Difference between revisions of "Mozilla Firefox"

Revision as of 18:06, 31 May 2012

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking; tab-browsing; integrated Google search; simplified privacy controls; a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser; and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

Version 3.0.5 added official releases for the Bengali, Esperanto, Galician, Hindi, and Latvian languages; replaced the End-User License Agreement with a new "Know Your Rights" info bar on initial install; fixed several security and stability issues.

Firefox has a tabbed interface; includes a pop-up blocker; built-in, multiple search tools; and built-in RSS reader. It is stable and free.

Firefox doesn't support the Micro$oft proprietary ActiveX, so some poorly implemented web sites will not work in Firefox.

Firefox's tabbed browsing, RSS support, security features, and overall cool factor make it more attractive than Internet Explorer. Switching from MSIE to Firefox will dramatically increase the security of an Internet connected PC.

Keyboard Commands

Switch between tabs

• CTRL-TAB to switch tabs, next tab
• CTRL-SHFT-TAB , previous tab
• CTRL-1 , first tab
• CTRL-2 , second tab, 3, 4, ...

Complete list of keyboard shortcuts

See the Mozilla keyboard shortcuts page.

Firefox Annoyances and other fixes

[about:config]

Tab open order reversed after update

Firefox tabs opening backwards - Since the upgrade to Firefox 3.6 the order which tabs open has changed or is inconsistent. Previously tabs opened sequentially, so that the latest one was always at the far right. To restore the previous behavior do the following:

• In the URL bar type: about:config
• Find or create

 browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent

• Set the value to: False

Hide the Tab Bar When Browsing a Single Page

The default setting in Firefox 3.5 is to always display tabs, even when you're only browsing a single page. Show more of the web page by hiding the tab bar if only viewing a single page.

1. Go to Tools, and then Options.
2. Go to the Tabs menu, and uncheck "Always show the tab bar"

Menu bar missing

1. Press Alt on the keyboard and release. The menu bar will appear temporarily.
2. On the menu bar, click View, go to Toolbars, then select which toolbars you want to see.

PREVENT tabs/sessions restoring when restarting Firefox after a forced close/crash

tested on version: 8.0

You can do this by changing a hidden preference.

about:config

In the filter box type resume to bring up a small number of preferences, Double-click on the

preference browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash 

to change its value to false

reference: How do I PREVENT tabs/sessions restoring when restarting Firefox after a forced close/crash?

You can also Set the pref browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first restart after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.

That will allow you to deselect the tab(s) that you do not want to reopen, but will allow to reopen the other tabs.

Save Image As Directory Randomly Changes

This behavior was introduced in FF7, associating a downloaded image with a folder on your harddrive.

FF7 Workaround: Apply the trick once a while when you want FF to use the general/last download directory and forget about all these useless directories it memorized. It is easy to apply : Select Tools | Option and choose Privacy tab, Click on "clear your recent history", Time range to clear : choose Everything (last option in the listbox), Click on Details (if necessary), **Uncheck** all options **except** Site Preferences (thus only Site Preferences is checked at the end).

result: inconclusive

source: Save Image As keeps changing directories

FF8 Workaround: Apparently the issue was addressed by the addition of an option to disable this behavior.

* Tools, Options, and Privacy Tab
* uncheck "remember download history"

You can also uncheck "remember my browsing history" for privacy purposes.

result: inconclusive

FF11 Workaround: about.config

browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite

browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite controls whether the directory preselected in the file picker for saving a file download is being remembered on a per-website (host) base. If set to true, the data is stored as content preference.

• reference: browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite

values:

• true (default) - The last used directory for the website (host) serving the file for download will be preselected in the file picker. If no download directory for the current website has been stored, browser.download.lastDir will be used.
• false - The last used directory for any download (stored in browser.download.lastDir) will be the preselected directory in the file picker.

Add-ons

Firefox addons are divided into Extensions, Themes, and Plugins. Our Favorite Firefox Extensions are compiled in a list, and man more are available from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Security

Although more secure than MSIE by far with the default installation, vulnerabilities can still be greatly reduced by taking measures to lock down Firefox.

Support

Bug: Closing Firefox starts Acrobat reader process

Closing Firefox launches AcroRd32.exe, even though the Adobe Acrobat plugin is disabled. Problem reproduced with FF8.0.

When Firefox versions after version 4 clear cookies, each plugin is executed to clear its own cached elements. Adobe, a company well known for being intrusive, made the Acrobat reader so it stays TSR in memory.SOs (eg, Flash cookies) for each plugin.

If you have Firefox set to delete cookies on shutdown, you'll notice that there are a bunch of plugin-container.exe processes started up as well. Those are the other plugins. Adobe Acrobat is intrusive and runs as its own process.

source: Closing Firefox starts Acrobat reader process on mozillaZine

Suggested Solutions: Change Firefox settings to not delete cookies on shutdown. -or- completely remove Adobe Acrobat reader plugin.

How can I remove the Acrobat Plugin?

Delete the file named nppdf32.dll from your Mozilla Firefox plugins folder. You may have to enable showing hidden files to do this.

Delete Cookies and Cache in Firefox 8

There are two methods in the modern Firefox.

(1). To clear the cache, cookies, and/or history immediately simply press Alt to goto the menu, Tools, and choose "Clear Recent History." This will open a dialog labeled "Clear all History" with a bunch of checkboxes next to items you can deselect or select.

(2). You can tell Firefox to "Clear history when Firefox closes," which gives you options including cookies and cache. To change this setting and configure options press Alt to goto the menu, Tools, Options - you will notice a checkbox labeled "Clear history when Firefox closes." Click the "Settings" button on the right to configure what gets cleared.