How to make firefox even faster - updated

Make firefox even faster!

Quote:

---

1. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. 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.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

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.

3. 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 recieves.

If you're using a brodband connection you'll load pages 2-3 times faster now.

---

Thats an excellent tweak i really have seen a difference on my firefox cable
connection.

Thanks Nokia well done!!

what is return key?
i can't find it in my keyboard??

Hey thanx for the info.. I'm using broadband and I hope after this my connection will be 2-3 times faster :roll:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by syhs89

what is return key?
i can't find it in my keyboard??

---

Return = Enter (Or the big button with the arrow on it)

-Evighet

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tak

Thats an excellent tweak i really have seen a difference on my firefox cable
connection.

Thanks Nokia well done!!

---

Sorry DDLForce i thanked Nokia for some reason......

Thanks DDLForce!! :wink:

Na...its OK
:)

er..are you sure its safe to tweak the default browser setting?
there must be a reason why they had it like that right?....

I dunno about dat... but my comp got protected by firewall software.. :lol:

wow awesome tweak...that 2-3x makes a big difference

It's 100 percent safe and now i'm using it =] thanks DDL where do you get these from? (the tweakes)

THANKS alot man. It really works. I use 3 MBPS adsl and I cant believe I didn't search for this anywhere cause firefox was usually pretty slow for me. NOW it pretty much uses my adsl. lol

Thanks again mate

i have a dialup which is effectively gives me a download speed of 2 - 3 kbps. let see if it makes a difference.

Dude my browser loads very fast now :))

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Evighet

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by syhs89

what is return key?
i can't find it in my keyboard??

---

Return = Enter (Or the big button with the arrow on it)

-Evighet

---

thanks for your advice,
but still cannot.
what comes out in the browser is
just "config" :cry:

With all this momentum, it's fascinating to find that many powerful capabilities of Firefox 1.0 are still difficult to find and little known. For example, typing the following strings into Firefox's Address Bar (which the new browser calls the Location Bar) and pressing Enter brings up a wide variety of novel applets:

* about: shows info on Firefox's version number, copyright, etc.;

* about:config reveals the Configuration Console, a repository brimming over with scores of customizable settings;

* 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 (and, since it's open source, anyone can compile a customized version);

* about:plugins enumerates your installed add-ons, which can be quite numerous since Firefox is designed to be modular and extensible; and

* about:credits is an "Easter egg" that includes the names of hundreds of developers and testers who worked on the product.

Today's article focuses on about:config, the beating heart of Firefox, which controls almost every aspect of tuning and tweaking the browser.

What about:config is and isn't good for

Typing about:config into the Address Bar reveals an enormous list of settings and options (see image, below). This includes everything from the "browser" section, which controls user-interface preferences, to the "network" section, which establishes parameters for connecting to the Internet and other resources.

http://www.actionmessage.com/images/...boutConfig.gif

The organization of about:config — let's face it — is a mess. There are settings in here that are left over from the old Mozilla browser suite, which do nothing in Firefox but haven't been removed. Other settings are easily changed through Firefox's visible menus, so there's no good reason to tweak them in the unforgiving about:config environment.

That leaves a number of settings that can really make a big difference in your enjoyment of Firefox as a browser. With a few simple precautions, explained below, you can try different configurations with little risk.

The care and feeding of about:config

There are three ways to edit the settings in Firefox's Configuration Console:

1. Direct editing. In the Firefox window, you simply right-click any row, which brings up a context menu. On that menu, you click Modify to change a value, New to create a new value, or Reset to restore a value to its default. A setting looks like this:

browser.history_expire_days user set integer 99

2. Editing User.js. You can also insert lines into a file named User.js. Firefox reads this file and adopts any settings it finds there. The file does not exist by default and must be created, if desired.

The file uses a different format to specify preferences. The "history expire days" setting shown above would look as follows in User.js:

user_pref("browser.history_expire_days", 99);

Because direct editing in the Configuration Console is so easy, it usually isn't necessary to write lines of code into User.js. Creating such a file, however, can be useful if you wish to override Firefox's defaults on several PCs. (In that case, simply copy the file to the correct location on those machines.)

3. Editing Prefs.js. This file is automatically generated by Firefox when you make changes thorugh its menus or the Configuration Console. It's unwise to edit this file directly, and Prefs.js is mentioned here only for completeness and to advise you against editing it manually.

