The cache in Firefox is a place where images, scripts, and other parts of a website are stored while you are browsing. Sometimes, clearing the cache in Firefox can help speed up the browser or help make sure you are viewing the latest version of the file or website you are looking at. Here are the simple steps to take to clear the cache in Firefox:
Tag Archives | speed
Don’t Load Tabs Until Selected
Is Firefox acting a little slow? There are several little tweaks and fixes you can do to speed the browser up or to change the behavior of the browser so things seem faster. One of these that many people don’t know about is the option to not load up tabs until they are selected.
Moving Your Cache to RAM for Speed Boost
By tweaking your browser cache settings from within about:config, you could see a ‘bit of a speed boost when it comes to using Firefox on a daily basis. You see, when images are loaded by default, they can be cached so they don’t need to be redisplayed or looked for again. What we will be editing today will control the maximum amount of memory used for caching images.
Browse Faster, Without the Tweaks
I thought I would start the week off with helping you make Firefox faster. Now, there are no about:config tweaks or any other “under the hood” changes that need to be made. Instead, we are going to save time by speeding up repetitive tasks. FastestFox might be the best add-on for Firefox for getting this done.
Firefox 3.7 Beats IE, Chrome and Opera
Let us end this week with one more win in the Firefox column.
Over at Download Squad, they have been doing some really interesting browser testing. In a 4-way HTML5 speed test, Firefox 3.7 beat Internet Explorer 9, Opera and Chrome. The Video really speaks for itself, but if you want to learn more – be sure to check out this post over at DownloadSquad.com.
Just Put It On My Bar Tab
When you load up a dozen or more tabs all at once, Firefox can slow down to a crawl. Now, you can either choose to stop overwhelming Firefox with too many tabs or you can grab this helpful add-on for Firefox that will only load up the tab you need at the time, with multiple tabs still available.
Just put it on your Bar Tab.
Smoother Web Page Scrolling
The way you use your web browser is a very personalized experience. From the way you click links, to even the way you scroll down a web page, everybody has their own way of doing things. To add a few more page scrolling tweaks to the Firefox browser, give the Smooth Wheel add-on a shot.
Smooth Wheel adds several more configurable preferences to your mouse wheel’s performance in Firefox. Here is a little ‘bit more about the extension from the developer:
Clean Your SQLite Databases to Speed up Firefox
Did you know you can tidy Firefox up, with VACUUM? No, I do not mean that thing you use to clean your carpets. Here is a way to VACUUM your places database from within the browser.
Here are the steps you need to take:
1. Open the Firefox tools menu and click on error console.
2. Paste the following command into the code box as a single line:
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");
3. Hit the “Enter” key or click the evaluate button.
The user interface will freeze for a moment, but after you are done, your SQLite databases should be less fragmented than before, leading to a leaner and meaner Firefox browsing experience.
Thanks goes to Mozilla developer Jeremy Orem for this fantastic tip!
Bonus – Vacuum Places Improved is an add-on that will do this for you automatically.
Create a Downloads Folder for Firefox
Sometimes the simple usability tips are the ones that people overlook the most. Creating a downloads folder not only keeps things organized when you download things from the Web in Firefox, it also will save you time too.
More About the Downloads Settings and Options
In the menu bar, go to Tools and then select Options. In the Main tab in the options menu, you should see an area where you can configure how Firefox handles your downloads.
I would recommend selecting the Save files to option and setting up a downloads folder where you can save all your downloaded files. Why? It makes it much easier to find them after you are done, and also it keeps your desktop clean – which often is the default place to dump things for many people out there. I have mine setup right inside of my documents in Windows XP and my profile folder inside of Vista. It doesn’t matter where you put it, as long as it is somewhere you can easily reach.
Show the Downloads window when downloading a file is pretty obvious, checked it will show the download manager box as your downloads progress and unchecked, it’ll keep the download information and alerts in your Firefox status bar. You can also select the option to close it when all downloads are finished. I don’t do this, cause I usually want to check out what I just downloaded after I downloaded it.
Always ask me where to save the files might be a good option for those of you out there that need to have everything in it’s specific spot, but often becomes a great time waster.
Just dump your downloads into a folder called, “Downloads” – it makes things much easier.
Browse Faster with SmarterFox
Another jewel in the ruff I discovered when browsing around the Mozilla add-ons site was SmarterFox. What does this add-on to the browser do for you? It helps make browsing the web just that much faster…and smarter!
Where are the features? Here are some of the thinks I liked about this awesome add-on to your browser:
- Search by selecting/highlighting text and then clicking on the popup bubble
- Google results automatically show up in the Awesomebar/URL bar as you type (faster than going to google.com)
- Easily switch between search engines during a search with a single click
- Convert text URLs into clickable links
- Automatically copy on select / paste on middle click / paste on right click (NOT enabled by default)
- Visit bookmarks quickly with keyboard shortcuts using qLauncher
- Adds "related articles" side-pane to Wikipedia
There is definitely a lot of browser tweaking to be loved here. It is that type of extension that does many things well, instead of focusing on doing one thing really well. So if you would like to kill several birds with on stone – this is the pick me up your browser has been looking for.
Want to give it a shot? Pickup SmarterFox on the Mozilla add-ons site and let me know what you think. Has it helped you browse the Web any faster or smarter?
