A few Firefox versions ago, you used to be able to have your tabs under the location bar rather than on top of it. If anybody is feeling nostalgic or simply preferred this way of browsing in Firefox, it is fairly easy to put tabs back on the bottom (rather than the top) of Firefox.
We all have questions about how Firefox works and how we can tweak it to make it better. That is the single greatest aspect of this fantastic browser. So, with the end of the year coming up quick I thought it was about time we took a look back at the 25 most popular browser tweaking tips, customizations and tutorials I have posted on Firefox Facts over the years. These 25 posts you see are the most visited topics from all of the support related articles I have written.
You voted for these with your mouse clicks over the past year, so let us check out the most popular Firefox support posts of 2010.
Facebook is a tool that some of us use everyday, so we might as well make it look the way we want and add new abilities that we really need, right? FaceTweak is an add-on for Firefox that promises to be the Ultimate Facebook Enhancer. With it, you can add tons of tweaks to the Facebook interface and engine to get more out of this social networking tool.
Have you been searching for something to enhance your YouTube experience? Maybe you want to download the videos you watch. Maybe you want to convert videos to MP3s or automatically watch videos in HD. I have found a Firefox add-on that will let you do that and a lot more in TweakTube. This is by far the most in-depth “all in one” YouTube extension out there for the Firefox browser.
Once TweakTube has been installed, you can access it from Tools > YouTube – Options in the Firefox menu bar. Once inside, here are some of the general options you can tweak around with:
Tired of seeing your tabs under your navigation or bookmark toolbars? Maybe you just want to see how Firefox would look with tabs on the top? With the Firefox extension, Tabs on Top – you can easily move your browser tabs to the top of the screen.
With Firefox 3.6’s release, we can all do a quick about:config tweak that will enable the prettier tab switching. By default, when you hit the keyboard keys Ctrl + Tab you just rotate through your tabs. By making some quick adjustments though, you can pull up the new tab switcher that you see in the picture above.
Get more control over your tabbed browsing experience in Firefox with Tabberwocky. This add-on for the browser will give you dozens upon dozens of ways to customize the way you work with tabs.
Some of the features of this Firefox extension include:
Plus many more. It would take me four or five posts to go into all the control this Firefox add-on gives to your tabs. You can pick up Tabberwocky over at the Firefox Add-ons web site. (kudos to Lifehacker) It will give you more tabbed browsing controls than you can shake a… well, than you can shake a tab at.
Want to tweak the way the download manager from within Firefox works? You can now tweak the way downloads are handled in a number different ways with the Download Manager Tweak add-on for Firefox.
The main thing you might notice, right off the bat, is the ability to changes download manager’s appearance and allow the download manager to be opened in a window, tab, or sidebar.
A few more options available to you are:
This is an add-on for Firefox I could seriously see adding to my default add-ons list I put on every personal Firefox install I do, it is that cool. The Download Manager Tweak extension is free to download, so give it a shot – and let me know how much you enjoy it.
If 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/.
I have not spent much time with the NASA Night Launch theme for Firefox, but I did always wonder, why is it the most popular and downloaded theme for Firefox? Sure, it is a dark (and very nice looking theme), but what else is there to it? Well, if you do a little digging – you can find several guides on how to modify the NASA Night Launch theme to fit your own needs.
Here are a few example tips and tricks:
To use these tweaks and tips for yourself, all you need to do is download the NASA Night Launch theme from the Firefox Add-ons site – and get started.
