People often run into problems when Firefox updates, because some of their favorite add-ons no longer work. Well, it isn’t exactly that they will not work. It is the fact that the add-on developer hasn’t updated the add-on to meet the compatibility of the newer version of Firefox. In this article I’ll see what I can do to help you out when it comes to getting them re-enabled.
Tag Archives | tutorial
Old Add-ons Not Working?
Rollback Your Bookmark Collection
Backing up and restoring your bookmarks in Firefox is a pretty easy thing to do. However, did you know that Firefox has a way you can rollback to a previous day’s bookmark backup? This can save you a lot of heartache if you have accidently deleted a folder of useful bookmarks and you need to get them back in a hurry.
Live Bookmarks 101
Although the feature might not get as much love as others, the Live Bookmarks function of Firefox is one to be admired. Live Bookmarks can deliver you the most recent updates to you from any website, right in Firefox. This is done through the magic of RSS (really simple syndication) and the Firefox browser. So how can you set up a Live Bookmark and what exactly are they good for? Let me walk you through the process.
Exporting Bookmarks to an HTML File
Want to export your bookmarks to a .html file? You can in Firefox with just a few clicks of the mouse. This can come in handy when it comes to syncing your bookmarks with another browser, backing up or moving from PC to PC. Mozilla has made the import and backup options in Firefox brain dead simple.
How to Allow Pop-ups in Firefox
By default, Firefox has a pretty good pop-up blocker. It gets the job done. Sometimes, it does too good of a job and blocks a pop-up on a webpage where you want to see a pop-up though. Today, I will be showing you how to allow pop-ups for a certain domain from within Firefox.
How to Add or Remove Firefox Personas
Firefox Personas, the lightweight themes for the Firefox browser, are still pretty new to the Mozilla user base our there.
With that in mind, I thought it might be handy to guide you through the process when it comes to adding a new Persona theme to your browser, removing a Persona theme from your browser, and how to chance through Persona themes – once you have several saved to your system.
Recover Firefox Master Password
The master password in Firefox is used to add another layer of security to your password system. What would happen though if you setup a master password, got in an accident, were in a coma for six months, and then once you awoke you couldn’t remember what your master password was set to? I’ll help you reset or recover your Firefox master password with one simple tool.
Firefox’s Navigation Bar Keyboard Combo Cheat Sheet (for Linux)
Out of user demand, I have decided to re-visit the Firefox navigation bar keyboard combo cheat sheet for some of the other operating systems out there. Here are all the keyboard shortcuts for the standard navigation bar for the various Linux distros out there. Hopefully all the most useful ones have made it onto the list, but if there is one I missed, please feel free to add it to the comments.
Navigation Bar Keyboard Shortcuts
Choose Your OS: Windows | Linux | Mac OS
Alt + Left Arrow or Ctrl + [ = Go Back a Page
Alt + Right Arrow or Ctrl + ] = Go Forward a Page
Alt + Home = Go to your Homepage
F5 or Ctrl + R = Reload a Page
Esc = Stop a Page from Loading
Ctrl + P = Bring up the Print Options
Ctrl + Y = Launch the Download Window
Ctrl + H = Open Your History in the Sidebar
Ctrl + B = Open Your Bookmarks in the Sidebar
Ctrl + T = New Tab
Ctrl + N = New Browser Window
Ctrl + X = Cut
Ctrl + C = Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste
As a bonus, here are a few of my other favorite keyboard combos that you might want to memorize.
- Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R = Reload the Page (overriding the cache)
- Ctrl + F = Find (then use F3 to find again)
- Alt + (1-8) = Select a Specific Tab (if you have eight or less open)
Have a favorite that didn’t make it onto the list? Leave a comment and share it with the rest of us.
Trouble Removing a Firefox Add-on?
Ever have a Firefox add-on that just did not want to leave your PC? Most of the extensions to Firefox are really easy to remove, however sometimes you run into a situation where one is so bad or tricky, it just doesn’t want to let go. Here are some of the common ways to remove an add-on from Firefox.
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!
Faster Refreshing for Live Bookmarks
How 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.