The files mentioned above — as well as two other customization files, userChrome.css and userContent.css — are located in different folders under Windows 2000/XP and Windows 95/98/Me. This is explained in articles at Mozilla.org, the site of the Mozilla Foundation, and The Edmeister, a private Firefox info site.

You can edit these files without having to find their specific location by using a free, third-party utility called ChromEdit.xpi. After you install this extension and restart Firefox, a new Edit User Files item shows up on the Tools menu.

An excellent tutorial on editing within the Configuration Console is provided by Mozillazine.org, a tips site.

How to backup and restore these crucial files

You can make mistakes when editing configuration files that would prevent Firefox from working properly or even starting at all. For this reason, you should always back up these files before making changes. Everyone will tell you that, but I'm also going to show you how to do it and, more importantly, how to recover in case you make a serious error.

1. Backup your config files. Your customization files are stored in a folder named Profiles on your hard drive underneath username \ Application Data \ Mozilla \ Firefox. To find the different locations for this folder on Windows NT, 2000, XP, 9x, and Me, check the convenient chart at Mozilla.org. Before making edits, copy the Profiles folder to a backup disk or another safe location.

2. How to recover from errors. If your changes make Firefox unstable, close all instances of Firefox and then copy your preferences files from your backup location to the default location and restart Firefox. In extreme cases, when Firefox won't even start, you can rename the User.js file and/or the Prefs.js file to a temporary name and then start Firefox. The browser will revert to a default configuration, allowing you to transfer your "safe" preferences into a new file.

The tweaks you'll want to make right now

Now that you have the basics, we get to the good part: making changes to improve Firefox's performance and capabilities.

Fix a 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:

Step 1. Type about:config into Firefox's Address Bar and press Enter.

Step 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

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

16000

Step 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.

Move the disk cache to a faster or larger location

Many Windows users like to locate their disk cache files on a separate hard drive from Windows. This can improve the performance of Windows or whatever program is using the cache, or it can free up space on a primary partition. (The disk cache should not be confused with the RAM cache described above.)

To move Firefox's disk cache, use about:config to create a new preference. (This is another hidden preference that doesn't appear until you create it.)

Type browser.cache.disk.parent_directory into the dialog box that appears, then click OK. In the Value dialog box, enter c:\folder, providing the foldername in which you wish the file to be located.

This and other networking and cache settings are sparely documented by a Firefox developer called Ben C. on his NetPrefs page.

Force frames to be resizable on Web pages

If you visit Web sites that divide their pages into rectangular frames, but some of the frames aren't wide enough for you to see all of the words, you can tell Firefox to put borders around all frames so they're resizable.

To do this, use about:config to change layout.frames.force_resizability from "false" to "true."

Other preference settings

There are literally hundreds of possible preference settings that are accessible via about:config. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the help text that comes with Firefox 1.0 on these settings. A variety of user sites have sprung up to expound on these preferences, but their coverage is spotty and not completely trustworthy.

The best all-around explanation of most Firefox settings has been posted by a developer called GuruJ on his Documented Preferences page. This page also links to a Firefox extension named Preferential, currently in version 0.6.1a. This utility adds an Advanced Preferences item to Firefox's Edit menu, giving you a user interface to a vast array of settings that otherwise would require hand-editing.

Even the "Documented Preferences" page has many holes, which I hope the Mozilla Foundation will quickly and publicly fill in. For example, GuruJ's page describes many settings with a question mark, indicating that the true meaning of an item is unclear. This includes the "frames force resizability" setting I described above. (I had to determine the official stand on this option by contacting Ben Goodger, the foundation's lead Firefox engineer.)

Tweaks for the ultimate in performance

There are several settings and options that can make Firefox run as a much faster browser. You should test these techniques before you roll them out to, say, a thousand workstations in your company.

Speeding up the maximizing of Firefox
By default, when you minimize Firefox, it gives back to Windows most of the RAM the browser was using. It sometimes can take several seconds for the browser window to become fully loaded when you restore the window to its original size. This is one of those "version 1.0" things, in my opinion, that will become more streamlined in future bump revs of the program.

Fortunately, there's a hidden setting that can accomplish the restoration of Firefox windows much more quickly:

Step 1. Use about:config to create a new, Boolean value. Type or paste the following string into the dialog box that appears:

config.trim_on_minimize

Step 2. Click OK to close the dialog box. Change the value from "true" to "false" and restart Firefox.

This doesn't piggishly retain all of the RAM that Firefox has claimed. If Windows needs more RAM to devote to another application, Windows can take it. What the setting does is prevent Firefox from giving up most of its RAM until the memory is actually required elsewhere.

