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1) Restart Firefox and go to Tools > Options... (Edit > Preferences... under Linux and Mac OS X), select Advanced and click on Tabbed Browsing. Then select "Open links ... in: a new tab in the most recent window".

2) Take a look at SessionSaver http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#sessions aver If you'll run into troubles during installation just go to about:config -> extensions.disabledObsolete and set it to false.

PS: more tips and tricks: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips

I've been using one for a while now. You can get it here. Your hot minute begins... Now.

Firefox doesn't add new features. Instead you're expected to download one of two hundred nearly-obsolete extensions, updating it as necessary.

There is a plugin where you right click on a website requiring a password and it checks a database of usernames/passwords and gives you one.

BugMeNot

Already an extension for Firefox...

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#booksync

This fix works under 1.0 (Other versions not tested)

Install Tabbrowser extensions loacted here:

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions// [Texurizer.net]

Look for the "Tabbrowser Extensions" under "Tabs and Windows" (it's about 1/8 down the page) Other extensions may fix the problem as well.

Girmann

Actually it can download mail from all folders just put this
user_pref("mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new", true);
in your user.js. There are other tips here here

Laptop - Linux (Primary Work)

Laptop - Win (Primary Play)

Desktop - Win (home)
Admittedly, I have to keep my extensions in sync, but to keep data, here's what I do:

For Thunderbird

• I use only IMAPS, and keep everything on my server
• I don't use the integrated Junk Mail controls. I did for a while, but got sick of having to start from scratch with every wipe of windows/every new install; nor do I use the filters in my mail client
• I do, instead, use procmail and spamassassin to accomplish similar results. Spamassassin "learns" from INBOX.Junk.confirmed, every night. Procmail filters my list subscriptions, and I use this tip to keep Thunderbird in line.

• I don't keep any bookmarks, locally, except my live bookmarks (which, again, admittedly, I need to set up on each instance).
• Instead, I use my del.icio.us account to manage these. I then subscribe to my account's RSS as a live bookmark, and dump that into my bookmarks toolbar. This may be helpful, if you'd like to do the same.

firefox.exe -profile path_to_profile

people start putting Firetruck banner ads all over the place

Dutch news-site (with a fairly large, non-techie audience) nu.nl was affected as well, a large warning was put up Saturday.
The warning (sorry, dutch only) mentioned that until Sunday afternoon, they received 1300 requests for help from possibly-affected visitors.

As far as accountability goes, it was nice to see the publisher, Ilse Media, put up a clear FAQ and even a special-purpose contact-form to accomodate for their not-web-savvy users.
They also mentioned further statements from Falk AG were forthcoming Monday 22nd.

Using an alternative browser, with AdBlock installed, I wasn't affected myself...

And is it just me, or is this recent trend toward "Sponsored Links" a real pain in the ass? When I see text in an article that is a link I expect it to be relevant, not a redirect to a merchant site.

Not to pimp or anything, but there's a handy way around that. Adwords/sponsored links/whatever use Javascript to replace this and that with links, to do their evil work. All you have to do is stop their javascript from loading.

The first step to undoing this is to download the adblock extension for Firefox. After installation, load up the page, and you'll notice the word 'Adblock' on the right of your status bar in firefox. Click on it, scroll down to the entry from vibrantmedia.com, click, and change to "http://www.vibrantmedia.com/intellitxt/*", hit enter, and reload. Poof, problem solved.

This also works for any plugins you don't want, flash, quicktime, audio, hidden things you can't see, javascript, images, iframes, the whole nine yards. It's the one plugin I always always have installed, no matter what. Definitely get it.

I've been an Opera user since Netscape came out with the first release of Communicator. Communicator blew even worse than IE, and Opera was new, stable and beautiful.

When Mozilla started releasing non-Netscape browsers, with each new major release I tried it out. It never came close to the then current version of Opera I was using. I tried Firewhatever back at version 0.4 when I first heard of it, and again at 0.7 and it still couldn't compete, even with the extensions available at the time.

