Shimul Aich

Make Firefox Faster, some about:config tricks

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At present Firefox is the most popular browser in the internet world. The Firefox homepage calls the web browser “fully customizable to your online life,” and that’s not just marketing tagline. People can easily change its looks, features and browser speed as per their needs. Firefox have lots of extension, you can use those extensions to change your browser look, features and speed OR you can do all those things by using browser’s about:config process that can customize the browser to your specific needs.. But remember it is very critical process. You need to handle about:config section very carefully. Because about:config page control Firefox performance with lots of Boolean, Integer and string. So this is only for the expert users. Here are some firefox tricks:-

How you free Memory: – If you installed so many extensions with your browser then your browser use lots of memory, sometimes it cross 200 MB. So here is the process how to minimize it:-

• At First type about:config at your firefox address bar and press enter button.
• Type “browser.cache” at the “filter” text box area(at the top of the page).

• You will find “browser.cache.memory.capacity”, double click on that entry. Its default value 50000. Decrease the value (For example 15000) and click “OK” button.

Session History Hack: – This process can be use to reduce memory foot print. If you use firefox near about whole day then it will be helpful for you.

• Type “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers”at filter text box.
• Double click on it and change the -1 value to 0 and press enter.
• Restart the browser.

Increase speed with pipeline hacking: – It will help you to increase page download speed and it’ll open high graphics website very fast. Some website will not give you permission to open their site, because you are using more pipelines from default settings.

• Type “network.hhtp”at filter text box and you will get list.
• Change the settings “True” by double click on “network.http.pipelining”
• Change the settings “True” by double click on “network.http.proxy.pipelining”
• Double click on “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” settings, it will open a text box, type 2, 4 or 6 their and click OK button.

Hack Ram Cache: – It will increase surfing speed.

• Open new “about:config” page. Right click on that page and select New  Integer; it will open a new popup window.
• Type “browser.cache.memory.capacity” in that window, hit enter and again it will open new window. Write how much Ram Cache you want to use. Remember it will be in kilobyte format. It will be better if you put Ram Cache 25 MB to 64 MB.
• Restart the browser.

Please let me know if know any other tricks that help to increase browsing.