Difference between revisions of "Mozilla Firefox"

Revision as of 17:57, 23 July 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 (unresolved)

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.

This has been discussed on Firefox Help on the thread, Save image doesn't remember last location saved for Firefox 7, page 3 mentions browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite.

update: issue still not resolved. this bug is persistent. with value set to false, ff version 14.0.1, sometimes the save directory changes (is not the previous one used) and seems related to the TLD URL, particularly noticeable with blogspot.com image saves.

update: testing concludes this glitch relates directly to "Site Preferences" browsing history. In an experiment, going to "Clear Recent History" and selecting only "Browsing and Download History" causes next save on stick site to be the default /download directory, which at first seemed related, until further testing revealed that only clearing "Site Preferences" had a specific and direct result; this will cause the "save as" to download to the last save as directory, even for TLD domains with the memory effect. If the user manually cleared only the "Site Preferences" each time, then the image save directory for specific sites glitch will not manifest. (In the experiment the browser was closed and opened again each time after clearing.)

browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite and set the value to false DOES NOT RESOLVE THIS BUG! It might for some installations, but does not for our lab computers. Tested, glitch remains unresolved. ATTENTION FIREFOX DEVELOPERS! THIS NEEDS FIXED!

savePerSite URI is stored in a file named content-prefs.sqlite

related terms: browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite image save as

related:

• [Mentions clearing Site Preferences http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/887248?page=2]
• [Explains the Bug Very Well and Includes Details on How the URI Data is Saved http://tifflife.wordpress.com/tag/browser-download-lastdir-savepersite/]

Asinine Top Sites New Tab Page

June 2012 Mozilla adds another annoying "new feature" enabled by default that negatively impacts browser performance and privacy, further contributing to overall bloat. When you create a new tab, Firefox shows top sites, idiot crap like facebook. Firefox trying to be more like Chrome.

you can turn this feature off completely:

1. goto about:config
2. Type browser.newtab.url in the search box.
3. Double-click the browser.newtab.url preference and change the url from about:newtab to about:blank.
4. Click OK and close the about:config tab.

ref: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites#w_how-do-i-turn-the-new-tab-page-off

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.