I am now using Firefox 1.0 on all of my machines as my main browser. Admittedly it is slower than Opera on rendering, but usually not noticably and never annoyingly so. It also takes about 30 minutes to an hour dredging through the extensions at Texturizer and Mozilla on initial installation, but in the end it nearly duplicates everything in Opera, while providing some customization features that Opera does not.

In the end I switched between Opera 7.54 and Firefox 1.0PR for about a week before finally deciding I liked Firefox as well/better and made the switch.

Firefox Pros:
Open Source - Support the community if you feel that is an important goal.
Extensions - these are a fantastic idea and lead to some much better and more customizable implementations than Opera's monolithic structure.
Some extensions that provide functionality not available (natively) in Opera:
Adblock - It just rocks! Usually, I don't mind ads on pages, I figure it helps the website pay the bills to bring the information to me for free, but flashing, animated, annoying ads really tick me off. With Opera I would just keep a mental list of websites not to go back to. With Firefox, I just block the ad server.
Linkification - For all those idiot web authors that can't figure out the "a" tag.
Context Highlight - Woot! Have you ever used Goolge cache, just to get the words you were looking for highlighted on a long page of text? This extension is everything you ever wanted.
DICT - highlight a word and get a pop-up window with the definition. DictionarySearch if you prefer a new Tab rather than a pop-up. Both highly configurable.
In Browser handling for BugMeNot, tinyurl, and RSS feeds.

Firefox Cons:
Extensions - just like sourceforge, freeware websites, etc., anybody and everybody can load their own homegrown POS and give it a glowing description. You can download what is most popular, but actually figuring out what you want and what the best extension to meet your goals will be is a real pain. In Opera mouse gestures just work. In Firefox there are at least five different extensions that provide mouse gesture functionality, all of them slightly different, some of them highly annyoing. God help you if you load two extensions both trying to do the same thing (i.e. some of the tab browsing extensions). Also new releases of FF may break your old extensions, causing minor havoc until the extension writer updates their portion of the code.

Opera Pros:
It just works - One of the most important factors generally to me. I'll spend a month tinkering with something I'm interested in, but if I don't want to tinker with something I want it to work out of the box.
Fast - Opera renders pages somewhat faster than Firefox. Opera default loads into memory slower than FF default, but FF takes longer once you add all the extensions to get similar functionality.
Support - Opera has professional, intelligent support that can help you deal with any problems. Firefox support is OK for the default, although you are still likely to get an RTFM or flame on some of the support boards, and support for extensions ranges from very good support by caring authors that really want to make their extension better/ to STFU you $*&! luzer if you don't like how I programmed it write one yourself/ to non-existant.

Opera Cons:

Bookmarks Synchronizer is a Mozilla Firefox extension that let you connect to an FTP server and synchronize your bookmarks that are stored in an XML file. Setup is easy; just write in your FTP server address, username, password and a name for the XML file (by default called xbel.xml). To start, press Upload to create the file on the server and set if you want to automatically download the file on startup or upload it when you close your browser.

check out the 'x' extension for FireFox. It adds a "Paranoia" toolbar item where "you can quickly clear privacy sensitive data, specifically: history, form info, saved passwords, download history, cookies, and the cache (both disk and in memory cache).

Clicking the button gives you a dialogue window from which you can select which data you want clearing."

It even keeps all of the options selected, so if you're paranoid, it just takes two clicks, and your history, form information, stored passwords, download history, cookies, and cache are vaporized. Two clicks cuts the time town, but ideally, I agree there should be an option to clear it all upon exit.

The point of Firefox is to keep things simple for the non-technical users, but be flexible for power users. For hard core geeks, you can do this:

Type "about: config" into the address bar, and hit enter.
Still think Firefox isn't massively configurable?

Go to http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/ and look at some of the configuration extensions. There are plenty of addins to the interface that give you lots more options. 'Configuration Mania' is a good one, and there's another called 'Things They Left Out', but it's not available on that site. I think you can get it from mozilla.org. Google for it. The extension called, simply, 'x', would be the one you're looking for that clears your cache when you close the browser.


