Since I updated my Firefox to the latest version (3.5.3), I’ve always wanted to do some housekeeping so to make my browser run faster. Finally, I got it done today. To my surprise, the tweaking really does wonders for me. Now my Firefox is lightning fast. Thought it would be nice to share the tips here so you can speed up your Firefox browser as well. Here are the 7 things that I did:
1. Vacuum Firefox Databases
This quick hack can be done from within Firefox with no restart needed
- Open the Error Console: Tools menu/Error Console
- In the Code text box paste this (it’s a single line):
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");
- Press Evaluate. All the UI will freeze for a few seconds while databases are vacuumed
Your Firefox performance will be drastically improved after this is done.
2. Enable Pipelining
Firefox browser usually sends only one request to the server at a time. It tends to wait for a response before it sends another request. Pipelining enables browsers to send multiple requests at the same time, thereby reducing the page loading time. In order to enable pipelining, you should
- Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return;
- Double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining and set their values to be true;
- double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set its value to 8.
Note: Some servers do not support pipelining. If you see problems such as slow down or page not loading, simply undo the everything in “about:config.”
3. Eliminate Flash
It’s a known issue that Flash often crashes Firefox browsers. If you’ve seen those annoying animations popping up everywhere and slowing down your browser, chances are you want to block them. There is a simple Firefox extension that easily helps you fix this problem. You can find the Flashblock Firefox extension @ Here. After installation, you will notice a much faster loading time for your Firefox pages.
4. Faster Loading
By doing the following, you can make your Firefox load even faster.
- Type about:config and hit “Return” —-> Right-click in the window and select “New” > “Integer” —-> Type content.switch.threshold and hit “Return” —-> Enter 250000 and hit “Return;”
- Type about:config and hit “Return” —-> Right-click in the window and select “New” > “Boolean” —-> Type content.interrupt.parsing and hit “Return” —-> Set the value to False and hit “Return.”
5. Limit “History” Size
When we surf the internet, every time your browser requests a page or image from anywhere, that data is stored in your browser history for a default of 90 days. This then translates into a huge amount of data stored on our computer. To limit the history data size, simply go to Tools —> Options —> Privacy. Then change the default 90 days to 5-10 days (See screenshot below). If you notice, I also checked “Clear history when Firefox closes.” Doing this has enabled me to control the history data stored on my computer to the bare minimum, thereby, drastically improving the browser performance.
Tools -> Options -> Privacy
6. Increase the Cache Size
If you have a RAM of 2GB or more, you can make your Firefox run faster by increasing the cache size. Here is how to do it:
Type about:config and hit “Return” —-> Right-click in the window and select “New” > “Integer” —-> Type browser.cache.memory.capacity and hit “Return” —-> Enter 65536 and hit “Return” —-> Restart your browser for a larger cache
7. Install Tiny Menu and Tab Mix Plus
Tiny Menu
Tiny Menu and Tab Mix Plus are two of my favorite Firefox extensions. Tiny Menu replaces the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup (See screenshot). Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox’s tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager. These two Firefox plugins help me manage my browser more efficiently.
Conclusion
In order for those tips to work, you must have broadband internet connection to begin with. In other words, if you don’t have DSL or Cable service, your internet/browser will be slow regardless. Feel free to add more tips that I might have left out. Please drop us a line below if this works for your Firefox.
Many thanks to these sites for their wonderful tutorials: Lifehacker, Techradar, Mozillalinks and Jimmyr.com.
