A handful of Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed

March 25, 2009

in Internet

Firefox users take note: You need to do this. Now. As in, this instant. More savvy users are probably already familiar with editing Firefox’s configuration file but whether you’re a computer rookie or a seasoned veteran, Gnoted has issued a handful of tweaks that really get Firefox cooking. As much as we all love the fox, it can get a bit slow on occasion – especially if you’re like us and have 35 open tabs spread across four windows at any given time. By tweaking the way Firefox handles some caching functions, you can dramatically improve page load speed and even prevent Firefox from hogging your system resources while minimized. If you don’t currently have any experience playing with your configuration file, don’t be scared. Just follow the simple instructions, take your time and if you want a security blanket to squeeze, jot down each setting before you change it so you can always restore the default configuration if need be. So without further ado, hit the jump and get tweaking – just remember to restart Firefox when you’re done.

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for its cache feature

1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed at Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10MB when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.



{ 125 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Ghostsurfer April 23, 2009 at 12:32 am

“Swatson” try to hit the small (square) in the upper right corner in the Firefox browser where your browser windows begins and choose the (Restore Default) field.

Reply

2 Paolo May 12, 2009 at 1:05 pm

Messing things around for me. Gmail stopped working

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3 vernon May 17, 2009 at 1:00 pm

great. thanks.

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4 Colin June 26, 2009 at 7:37 am

you can just go to system preferences and keyboard and mouse and set it up to right click on the mac mouse

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5 fettmansucks July 24, 2009 at 8:25 am

Apple already made a two-button mouse, moron

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6 geedub January 3, 2010 at 1:20 am

Just open two windows and cut and paste the actual links from the main page.

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7 ben January 3, 2010 at 7:24 am

Did not help, made firefox laggy for me.

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8 Ridhima B January 4, 2010 at 12:53 am

Awesome! Thank you so much I really needed this…

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9 Muhammed March 8, 2010 at 11:46 pm

to make firefox much faster than chrome type about:config in the address bar.When about:config opens there will be a long list of entries with a filter on top.Type content.interrupt.parsing in the filter bar double click the entry or select it and press enter.When the entry becomes from true to false then type content.notify interval in the filter and change it to any number between 10000 and 50000 after that type content.max.tokenizing.time in the filter and change the amount to three times the amount of content.notify.interval lastly change content.switch.threshold to a number between ten and fifty thousand lastly right click on any entry select new integer and create content.notify.backoffcount and set the integer to -1

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10 minorcan March 21, 2010 at 11:36 pm

thanks!

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11 Immanuel March 24, 2010 at 10:05 pm

Im trying to beat this game on facebook called cubefield and i found out that you could tweak firefox to make the game slower so you could go through the levels easier. Do you know of anyway I can accomplish that?

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12 dagorret March 24, 2010 at 11:51 pm

The game suggests, is not part of Facebook.
Facebook is staying at the home page Fans: http://ow.ly/1qybk

The game is at: http://ow.ly/1qybN is programmed in Flash.
Flash is a plug in any browser. Firefox or IE, for example.

Anyway I have been testing on my notebook with 256MB of RAM and Windows 98, Pentium II and it works great.

I recommend you check all programs you have open when they're playing.

Sorry I can not help you more, but the issue has to do with Flash or not using the browser.

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13 naresh March 28, 2010 at 12:08 pm

great tips

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14 Camisetas May 23, 2010 at 5:23 am

Very nice tips! Works great!

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15 mitsui May 31, 2010 at 8:12 am

hello is it work in windows 7?

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16 Carlos Dagorret May 31, 2010 at 3:53 am

Yes

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17 Ted Tripp June 21, 2010 at 4:37 am

Very Nice……..

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18 Ana6692003 June 25, 2010 at 12:34 pm

it was good, i first used ur setting then found another site which was suggesting more to set in this aboutconfig thingy i used them and my speed died, then i had to reset them all . since theres no option to delete one, so i set em again as it was said on ur page. not sure if i need to do something else o get rif od them setting or just resetting them would do so .. thanks

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20 Herkese Benden Çay August 16, 2010 at 12:45 pm

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21 solartronenergy August 27, 2010 at 11:56 pm

I am very impressed with the results these tweaks have had on my laptop thanks guys

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