I admit, the first time you look at the interface, it looks a little sparse, but for some people, that's good. The people who want more options can add them in as extensions. That way, Firefox really is all things to all people.

1. Read the "Why Use Firefox?" document
2. Go download Firefox and install it
3. Use Firefox as you default browser for 5 days
4. If, after 5 days, you're still not convinced that Firefox is the best browser there is, uninstall it and switch back

The adblocking css technique can be used to block Google ads pretty easily.

There is a FireFox extension called "Popup ALT Attributes" that does just that. However, I would recommend that you do not get into the habit of relying on it too much, as it won't discorage webmasters from abusing the ALT tag.

What you should be doing instead is contacting the webmasters of the offending websites and tell them to use the TITLE tag for popup titles, and the ALT tag for text that replaces an image when the image cannot be viewed.

Tabbrowser Extensions...

That already exists! Ok, it doesn't let people buy book yet, but you can search. I wonder if the author of the article knew that. Check it out here and here. I've actually tried it out and it works really well.

Get the firefox extension here.

It surprises me that, what I would consider to be a more pertinent study, has not been done: how do people filter out advertisements?

if there was only an easy way to turn off that damn tabbed browsing feature in Firefox.

There is. I'm not sure why you'd want to use it (I personally can't live without tabs, and even those who don't like them could just avoid opening any), but TabKiller is there for anyone who wants it.

Actually, get flashblock from this site.

It'll turn all the flash boxes into white boxes with an "F" in the middle that acts as a play button, so if it smells like an ad, you can ignore it and if you think it's valid content, click to play it.

Works pretty well. It says up to 0.8 on the site, but the author made a new version that works on 1.0pr

Okay, that's a pretty extensive list. The following is not to debunk your listing, but merely for your information:

Comes standard with Firefox:
* customizable tool bars
* the ability to see no images, all images, or images only from the site you're viewing (no cache-only option, though)
* the ability to load only 1 image on a page instead of all of them (if you have images turned off, you can right-click the image location and say "view image" AFAIK, but then you have to hit back to get back to the page)
* print preview (I've never had a problem, personally, but I don't print web pages often, so...)
* toolbars (not as many as 8, but I don't know why you'd need that many anyhow :))
* view links on page (part of the page info box, under "links" tab, though you can't do much with it)
* fullscreen (Firefox only shows tabs and scrollbars; I stopped using Mozilla when I found Firefox, so I can't speak to that)

Available via [extension]:
* open closed pages [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* sessions [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* start with last page(s) opened [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* validate this page [Checky]
* reload every X seconds [Tabbrowser Extensions]

Not available (AFAIK):
* user style sheets (though you can specify a default font and color and require that pages use that; I've never used this feature, so I don't know how well it works)
* the ability to disable frames (frames are evil anyway; I prefer using CSS :))
* go to similar pages (there might be an extension that uses Google for this, but I'm not aware of one)
* handheld screen (I'm curious how this works, because I doubt every handheld displays the same way)

Well, it's been very interesting comparing the browsers, and the conclusion I've reached is that Opera and Firefox are both good browsers and the choice of one over the other has mostly to do with past experience and personal taste. To be honest, if Firefox weren't available for Windows, I'd probably be using Opera. :)

Okay, that's a pretty extensive list. The following is not to debunk your listing, but merely for your information:

Comes standard with Firefox:
* customizable tool bars
* the ability to see no images, all images, or images only from the site you're viewing (no cache-only option, though)
* the ability to load only 1 image on a page instead of all of them (if you have images turned off, you can right-click the image location and say "view image" AFAIK, but then you have to hit back to get back to the page)
* print preview (I've never had a problem, personally, but I don't print web pages often, so...)
* toolbars (not as many as 8, but I don't know why you'd need that many anyhow :))
* view links on page (part of the page info box, under "links" tab, though you can't do much with it)
* fullscreen (Firefox only shows tabs and scrollbars; I stopped using Mozilla when I found Firefox, so I can't speak to that)

