Due to some unknown reason, Firefox on Windows pulls certain file locations for security reasons.  In turn, having too many temporary, history or recent document files will slow down Firefox 3.5’s data generation process.  A bug has been filed about this, but in the mean time – the best thing you can do to help fix it is to do a little house cleaning.

The fix here is to browse through and clear both Internet Explorer’s history and cache and Firefox’s history and cache as much as you can.  You can find more help with this process at these resources:

• Workaround for Firefox 3.5 slow startups on Window
• Speed Up Firefox 3.5 Start-Up on Windows

I had not noticed this problem too much – then again, I have my Firefox temp files set to clear every time I close the browser and I hardly ever use Internet Explorer.  How about you?

UPDATE:

This problem was fixed in Firefox 3.5.1.  To check for updates, be sure to go to Help > “Check for Updates…” in Firefox.  Thanks to the Firefox development team for the speedy update!

One feature I really love in Firefox, that probably does not get the credit it deserves, is the smart zooming features.  A feature that was new to Firefox 3, this allows you to zoom an entire page to make it larger or smaller.  You may need to make a site larger to make it easier to read, or you might make it smaller to fit within the screen real estate of your smaller monitors (for examples, those people out there who may have netbooks). 

There are several ways you can zoom into or out of the page you are on. 

Keyboard:

(make the page bigger) Ctrl and the + Key

(make the page smaller) Ctrl and the – Key

Mouse:

(make the page bigger) Hold the Ctrl Key and Scroll Up

(make the page smaller) Hold the Ctrl Key and Scroll Down

Toolbar:

View > Zoom > Zoom In

View > Zoom > Zoom Out

One more zooming trick that Firefox has up its sleeve is the ability to only zoom in on text, leaving graphics their normal sizes.  To do that, go to View > Zoom and select “Zoom Text Only”.  To reset a page’s specific zoom level (large or small), go to View > Zoom > Reset or hit Ctrl and the 0 key.  Firefox will remember which pages you have larger too.  So for example, you could zoom into FirefoxFacts.com, but when you visit WebHostingShow.com, it would still be at its normal size.  Your preferences are remembered for each site you visit.

This can easily be done via the built in search engine manager.

Click on Firefox’s search box, as if you were going to change search engines, and look at the bottom for a menu selection titled, “Manage Search Engines”.  Clicking it will bring up the Manage Search Engine List.  From here you can:

• Edit Search Engine Keywords
• Move Search Engines Up or Down
• Remove a Search Engine
• Restore the Default Search Engines
• Get More Search Engines
• Enable/Disable the “Show Search Suggestions”

There you have it.  Now Firefox has not always had this option.  Back in previous versions, you had to do some heavy duty hunting and pecking to really edit and organize your search engine selections.  This at least gives you a more user friendly interface, and I am all about the user friendly around here. 

First thing you should do is follow the common Firefox troubleshooting tips:

• Troubleshooting Firefox Problems

Check for Faulty Add-ons

Next, take a look at your extensions.  It could be that one of your add-ons you have installed has a problem with it.  First thing I want you to do when checking out your add-ons is to go to Tools > Add-ons and then click on the “Find Updates” button.  See if updating any of your add-ons might help get rid of the issue. 

The next suggestion would be to go to Tools > Add-ons, disable all the add-ons you have installed, and then restart Firefox.  If the problem has gone away after that, you can then enable add-ons until the problem comes back.  This should help you figure out which add-on is at fault.  It could also be caused by a combination of add-ons, that do not play nice together, so do not rule that out as a possibility too.

Could it be Spyware/Malware?

This suggestion from mozillaZine might also be worth checking into:

If the problem is in Firefox on Windows, check for a file named m3ffxtbr.manifest in the "chrome" folder of your installation directory (usually "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\chrome\m3ffxtbr.manifest"). If the file exists, delete it, then restart Firefox. This file is created by the "MyWebSearch Toolbar" (a form of spyware).

Be sure to check out this knowledge base post for more tips on working with this nasty problem.  Now the last and nuclear step would be to do a fresh or clean install of Firefox to see if you can get rid of the problem that way.  It is a drastic step, but has worked for me in the past. 

Here are some of the important files you might seen in your profile folder and what they are used for.

• search.sqlite and the searchplugins folder – The first file, search.sqlite stores the order that your search engines (for the search box) are sorted. Inside of the searchplugins folder you can find all the extra search engines you have installed.
• mimeTypes.rdf – your preferences with respect to what Firefox does when it comes across known file types.
• formhistory.sqlite - this is where information that you have searched for or entered into forms on web sites (think autocomplete) is stored.
• places.sqlite – this is the file that contains your bookmarks and previously visited web sites.
• cert8.db – all your security certificate settings and any SSL certificates you have imported are stored here.
• permissions.sqlite – the file here stores site specific preferences, such as if you allow it to install add-ons, show images, display popups or any special orders you have allowed for that domain.
• key3.db and signons3.txt – these are the files that store your password information you have saved.
• persdict.dat – this file will hold your words you have personally put into Firefox’s built in spellchecker.
• cookies.sqlite – your web site cookies are stored here.

