The share of users still using these two out of date Windows versions is really small, the largest number I saw was maybe .4%? So, if this means that the Mozilla team is able to put out a bigger and better browser, then so be it.  Dotzler says, “Next Tuesday or Wednesday, after Firefox 12 moves to Aurora, the Mozilla Release Engineering team will begin upgrading our Windows build systems to Visual Studio 2010.”

In fact, Mozilla has supported Windows XP SP1 and Windows 2000 longer than Microsoft has. Internet Explorer 8 requires XP with SP2 or higher, and has no support for Windows 2000 at all.  So if you are still using Windows XP, make sure you are running the latest and greatest version if you want to still use Firefox.

TableTools2

Here is a little more information about TableTools2 from the developer:

Whether you’re a sports fan checking out stats of your favorite quarterbacks, a music fan viewing a listing of top selling albums, a gamer searching for top games, a shopper comparison shopping, a scientist analyzing data tables …, you’ll find TableTools2 tremendously helpful.

Some of the other features include the ability to compare data, combine tables, rearrange the things you are looking at, chart the data into pie chats, line charts, histograms and more. 

Want to give it a shot? You can download TableTools2 from the Firefox Add-ons website. It is definitely the best add-on out there if you need to work with tables and data.

How can you change your cookie settings in Firefox? To change your cookie settings:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and then click Options.
2. Select the Privacy panel.

If you click the check mark box under the “Tracking” section, you can tell websites that you do not want to be tracked. I have covered that in a previous article: How to Stop Website Tracking in Firefox

Under “History” you have the option to remember past websites you’ve visited, not to remember websites you’ve visited or a custom history setting.  When Firefox remembers your browsing history, it keeps track of form and search history, websites you’ve visited, downloads and cookies.

Last but not least, if you scroll down a little lower you will see the option to “Accept cookies from sites”. This allows you to control if specific websites can track you or not.  You can also accept cookies until:

• Keep until: they expire: Each cookie will be removed when it reaches its expiration date, which is set by the site that sent the cookie.
• Keep until: I close Firefox: The cookies that are stored on your computer will be removed when Firefox is closed.
• Keep until: ask me every time: Displays an alert every time a website tries to send a cookie, and asks you whether or not you want to store it.

When you are done with your cookie changing, always be sure to hit the “OK” button at the bottom of the options window to save your changes.  What type of cookie tracking changes do you like to make?

This extension isn’t just obviously named – it also works wonders too.  Once installed, you can right-click on any link and choose the option “Open Link in Private Browsing Mode”. Not sure if this would be useful? Here are a few examples from the extension developer of how this add-on might come in handy.

• You click around Amazon, and suddenly you see an item that you think would make a great gift for your partner, who uses the same computer.
• You encounter an ad for a really silly item that you really want to check out but are too embarrassed to admit.
• Your detour through the depths of Wikipedia gets so absurd that you’d rather not have those pages show up in your browsing history.

Want to give it a shot? You can pick up Open in Private Browsing Mode from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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Tabs, with this new theme, will seem to fade into the background a ‘bit more.  You get a much more glass-like interface – especially if you are a Windows Vista or Windows 7 user. This theme is the fourth most popular theme on the Firefox Add-ons website, so it must have something going for it.  However, there are a few too many odd graphical bugs that might keep me from using it all the time.  For example, the new tab button seems to overlay on top of the last tab.  Little things like that might not bug some – but they do bug me.

Want to give it a shot? You can download the Shine Bright Skin for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

I think Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and even Opera should all thank Mozilla and Firefox for continuing to push the bar for innovative browsing. It doesn’t matter who had what feature first.  The thing that does matter is that with all the most recent browser innovations, like the search box or tabbed browsing – Firefox made it cool and useful to do so.

What Mozilla needs to do is find out what the next best feature is going to be.  What can they do that the other browsers can’t?

One more important feature to Firefox’s success is the huge fan base that Mozilla has built. Don’t write Firefox out of the browser wars just yet. I have a feeling that Mozilla will see to it that they stay competitive out there. The browser competition is good for all of us because it means we will get better web browsing experiences – no mater which browser we use.

Here are some of her Personas she designed that I like the most:

Gray and Black

Fall Horizon

Autumns Light

Christmas Sky

Browse through more of MaDannas themes on her Personas page or check her out at her official blog. Also let me know if you would like to see me feature more Persona designers like this.  I’ll take your feedback and deliver what you need – just let me know in the comments.

The first thing you will want to do is check for updates for your add-ons.  You can easily do this in the latest version of Firefox by clicking the Firefox button and then click Add-ons. This will open up the Add-ons Manager.  Next, select the gear button at the top and select, “Check for Updates”. Firefox will then search for and download any updates that are available automatically. Restart the browser when asked, and you should be good to go.

If the add-on has been simply disabled (Firefox sometimes does this with add-ons that were added by another program) you should be able to simply re-enable the add-on in question.

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button and then click Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager tab will open.
2. In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions panel.
3. Click the Enable button next to the add-on you’d like to re-enable.

Know of any more fixes?  Be sure to leave them in the comments!  Hope this helps you the next time you find your favorite add-ons are not working in Firefox.

I recently upgraded from using the standard bookmarklet to save pages to the Firefox add-on and I have been really impressed with how it integrates into the browsing experience.  Want to save something for later? Just click the icon for it in the address bar.  You can then pull up your saved links by clicking another toolbar button that is added right into the Firefox interface.  You can also sync your saved pages to multiple browsers and devices.  So, I could save a link 5 minutes before I have to go to work – then read it after work on my iPad.

Here are some more of the fantastic features:

• Save pages to a reading list to read when you have time.
• Offline reading mode lets you read the items you’ve saved for later on the plane, train, or anywhere without an internet connection.
• Sync your list to all of your computers, at work or home.
• Sync your list to Read It Later apps for iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android and more.
• After reading, bookmark pages on your preferred bookmarking service or share them with friends.
• Click to Save Mode lets you quickly batch a reading list just by clicking on interesting links.
• Text view strips away images, ads, and layout from articles and presents them in an easy to consume way.

You have to try out this fantastic bookmarking alternative to really see what all the buzz is about.  You can pick up Read it Later from the Firefox Add-ons website.