Available via [extension]:
* open closed pages [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* sessions [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* start with last page(s) opened [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* validate this page [Checky]
* reload every X seconds [Tabbrowser Extensions]

Not available (AFAIK):
* user style sheets (though you can specify a default font and color and require that pages use that; I've never used this feature, so I don't know how well it works)
* the ability to disable frames (frames are evil anyway; I prefer using CSS :))
* go to similar pages (there might be an extension that uses Google for this, but I'm not aware of one)
* handheld screen (I'm curious how this works, because I doubt every handheld displays the same way)

Well, it's been very interesting comparing the browsers, and the conclusion I've reached is that Opera and Firefox are both good browsers and the choice of one over the other has mostly to do with past experience and personal taste. To be honest, if Firefox weren't available for Windows, I'd probably be using Opera. :)

Okay, that's a pretty extensive list. The following is not to debunk your listing, but merely for your information:

Comes standard with Firefox:
* customizable tool bars
* the ability to see no images, all images, or images only from the site you're viewing (no cache-only option, though)
* the ability to load only 1 image on a page instead of all of them (if you have images turned off, you can right-click the image location and say "view image" AFAIK, but then you have to hit back to get back to the page)
* print preview (I've never had a problem, personally, but I don't print web pages often, so...)
* toolbars (not as many as 8, but I don't know why you'd need that many anyhow :))
* view links on page (part of the page info box, under "links" tab, though you can't do much with it)
* fullscreen (Firefox only shows tabs and scrollbars; I stopped using Mozilla when I found Firefox, so I can't speak to that)

Available via [extension]:
* open closed pages [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* sessions [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* start with last page(s) opened [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* validate this page [Checky]
* reload every X seconds [Tabbrowser Extensions]

Not available (AFAIK):
* user style sheets (though you can specify a default font and color and require that pages use that; I've never used this feature, so I don't know how well it works)
* the ability to disable frames (frames are evil anyway; I prefer using CSS :))
* go to similar pages (there might be an extension that uses Google for this, but I'm not aware of one)
* handheld screen (I'm curious how this works, because I doubt every handheld displays the same way)

Well, it's been very interesting comparing the browsers, and the conclusion I've reached is that Opera and Firefox are both good browsers and the choice of one over the other has mostly to do with past experience and personal taste. To be honest, if Firefox weren't available for Windows, I'd probably be using Opera. :)

Okay, that's a pretty extensive list. The following is not to debunk your listing, but merely for your information:

Comes standard with Firefox:
* customizable tool bars
* the ability to see no images, all images, or images only from the site you're viewing (no cache-only option, though)
* the ability to load only 1 image on a page instead of all of them (if you have images turned off, you can right-click the image location and say "view image" AFAIK, but then you have to hit back to get back to the page)
* print preview (I've never had a problem, personally, but I don't print web pages often, so...)
* toolbars (not as many as 8, but I don't know why you'd need that many anyhow :))
* view links on page (part of the page info box, under "links" tab, though you can't do much with it)
* fullscreen (Firefox only shows tabs and scrollbars; I stopped using Mozilla when I found Firefox, so I can't speak to that)

Available via [extension]:
* open closed pages [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* sessions [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* start with last page(s) opened [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* validate this page [Checky]
* reload every X seconds [Tabbrowser Extensions]

Not available (AFAIK):
* user style sheets (though you can specify a default font and color and require that pages use that; I've never used this feature, so I don't know how well it works)
* the ability to disable frames (frames are evil anyway; I prefer using CSS :))
* go to similar pages (there might be an extension that uses Google for this, but I'm not aware of one)
* handheld screen (I'm curious how this works, because I doubt every handheld displays the same way)

Well, it's been very interesting comparing the browsers, and the conclusion I've reached is that Opera and Firefox are both good browsers and the choice of one over the other has mostly to do with past experience and personal taste. To be honest, if Firefox weren't available for Windows, I'd probably be using Opera. :)

Okay, that's a pretty extensive list. The following is not to debunk your listing, but merely for your information:

