Me dad was complaining that his Firefox takes ages to start up and didn't want to run yet another application in the background.

So I hit google and came up with UPX, Ultimate Packer for eXecutables. What it does, is very simple: It compresses the .exe and all the DLLs associated with said .exe! Thus reducing its total size and load time.

1. Download UPX and unpack the upx.exe into your Firefox folder, usually it's C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox.
2. Close Firefox, and make sure its not running by checking the task manager
3. Start the command prompt, the cmd.exe in ADMIN MODE!
4. go to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox in cmd.exe
5. enter this command and execute it
   for %v in (*.dll *.exe plugins\*.dll components\*.dll) do upx "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\%v" -9

Should you, for whatever reason, need to decompress and get the original files back, run this command
for %v in (*.dll *.exe plugins\*.dll components\*.dll) do upx "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\%v" -d

What does it do?
It compresses all the DLLs and all the *.exe in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox, then it goes to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins and compresses all the DLLs, lastly it goes to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components and compresses the DLLs in there. The -9 is for the best possible compression. The -d is for decompression.

My dad's Firefox folder went from 31 MB down to 20 MB. A 35% save!

The best bit?
UPX is usable on any other application you have. As long as they have *.exe and DLLs, you can use UPX on it.

Related posts:

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3. Firefox 3.5 Add-Ons Round-up!

If you're one of the paranoid ones, like me, and are tired to constantly start up your Firefox and change to private browsing, here's an easy solution!

1. enter "about:config" without the " in your URL bar
2. search for "browser.privatebrowsing.autostart"
3. change false to true
4. ???
5. Profit

If browser.privatebrowsing.autostart doesn't exist, then create a new boolean string called just that and set it to true!

Enjoy!

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1. Force Firefox Add-ons to work with Firefox 3.6 betas!
2. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
3. Firefox: “I see where you are!”, Me: “No, ya don’t!” [Turning off Geolocation Tracking in Firefox]

If you already are using Firefox 3.6 betas then you probably already figured that some of your add-ons are not working...because of their compatibility.

Well, to be honest not every add-on needs a huge code change, some of them simply need their compatibility status updated, most of them work with 3.6 anyway. At least mine do...

I wanted Identi.fox and Echofon running, which I way I turned of the Extension Compatibility Check! Here's how to force your Add-ons to work with 3.6+ betas.

1. Type "about:config" in your Firefox url bar
2. Search for "extensions.checkCompatibility.3.6b"
3. If you have this entry change it from "true" to "false"
4. If this entry doesn't exist, create it via:
5. Right click your mouse -> "new" -> "boolean"
6. Type in "extensions.checkCompatibility.3.6b" for the new entry and set it to false

This is how it looks finally:

Enjoy your add-ons, but bear in mind there's a reason that the add-on compatibility check is there!

Related posts:

1. Firefox: “I see where you are!”, Me: “No, ya don’t!” [Turning off Geolocation Tracking in Firefox]
2. Start Up Firefox in Private Browsing mode!
3. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!

Geolocation Tracking/Tagging, ever heard of it? No? Check out the link!

Short version: It's the identification of your geological location. Can be good, can be bad. I don't like being stalked though! Firefox, by standard, has geolocation tracking enabled. If you don't want it, turn it off with a few simple steps:

1. Type in "about:config" in your url bar
2. Type in "geo" in the filter bar
3. Look for "geo.enabled" and turn its value to "false"
4. For an extra icing on the cake: look for "geo.wifi.uri" and change its content to "WHATEVERYOUDESIRE"

This is how it looks after the change:

Enjoy your stalking-free Firefox!

Related posts:

1. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
2. Force Firefox Add-ons to work with Firefox 3.6 betas!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

Lately my video (HD) playbacks in YouTube seemed to be lagging a LOT! I wondered why. I thought it would be me and my years old OS or perhaps even somehow my pc.

But no it wasn't. The lag was caused by Firefox's session saving feature. A simple and fast change in it and "poof" went the lag.

• Open Firefox and type in "about:config" (without the ") in the Address Bar and hit Enter.
• Type in "session" in the "Filter" line at the top of the list.
• Find “browser.sessionstore.interval” and double click it. The 10000 milliseconds (equals 10 seconds) is the interval in which Firefox keeps saving your session in case of a crash; same amount of time between video lags.
• Change it to something different. 120000 equals 2 minutes, 300000 equals 5 minutes or something else you desire. I went with 600000 (10 minutes), because I don’t particularly care about session saving.

Related posts:

1. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
2. Firefox: “I see where you are!”, Me: “No, ya don’t!” [Turning off Geolocation Tracking in Firefox]
3. Force Firefox Add-ons to work with Firefox 3.6 betas!

