Firefox Tips Options

[steeler_fan]

Customizing Toolbars

This is one many users of Firefox aren't even aware of. All the toolbars are customizable. All of the buttons can be moved around any way you like them, and you can remove the ones you don't like (or all of them if you want). Right click on a toolbar (except the bookmarks one) and hit "Customize..." (alternatively, you could go to View>Toolbars>Customize...

You can now start dragging and dropping all of the buttons, the address bar and the google search bar. Flexible space will take up any remaining space between two objects (everything moves left by default), the space is of fixed size.

For this, I do recommend an extension, Compact Menu. With it, all of the Menu items (File, Edit, View, etc) are moved under one icon (its the extension developer's, cdn, personal icon....not sure what it is really) which really saves space. Customize Toolbar Dialog and What my toolbars look like

about:config

Since Firefox is the smaller offspring of Mozilla, many of Mozilla's cluttered menus and its UI for everything have been removed. However, the underlying settings are many times still available if you know how to get to them. We can do that via the URL about:config.

Say, for example, you want tabs to open with focus (as opposed to in the background like they do now). You can go to the Options menu and go to Advanced and check "Select new tabs opened from links" (so about:config isn't necessary in this case, but it is in many others). However, all thats happening when you check that box is Firefox is changing the pref in about:config called "browser.tabs.loadInBackground" to "false".

When you open about:config, you'll see a giant list of prefs. You could scroll through the whole thing, or you can use the Filter at the top (much easier). It updates live (each letter you type takes away non-relevant entries), so you don't have to type much to find prefs. For instance, for the above tip, just type "tabs" and you'll find it.

One of the new features since 0.8 is the ability to middle click on tabs to open them in the background (instead of automatically taking focus). However, this is not the default behavior. If you'd like that, go to about:config and find "browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground", and change it to "true" (Just right click>Modify). Now bookmarks will load in the background when middle clicked.

The throbber (or what the Customize Toolbar Dialog calls the "Activity Indicator"--its the circle that animates when a page is loading to show the browser is actually doing something) points to http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/start/ by default (same as the home page). You can change it if you so desire, just go to "browser.throbber.url" and change it to whatever you'd like.

Another new pref since 0.8 is where, even if you have the popup blocker off, the max number of popups that can be loaded at any one time defaults to 20. This can be changed via about:config. The pref name is "dom.popup_maximum".

SmoothScroll is available without an extension (but you might not like it very much). The pref is "general.smoothScroll"

Personally, I began using Firefox way back when it was called Phoenix and I was in Windows. From the start I used middle clicks to close tabs. When I switched over to Linux, middle clicking loads (or tries to load) whatever you have in the clipboard in the current tab. Nice, but I don't use it. I changed "middlemouse.contentLoadURL" to false, and now I can middle click on tabs again to close them.

All prefs set in about:config take effect immediately (you don't even have to restart!)


Ok, thats all for now...I'll think of some more and post them here.

[kyfho23]

More tips:
1. Install Firefox to the C: drive. When I tried it on my D: partition, Safe Mode didn't appear in the Start Menu entry for FF.
2. After installing an extension, close the browser and restart. This enables you to find out if something weird happens after installing.
3. Install your extensions in alphabetical order. Easiest way: Use the list at http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/alpha.html. It's easier (for me, anyway) to find things this way....the extension manager doesn't sort them alpahbetically.
4. Play! Lotsa good stuff on the various pages of mozdev.org, and the home pages for most extensions. The AdBlock extension, with filters, can really save time and bandwith.

Enjoy
Chris

[Cluttermagnet]

Thanks, guys! I almost always learn something new from these threads. Thanks for the reminder about dragging buttons around. I removed my Home button, as it is something I'd never use. I might have when I was more of a newbie with the web page writing. These days, I don't have any one top favorite, I have a small group of them. Scot's Forums is about one of my top destinations, however. I end up here way more often than I do at my own website.

These are great times for web browsers, at least if you happen to like Mozilla or Firefox. This extensions stuff is really fun, and the about:config is very powerful and quite impressive. It's nice to see more and more capabilities for customizing handed to the end user. And pretty easy to use, too (i.e. no programming skills needed).

