firefox download the PDF and then open it in the standalone Adobe Reader program? Well, that's just what we're going to do:

  1. Open the Options window by clicking TOOLS and then OPTIONS from the Firefox menu.
  2. Click the downloads icon on the left
  3. Click the Plugins button in the lower-right
  4. Uncheck the "Enabled" column next to PDF - Adobe Acrobat Document
  5. Click OK to close the Plugin window
  6. Click OK to close the Options window

Considerations

The one side-effect to consider is that, now, PDF files must completely download before they are opened, whereas the PDF plugin can "stream" the document and allow you to view the portions that have downloaded. If you have broadband, this usually isn't an issue. Dialup users may wish to continue using the plugin.

Firefox Portable on a USB key

Portable Firefox is a fully functional package of Firefox optimized for use on a USB key drive. It has some specially-selected optimizations to make it perform faster and extend the life of your USB key as well as a specialized launcher that will allow most of your favorite extensions to work as you switch computers.

To install, just download the ZIP and unzip it to the root directory of your USB drive. It will create a "firefox" directory and all the requisite directories underneath. To use Firefox on your drive, launch it with the PortableFirefox.exe file in the firefox directory. DO NOT launch the firefox.exe file directly, as this will create a profile on your hard drive or use an existing one.

http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/

Backup Firefox Bookmarks

You need to copy the file to a backup disc, device or include the bookmarks.html file and path in the file selection option of your backup software.

Firefox stores its bookmarks in:

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\PROFILENAME\bookmarks.html

Firefox Extensions

All extensions page - https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/

Adblock

Once installed, it's a snap to filter elements at their source-address. Just right-click: Adblock: done. Filters use either the wildcard character (*) or full Regular Expression syntax. Hit the status-element and see what has or hasn't been blocked.

Tabbrowser Preferences

This extension is an enhancement for the basic tab controls provided in Firefox 1.0. It replaces the existing user interface with a new, more visible user interface, and also includes UI for other hidden features that are part of the browser, as well as features provided explicitly by the extension

Download Manager Tweak

A modification of the Firefox download manager that changes its appearance and allows it to be opened in a separate window, a new tab, or the sidebar.

ieview

Adds "View page in Internet Explorer" links to the content and link context menu. Handy for previewing pages in IE, loading up IE-only pages when you run across them in Mozilla, etc.