Setting this item to "false" may noticeably slow down other applications while Firefox is minimized, if your PC has less than 256 MB of RAM. If so, change the setting back to "true."

There's an extremely long discussion about the development of this trick, going back to March 2004 (and continuing up through today), in Bugzilla bug report #76831. If you're determined to delve into this, I'd recommend starting with comment 329.

Speeding up Firefox on Windows XP
You can speed up the loading of Firefox on Windows XP by adding it to the programs that XP "prefetches."

To do this, right-click the Start Menu item for Firefox, or any icon you use to start Firefox, and open the Properties dialog box. Add a space plus /Prefetch:1 to the command line and click OK. The resulting line might look as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /Prefetch:1

A detailed explanation of XP's prefetch feature is provided by TechRepublic.

Use a "Moox" build that's customized for your CPU
A developer who goes by the name of Moox has compiled the Firefox code into separate executables, optimized for the instruction sets of different CPUs. This provides the biggest performance boost that I've seen (and also consider to be reliable). The developer's PDF white paper on the topic shows reductions of as much as 30% in the time required for Firefox to perform various tasks.

At this writing, there are three separate builds: one for Pentium 4 and AMD Opteron (and other CPUs), one for Pentium 3 and AMD Athlon MP, and one for Pentium 2 and AMD Athlon. The builds are free, of course.

To download the builds, see Moox's Mozilla page.

The big kahuna: fast rendering of Web pages

The most sought-after performance improvements in any browser will always involve how quickly it downloads and renders Web pages. The good news is that Firefox (which is already pretty fast in its default configuration) includes numerous about:config settings that can improve the downloading and display of content. The bad news is that the optimum settings will differ from machine to machine, and there's no consensus on what they should be.

After extensive research, I haven't found a utility or even a well-tested explanation that can guarantee the optimum settings for any particular Windows scenario (Windows 2000 vs. XP, DSL vs. T1, etc.).

There are scores of Web sites that speculate on configuration settings that are said to speed up the browsing experience in Firefox. But these sites largely don't show that they've done adequate testing of the alternatives, much less explain how such tests might have been conducted.

One long discussion post, by a German power user who goes by the name of Laszlo, lists in Mozillazine numerous settings in the content, network, and nglayout sections of the Configuration Console. His post is followed by literally hundreds of comments on various tweaks. I don't feel there's a solid answer here yet.

Another stab at this issue has been undertaken by a poster who goes by the name of Achilles. He proposes four different configuration suites in his Firefox Tweak Guide, depending upon whether you have a slower or faster PC and a slower or faster Internet connection. Again, no testing details or benchmark figures are provided.

At this point, the optimum settings for Web browsing under various configurations must be considered a subject for further study. Firefox is plenty speedy as it is. My recommendation? Download Firefox and enjoy it with the improvements I've described above. I'll give you an update when something truly definitive comes out about this.

Other resources

I haven't even touched in this article on several free, third-party extensions to Firefox that I believe are great enhancements. For a description, see my Nov. 23 Datamation column on Getting the Most Out of Firefox.

Finally, an excellent resource on Firefox annoyances and fixes is Michael Horowitz's always-entertaining Web site, ComputerGripes.com. His site features several pages on Firefox behaviors, good and bad, many of which have been fixed with the release of version 1.0 gold. He also criticizes several other Web sites that need programming improvements to work well with Firefox.

That's it for now. To send us more information about Firefox configuration settings, or to send us a tip on any other subject, visit WindowsSecrets.com/contact. You'll receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you send us a comment that we print.

Advanced Configuration Options

Besides the configuration options available under the Tools menu, typing about:config in the address bar will open up a Firefox configuration file. The good news is your cannot mess anything up permanently. Changes made to about:config are stored in a file that is not present by default; user.js in the Mozilla profile folder. To go back to the bone stock configuration, simply delete this file and it is like the changes never happened.

To locate the directory housing the configuration file:

On Windows XP/2000, the path is usually %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.xxx\, where xxx is a random string of 3 characters. Just browse to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ and the rest should be obvious.

On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.xxx\

On Linux, the path is usually ~/.mozilla/firefox/default.xxx/.

On MacOS X, the path is usually ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/default.xxx/.

Some of the commands listed are not listed in the user.js file. It is probably a better idea to create the file manually (Windows users can create a text document and rename the file and extension).