One tip rather surprised me- the item about dragging away the Google Searchbar or the Address bar. It never would have occurred to me to try it that way. I have an extension installed that kills or replaces the Google bar with a couple of keyclicks. Firefox is becoming so flexible that it resembles Windows in some ways- there are usually two or more ways of doing any particular task.

We probably should all mention Adblock more often. I think it is a must-have extension for Firefox. Maybe we start to take it for granted, but it is really a great find for anyone new to the Mozilla browser family.

[Clif_Notes]

At lockergnomes I found another site with tips on fixes for Firefox.
Meryl's Notes: FireFox Fix-its

[iajoe]

Thanks Steeler and others. I'm reading these articles offline.

[rojmiller]

A nice utility is FireTweaker:
http://www.emilsoft.net/modules/products/?select=firetweaker

You just use it just once, to customize some FireFox settings and tweaks.

[steeler_fan]

What was formerly http://texturizer.net/firefox/ is now hosted on mozilla.org at http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/

This allows for more content updates, and for an "official" source of help to point to.

Check it out!

Neil

[Paracelsus]

Thanks for the Update, Neil!!
I'm sure it will be better than ever

[linuxdude32]

This article from the Windows Secrets newsletter:

Secrets of Firefox 1.0

The intro has a couple of interesting paragraphs about how Firefox/Mozilla are gaining:

In case you haven't heard, Firefox is rapidly gaining steam as a free replacement for Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser. OneStat.com, which measures Web behavior in 100 countries around the world, reported on Nov. 22 that IE had lost 5 percentage points of market share in the past six months, dropping to 89% of browser users. Firefox and its predecessor, Mozilla, are up to 7.35% of users. The foundation says 7.5 million people downloaded Firefox 1.0 in the month of November.

That doesn't tell the whole story, though. Experienced Windows admins, who often set the tone for other users, seem to be adopting Firefox at a much higher rate. More than 25% of the visitors to my specialized Web sites ? WindowsSecrets.com, BriansBuzz.com, BrianLivingston.com, and the like ? are now using some version of Firefox or Mozilla, according to my server logs. That's up from only 10.9% as recently as January 2004.

I've noticed in the PLUG website logs that Mozilla-based browsers are making up a greater proportion of users. Even though it's a Linux site, the majority of visitors used to be IE about 8-12 months ago. Now, 73% are Mozilla or Firefox users, IE is next at about 20% and then about 5% are Konqueror users. I think Firefox has added enough useful features to the browser that people who use it find it a much better browser overall.

[Jeber]

I've come to love fireFTP for moving files between my Linux distros and my web sites. When in Windows, I can use Power Desk for FTP transfers, and I've never really loved any of the Linux FTP applications...but fireFTP has won my heart. Easy to use, fast and a nice GUI. My only complaint is not being able to bookmark my FTP sites. But I can live without that.

I still miss my "FireSomething" extension...

[steeler_fan]

A few Security Tips:

To help fight phishing/spoofing, Firefox has some neat security features. First off, when you go to a secure site, the Location bar will turn yellow, and feature a lock (I believe the color is up to the theme, so it may be different...) at the end. The URI will also be an https:// URI instead of an http:// (note the "s" in the first one).

These features alone are not enough. You can be connected to a "secure" server and still be at risk.

Just because a site is secure does not mean it is the site you think you are on

I can't stress that enough. There are spoofers out there, and they'll do anything to try and trick you. Some websites try to trick users into thinking they're on a certain site when they aren't--see Secunia advisory 10395. Firefox fights this in a good way, by popping up a dialog to tell the user the site might be tricking them:



That's fine, but what if this dialog doesn't come up? Well, there is another way to make sure you are on the right site. When the Location bar is yellow, and the lock is there too, look at the status bar: it will have its own lock that shows the real domain, or the site you are actually on. If it doesn't match, be alert--you are probably not where you think you are!!:



(Sorry if these images break things, I'll change them if there is a problem!)