Recently I stumbled onto some tips how to speed up ones Firefox. Firefox, since the version 3, uses a SQLite database for various tasks such as storing bookmarks, histories, site specific preferences and backups.

Over time it's get filled up with unnecessary and old info if you want, and there's a simple method to ditch those useless info and speed up your Firefox considerably, or like most of the guides say to "vacuum" it.

Use it once in a while, I've seen an improvement on my Firefox since I used it.

1. Go to "Tools" -> "Error Console"
2. Paste this in the "Code" text box:

   Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");

3. Press enter or click "evaluate"
4. Your Firefox will freeze for a short time, just wait
5. Enjoy your speed up Firefox!

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1. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
2. Make your Firefox load faster!
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Firefox 3.5 is out already a few days! Get if folks! Ditch your Opera, IE, Chrome and Safari!

I thought I'd share my Add-Ons I pretty much use on daily basis.

Adblock Plus:
Ads, oh how I loathe them. This addons takes care of every ad I came across until today. I'm 100% ad-free! Of course websites who rely on their only income, ads, will suffer from this.

So remember, if you have a favorite site you frequently visit and it relies on ad revenue to keep alive, un-block and support it!

Fasterfox Lite:
Remember the 5 tweaks I posted way back then? Well this Add-On takes care of it automatically. Except this LITE version, which is the only one functioning for 3.5, doesn't have prefetching.

If you don't like to do these manual tweaks this is the Add-On for you.

Edit 25.09.2009: Fasterfox has been updated to run with 3.5 since August 26th 2009. Not the Lite, the normal one!

Flagfox:
Since I sometime need to know about the location of a website or its server, Flagfox gives me their IP, location and ask whois detailed information, if needed to be.

Gmail Notifier:
If you own a single GMail account this is small addon to notify you if you got new mails in the inbox. There's a GMail Manager for those with multiple accounts.

NoScript:
Perhaps the most important Add-On for Firefox. It is, assumed it's correctly configured, what makes Firefox and in turn your computer so resilient to scripts, Keyloggers and viruses.

I can pretty much click any link I come across without fear of somehow installing malicious software, keyloggers or viruses.

This Add-On is constantly being updated to keep up against scripts, keyloggers and viruses who try to circumvent NoScript. 3 cheers to open-source!

PDF Download:
I think the name explains it all. It allows you to choose between downloading a PDF file or opening it up

Skipscreen:
With 1-click-hosters such as Rapidshare, Netload, Megaupload, etc. becoming widely popular this Add-On is pretty much a must have if you want to skip all the unnecessary pages to go directly to download.

Saved me a lot of time, this diamond!

Related posts:

1. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
2. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

I was angry and frustrated that Firefox once again has slowed down the i-lost-count-this time! Seriously, it's such a great browser but so full of little problems which really can get annoying as hell!

So I went to google and found 5 easy-to-do tweak with remarkable results! Remarkable, because you truly can see the difference between a standard and a tweaked Firefox. One might wonder why such tweaks are not standard options..

Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Look for the following entries:

1. "network.http.pipelining" and set value to true
2. "network.http.proxy.pipelining" and set value to true
3. "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" and set value to 30-40
4. "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set value to 0
5. "config.trim_on_minimize" and set value to true

If you don't have them, create them:

1. Right click -> new -> boolean -> type in "network.http.pipelining" -> set value to true
2. Right click -> new -> boolean -> type in "network.http.proxy.pipelining" -> set value to true
3. Right click -> new -> boolean -> type in "config.trim_on_minimize" -> set value to true
4. Right click -> new -> integer -> type in "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" -> set value to 30 (default is 1)
5. Right click -> new -> integer -> type in "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" -> set value to 0

Now the explanation as to what does what:

network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining:

It enables pipe-lining, which means the browser normally sends 1 request at a time, with pipeline enabled it will send the amount of request you set in "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests"!

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests:

Like I said Firefox usually sends 1 request at any time. By setting a different value than 1, you force Firefox to send more requests thus enabling it to load faster, because he gets more responses at any time.

config.trim_on_minimize:

Each time you minimize your Firefox it will clear the RAM. Firefox is infamous of wasting RAM for Pages you don't need so you can go "back" to them.

nglayout.initialpaint.delay:

If this value doesn't exist or isn't set Firefox waits 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second then starts rendering the requested page(s). People report that setting it to 0, ergo forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately causes almost all pages to show up faster.

Addendum:

If you are one of the lazy lot, and don't want to manually tweak your Firefox, here's a great Extension with virtually the same effect

Fasterfox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269

Enjoy your new, faster Firefox!

Related posts:

1. Make your Firefox load faster!
2. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
3. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!