If you want to copy and paste the contents into the user.js file just go right ahead. For those editing through about:config, you should only be concerned with the contents inside the " " and after the comma- user_pref("key",value); as the user_pref and the brackets, quotes and semi colons can all be ignored.

Disabling New Windows

Firefox does block pop ups but there are links that like to open new Windows to the chagrin of some users. To disable webpages or links from opening up new windows modify these 3 settings -

user_pref("browser.block.target_new_window", true);
user_pref("browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick", true);
user_pref("browser.tabs.opentabfor.urlbar", true);

This will not be perfect though it should result in fewer open Windows due to links. There is a pure tabs mode with an extention to Firefox, something that we will talk about later on.

Show Pictures As They are Loading (IE Style)

This is a psychological thing more than anything else. By default, Firefox uses placeholder images by leaving image locations blank or with the white box and x combo. Changing this value will result in the load as it goes approach as with IE

user_pref("browser.display.show_image_placeholders ", false);

wow kool man. where did u get these tweaks form. there has been great increas in the speed thanx mate

that thing really works I stoped using firefox because it was slower then ie and you need all the speed you can get on 56k but that lil trick there makes it as fast as ie thanks. I have tabs once more.

Performance Settings

One of the limitations of pretty much all computer applications is the need to target for a general audience because of the wide array of computer components and varied network infrastructure. This is where tweaking comes in. Firefox by default is aimed at a general audience too and hopefully we can tune it more to the needs of the individual. The majority of the information comes from this excellent thread over at the MozillaZine Forum. The first post in particular goes through in great detail what each of the settings do. The thread however gets fairly long and convoluted and we attempt to summarize the contents of this thread along with a couple other sources into something that is easier to digest. As with the settings on the previous page, the contents are copied into the user.js file. We do not go into major detail about the setting as the thread goes into detailed explanations of what the settings mean in the first post. Instead, the configurations are culled from the thread of what people have reported to have worked for them along with some modifications on our end.

Quick and Dirty Settings

user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.firstrequest", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);

These were some settings I ran across sometime ago. Pipelining does multiple data requests at once and should speed things up. I believe IE did this before and this was partially attributable to the speed advantage that IE had over older versions of Mozilla/Netscape. Initial Paint Delay actually slows down the rendering of the ENTIRE page but since users tend to start reading before the entire page is rendered, setting this to a low value gives the impression that the page loads faster.

The following configurations are based off of recommendations off of the Mozillazine thread with some editing on points that I do not agree with

Common to all configurations

These are the settings that seem to be common to all configuration files regardless of connection speed or computer speed with a couple of additions - plugin paths can be found with about:plugins and the bookmark menu delay is turned off.

user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);

Fast Computer Fast Connection

user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

A couple settings of note - Firefox is allocated 4096 KB of memory by default and in this configuration we give it roughly 65MB as denoted by the last line. This can be changed according to what is used.

Fast Computer, Slower Connection

This configuration is more suited to people without ultra fast connections. We are not talking about dial up connections but slower DSL / Cable connections.

user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

Fast Computer, Slow Connection
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 8191);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);

Slow Computer, Fast Connection
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 1000000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 1000000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 4095);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 1000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);

One of the changes made for this particular configuration is the final line where the status bar is disabled for changing web pages to save processor time.

Slow Computer, Slow Connection

We have entered the doldrums of the dial-up user

user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);

Some of the options we chose not to include as opposed to suggestions on the Mozillazine threads included the suggestion of catching SSL pages. Regardless of computer speed, one of the common trends is that pipelining is a good thing. Those with faster computers and gobs of memory may want to up the amount of memory available to Firefox while those with slower computers can still increase the default 4MB to something higher. This was not done in our configuration files however. Powerusers are also welcome to disable the status bar to eek out that extra CPU cycle or two.

i use opera....:P but my friend using fire fox..may be he can make use of this info..Thanks...:)

Excellent tweak for firefox. I notice an increase in speed.

great tips. I have been using Firefox for long but didn't know this.
great forum as well.

n00b

woah very nice,it works much faster now.

Now thats a great tweak.

can anyone tell me if this works for mac aswell???

my firefox runs pretty damn fast already on 1Mbit dsl

can this really make that much difference..and if so, why didn't the firefox programmers do it themselves???

sorry for the above post, i only just read the explanation above..

i apologise

..anyway all i really wanted to know was does it work for mac, and if it doesn't is there an alternative???

thank u very much.
great job.

To make your computer speed you must increase your RAM; also try to maintain your PC up to date. Also try to keep it clean from viruses and other malicious attack.