Tag Archives | about:config

Easy Access to Hidden Firefox Settings

Mar/18 in Add-ons Reviews, Usability

gui:config in actionIf you need to edit some of the advanced preferences of Firefox, and you need a neater way to get that done, gui:config is right for you. 

This extension of Firefox will give you a lot of the “about:config” preferences, in an easy to navigate menu box.  It displays the options, included in the current version, using checkboxes, dropdown lists and textboxes.

If you want to check out all the advanced settings that gui:config makes available to you, Lifehacker has done a nice gallery of each tab you see in the screenshot above.

I would consider this extension well worth trying out, at least.  The add-on, gui:config is a must have for anybody who likes to tweak and customize their browsing experience.  You can find out more about the development at:  http://guiconfig.freedig.org/.

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Faster Refreshing for Live Bookmarks

Dec/22 in Firefox Support, Hacks and Tweaks

Live Bookmarks in ActionHow do you get Firefox’s live bookmarks to refresh faster?  By default, the Live Bookmarks are set to refresh every 60 minutes to check for new headlines.  However, if you want to get your news a little quicker, there is a tweak you can do to make the process go a little faster.

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.

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Spell Check All Text Fields in Firefox

Oct/09 in Usability

What do you do about misspelling words in text boxes?  Well, you use the built-in Firefox spell check feature.  However, by default it does not work with ALL text fields.  That can simply be rectified though your about:config settings.

spell-check-everything

Just type in about:config into your address bar to get started.  Next, into the filter text box, type in layout.spell.  That should bring up the preference name layout.spellcheckDefault. Right-click it, and then select “Modify”.  Change the 1 (default value) to 2 and you should be all set. 

Firefox’s built in spell check will now check all text fields, no matter where or how they are used on the web site in question. 

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Search from the Address Bar in Firefox

Sep/10 in Settings, Usability

The other day, when we were talking about bringing Chrome features into Firefox, the topic “searching from the address bar” was mentioned.  By default, when you type a word into the address bar by itself, it gives you Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” number one result. 

awesome-bar

What if you just want to do a regular Google search? 

There is an easy way to turn your address bar into a Google search box.  You want to type into your address bar about:config.  Next, type into the filter keyword.URL. Once you have found it there, modify the string in there and replace it with:

http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=

From now on, when you type in a word or phrase into the address bar and hit enter, it will launch a Google search for it rather than giving you Google’s top result for that word or phrase.

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Get Richer Display Colors in Firefox

Jul/27 in Settings

Are your pictures not looking exactly right after uploading?  If your using Firefox 3, you can edit your settings to make those photos pop and display even richer colors.  To enable Firefox 3′s rich color support you need to:

Step 1: Enter about:config into your address bar

Step 2: In the filter box, type in this string:

gfx.color_management.enabled

Step 3: Now toggle that from false to true, and then restart (or close, and then open back up) Firefox.  Your done!  Now where is the catch?  Here is the explanation from Lifehacker:

From there on in, your photo colors will be richer than they were. Why isn’t this value true by default? Well, according to Mozilla, you’ll see a 10-15% performance hit using this setting, but if you’ve got a reasonably fast machine, it’ll be worth the better-looking photos. Hit the link below for an extended explanation of Firefox’s color profile support.

So, the clift notes version would be if you have a slower machine, you may not want to enable this setting.  If you have a powerhouse though, go at it.

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Remove the Toolbar Notes in Firefox 3

Jul/25 in Hacks and Tweaks

More of a pain than a savior, the toolbar the toolbar tip floating boxes of help and information in Firefox tend to hurt me more than help me.  Yes, I know the reload button allows me to reload the current page, I got it!

remove-helpIf you want to disable this feature, follow these steps:

Step 1: In your address bar, type in about:config

Step 2: If given a warning, tell Firefox you promise to be nice.  Now type this into your Filter search box at the top:

browser.chrome.toolbar_tips

Step 3: Now only one result should be showing up.  Right-click where it says “browser.chrome.toolbar_tips” and select “Toggle”.  You want to turn this from True to False.  (If you want them back, just toggle it again to turn this feature back on).  Now you can go ahead and get back to your browsing.

There you have it, no more annoying popup tips coming your way getting in the way of your browser thanks to our good ol’ buddy, about:config.

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More About the about: in Firefox

May/30 in Usability

Here are all of the useful (and not so useful, but still funny) about: triggers you can type into your address bar.

about: — The same page as “Help -> About”.

about:blank — A blank page. Useful for setting as your homepage.

about:cache — Displays cache statistics and disk cache directory location.

about:config — GUI for modifying user preferences.

about:crashes — List of Breakpad crash reports, with links and datestamps. Only in products based on Gecko 1.9 or later (Firefox 3, Thunderbird 3, SeaMonkey 2).

about:credits — The list of contributors to the Mozilla projects.

about:logo — Displays the application logo (Mozilla Suite, SeaMonkey, and Firefox 3).

about:kitchensink — Was never included in Mozilla for the reasons listed in Bug 122411 (“Mozilla does not have a kitchen sink”). You can install an extension that adds it though :)

about:license — shows the Mozilla Public License and the Netscape Public License for the piece of software. ( Only in products based on Gecko 1.8 or later)

about:mozilla — The famous Book of Mozilla.

about:plugins — Lists all your plugins as well as other useful information.

about:robots — Easter egg, see bug 417302. Beginning with March 8th, 2008 trunk builds, it’s now available on Firefox 3.0b5.

List is courtesy of Mozillazine.  From the useful to the silly, which of these is your favorite?

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Firefox 3′s About:Config Warning!

May/18 in Entertainment

Well I have finally switched over to using Firefox 3 – RC1 and found this warning very amusing…

Firefox 3's about:config Warning

Now I just wonder how many people will really think Firefox has a warranty? :)

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Change Default Search in Firefox

Jan/13 in Hacks and Tweaks

Change Your Default SearchTired of having Google as the default search engine in Firefox? Maybe it is another search engine’s turn to be on top?! If you feel the urge to dethrone Google as the default search engine for your Firefox search box – this is how you can get it done:

In your address bar, type in: “about:config”

Inside of the filter search box, type in:

browser.search.defaultenginename

Double click that entry (or right click and choose “Modify”) and then type in the name of the search engine you wish to have as the default search engine. It must be one that you already have installed and also make sure you type in the name correctly.

Now if you type in “Yahoo”, restart Firefox and when your browser comes back up you will see the red Yahoo “Y” and Yahoo as your default search engine.

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2 Tab About:Config Tips

Nov/14 in Hacks and Tweaks

About:Config TipsDo you like it or hate it when Firefox decides to give you the left and right scroll buttons up on your tab bar to navigate through a long list of tabs?

Minimum Tab Width

One way of fixing this would be going into your about:config file and bumping down the minimum tab width so that more tabs fit in the bar before the scroll scroll feature starts. Your default limit is 100 pixels but you can set it to what you need.

Open up about:config (by typing the phrase into your address bar) and search for this string in the search box provided at the top:

browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

Change the default to whatever you might want it to be. If you set it to 0, it will disable tab scrolling.

Delete the “Close” Button on the Tabs

Now while we are saving space, why not get rid of the close buttons that appear on each tab? To get this done search the about:config page for:

browser.tabs.closeButtons

Set the value to “2″ and ditch the close button all together. A value of “0″ only displays the close button on the active tab, “1″ (the default) shows it on all tabs. Now you have a little more power over your Firefox tabs.

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