Neil

This post has been edited by steeler_fan: Feb 4 2005, 05:33 PM

[Plukaduk]

A few Security Tips:

To help fight phishing/spoofing, Firefox has some neat security features. First off, when you go to a secure site, the Location bar will turn yellow, and feature a lock (I believe the color is up to the theme, so it may be different...) at the end. The URI will also be an https:// URI instead of an http:// (note the "s" in the first one).

These features alone are not enough. You can be connected to a "secure" server and still be at risk.

The Spoofstick 1.04 is a simple browser extension that helps users detect spoofed (fake) websites.

[rbdietz]

Firefox and most other modern browsers (but not IE ) have an unresolved security issue that's sure to be used in phishing exploits. For details see. http://www.shmoo.com/idn/

If you've already read about this and think you're safe, please check out the following pages. (about:config> network.enableIDN = false does not work! )

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.ph...page=15&start=0
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=281365

[steeler_fan]

Firefox and most other modern browsers (but not IE ) have an unresolved security issue that's sure to be used in phishing exploits. For details see. http://www.shmoo.com/idn/

If you've already read about this and think you're safe, please check out the following pages. (about:config> network.enableIDN = false does not work! )

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.ph...page=15&start=0
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=281365

This is unfortunate, but I'll bet it's "fixed" in 1.0.1 (they might hold the release until they decide what to do). At least by making the pref work, if they can't really fix it.

[edit]

Darin Fisher has a blog post about the "exploit" -- read the blog he links to, as well. It seems the burden is on the registrars, not Mozilla, to fix this. But again, the pref should be fixed so that it actually does something.

[edit again]
This post at mozillazine should clear things up a bit The pref should be fixed for 1.0.1 releases (and 1.7.6), apparently it was fixed-on-trunk a while ago.

This post has been edited by steeler_fan: Feb 8 2005, 05:43 AM

[nlinecomputers]

The IDN not lasting through a reset has been addressed here:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=281377

It is fixed for nightly builds and will be in the 1.0.1 version of firefox. I have a sinking feeling that this is going to be exploited quickly so Mozilla needs to act on this quick.

[rbdietz]

A work around that does work.
1) Close all instances of Firefox.
2) Make a backup copy of compreg.dat in your Firefox profile folder.

In Windows 2K/XP the Firefox profile folder is
%userprofile%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\random.default

3) Open compreg.dat in your favorite text editor.
4) Search for any lines containing IDN and comment them out with a # symbol.

Example:
#{62b778a6-bce3-456b-8c31-2865fbb68c91},@mozilla.org/network/idn-service;1,application/x-mozilla-static,nsIDNService,necko_core_and_primary_protocols
#@mozilla.org/network/idn-service;1,{62b778a6-bce3-456b-8c31-2865fbb68c91}

5) Save the file.
6) Start Firefox and retest the exploits at http://www.shmoo.com/idn/

If either exploit still works, repeat steps 3 through 6.
Enjoy.

[Webb]

Get rid of Acrobat Reader and get

Foxit PDF Reader.

There is already a nice little thread over at Mozillazine so I won't repeat everything here.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=219266

[steeler_fan]

Gervase Markham has posted an update concerning IDN. This is a complex problem that requires a complex solution, but work is being done on it.

[Corrine]

Whether you're a first-time user or a veteran, this Firefox Tweak Guide brings together all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for Firefox. From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience. Most of all you can rest assured that the guide is not written by a raving Firefox fanboy - it's a true objective TweakGuides tweak guide, and not a gushing ad for a free web browser.

http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_1.html

[Gary]

Thanks for the Guide.

[steeler_fan]

Fantastic! I haven't had time to read through the whole thing yet, but I've skimmed it, and it goes into amazing detail. Great find, Corrine!

[Temmu]

cool!

me too has only skimmed the surface, but looks like a nice piece of work!

thx for the find, corrine!

[zlim]

Thanks Corrine. I'm always amazed at the neat things everyone finds on the internet.

[Rons]

Thank you Corrine. Nice find.

[steeler_fan]

Jesse Ruderman has several tips for staying safe on the internet, including for users, site developers, and extension developers.

I just remembered these, and I don't think he's updated them in a while, so some information might be stale--on the whole, though, they're good documents to read (at LEAST the user one, because we're all users )

They are available here: http://www.squarefree.com/securitytips/