Now, I do know there are more files – however, these are the files that are most important for you to know about, just in case something bad might happen.  Hopefully, this additional documentation will come in handy when troubleshooting your own Firefox issues or problems.

The Traditional Way

The way you usually uninstall add-ons from Firefox is to go to Tools and then Add-ons from the menu bar.  In the next Window, you should see your extensions (if not, hit the “Extensions” tab at the top).  Now click on the one you wish to remove, and hit the button labeled “Uninstall”.  You can do this several times if you need to get rid of several add-ons.  Now, simply restart Firefox and your add-on in question should be removed.

Try Removing the Add-on via Safe Mode

Close out Firefox, and start up using Firefox’s safe mode.  Try to use the traditional steps above then to remove the addon that is bugging you.

Checkout Add/Remove Programs

This might change some (depending on what version of Windows you are using) but these general directions should get you to the right spot.  Click on the start menu (or windows globe) and go to the control panel.  From there, you want to go to the “Add/Remove Programs” settings.  Scroll down this list and see if you see the extension in question here that you can not remove via Firefox.  Some toolbars and add-ons install themselves here, rather than the traditional add-ons menu from inside of Firefox.

Last (but not least) Remove the Add-on Manually

You can also remove add-ons manually, but I would leave this as a last resort.  You will need to navigate to your Firefox profile folder.  Once you make it there, look for a folder called “extensions”.  Inside of that folder, you will see more folders with names that look like random ‘bit of text thrown together.  Each folder represents an extension that has been installed. Go through each folder, and look for install.rdf.  Open that up in your standard notepad program and it should tell you the name of the extension you are looking at.  If you can’t find it, search the install.rdf for the phrase “em:name”.  After that, the name of the extension should be given.  You may also find a few themes inside this folder too.  Once you find an install.rdf that matches that addon you want to remove, you can delete that extensions entire folder.

As you noticed, this pretty much covered things for the Windows people to some extent.  If any Apple or Linux fans want to let me know how they do things, please drop in a comment and share with the group!

In the address bar, type in about:config, and then hit enter.

At the warning, click the button that says, “I’ll be careful, I promise!”.  Now you are ready to do some configuration changes.  We want to setup a new option though, so right-click anywhere inside of the about:config screen and then go to New > Integer.

For the preference name type in:

browser.bookmarks.livemark_refresh_seconds

Now, for the value, you will need to add your time up by seconds.  For example, if you wanted it to be reloaded every two minutes you would type in 120 (because there are 120 seconds in two minutes).  The smallest number you can put in here is 60 seconds.  If you put in anything lower, Firefox will slap you in the face – and then say, “Oh yeah, you wanted to put in ‘60′ right?”.

You can also reload a Live Bookmark manually to by right-clicking it and choosing “Reload Live Bookmark”.  However that isn’t nearly as fun as diving into about:config.

Have you lost your master password?

If you want to add another layer of protection to your Firefox browser, you can turn on the master password option.  In short, this will allow you to secure your login information – especially if your PC is used by more than one person, so they can’t snoop through Firefox’s options and find your passwords.

Now if you find yourself not remembering your master password, there is an easy way to reset it.  There is a down side though, because resetting your master password will remove all of your saved user names and passwords. To start the process, copy and paste this location into your Firefox address bar:

chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xul

This is your “Reset Master Password” page.  For one more time, it warns you:

If you reset your master password, all your stored web and e-mail password, form data, personal certificates, and private keys will be forgotten. Are you sure you want to reset your master password?

Then you will be given the option to “Reset” or “Cancel”.  Hit the button labled “Reset” and your master password should be reset.

What is Firefox Saving About Me?

Now the first question you may have is what type of content is saved by Firefox?

Security Zone Policy Errors – This seems to be more of a problem than most people realize.  From this one blog post, I see people coming in every day having issues with it.  So, should Firefox be relying on Windows security settings for downloading applications and other potentially unsafe files from the Internet?

Descriptions for Bookmarks – Have you ever right-clicked a bookmark, Went down to properties and typed in a description about a page you had saved?  No, I haven’t either – so this might be another Firefox feature ready for the junk yard.  Name, Location, and Keyword is good enough for me.

Now it is your turn, what Firefox feature could you live without?

Firefox Facts Bonus!  This morning I installed Intense Debate for FirefoxFacts.com.  I am really excited to see how much better this makes the commenting system here on the web site.  No registration in necessary, but if you do – there are some cool extra features you will get, such as reputation points, comment voting, and tons of other cool things.  (Learn More!)