Comes standard with Firefox:
* customizable tool bars
* the ability to see no images, all images, or images only from the site you're viewing (no cache-only option, though)
* the ability to load only 1 image on a page instead of all of them (if you have images turned off, you can right-click the image location and say "view image" AFAIK, but then you have to hit back to get back to the page)
* print preview (I've never had a problem, personally, but I don't print web pages often, so...)
* toolbars (not as many as 8, but I don't know why you'd need that many anyhow :))
* view links on page (part of the page info box, under "links" tab, though you can't do much with it)
* fullscreen (Firefox only shows tabs and scrollbars; I stopped using Mozilla when I found Firefox, so I can't speak to that)

Available via [extension]:
* open closed pages [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* sessions [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* start with last page(s) opened [Tabbrowser Extensions]
* validate this page [Checky]
* reload every X seconds [Tabbrowser Extensions]

Not available (AFAIK):
* user style sheets (though you can specify a default font and color and require that pages use that; I've never used this feature, so I don't know how well it works)
* the ability to disable frames (frames are evil anyway; I prefer using CSS :))
* go to similar pages (there might be an extension that uses Google for this, but I'm not aware of one)
* handheld screen (I'm curious how this works, because I doubt every handheld displays the same way)

Well, it's been very interesting comparing the browsers, and the conclusion I've reached is that Opera and Firefox are both good browsers and the choice of one over the other has mostly to do with past experience and personal taste. To be honest, if Firefox weren't available for Windows, I'd probably be using Opera. :)

When a question about how to do s.th. with a software is asked frequently, then this clearly shows that the user interface has not been made obvious enough, and you should f**ing fix the UI instead of putting an explanation in the FAQ. An application with a perfect GUI should never leave the user with a question, and a well-made one would at least avoid the frequently asked questions.

To prove my point, I decided to google for "FAQ mozilla" and got to the Thunderbird FAQ, and it wonderfully proves my point. After some questions about what Thunderbird/Mozilla is, etc., the first technical question is: How do I start the profile manager?. And the answer has to explain how to run "C:\Program Files\Thunderbird\Thunderbird.exe" -p... Lots of other questions in that FAQ show issues where it is simply not obvious enough how to do s.th. within Thunderbird.

After this seven-year ban on FAQs, I may reconsider the situation, and possibly reallow FAQs, but the only questions allowed would be those clearing up general confusion about what a certain software can do/cannot do, i.e. the sort of question you would want to have answered before downloading/installing the software. But I would only do so if I no longer have to run "Thunderbird.exe -p" to start the profile manager of thunderbird...

When a question about how to do s.th. with a software is asked frequently, then this clearly shows that the user interface has not been made obvious enough, and you should f**ing fix the UI instead of putting an explanation in the FAQ. An application with a perfect GUI should never leave the user with a question, and a well-made one would at least avoid the frequently asked questions.

To prove my point, I decided to google for "FAQ mozilla" and got to the Thunderbird FAQ, and it wonderfully proves my point. After some questions about what Thunderbird/Mozilla is, etc., the first technical question is: How do I start the profile manager?. And the answer has to explain how to run "C:\Program Files\Thunderbird\Thunderbird.exe" -p... Lots of other questions in that FAQ show issues where it is simply not obvious enough how to do s.th. within Thunderbird.

After this seven-year ban on FAQs, I may reconsider the situation, and possibly reallow FAQs, but the only questions allowed would be those clearing up general confusion about what a certain software can do/cannot do, i.e. the sort of question you would want to have answered before downloading/installing the software. But I would only do so if I no longer have to run "Thunderbird.exe -p" to start the profile manager of thunderbird...

You're using adobe reader 6?

Disable unnecessary plugins

Adobe Reader 6.0 for Windows loads lots of unused plugins on startup. The Inquirer has a great article explaining how you can disable those unneeded plugins and make Adobe Reader load faster. Basically, you need to do the following:

1. Install Adobe Reader 6.0 and notice where it is installed.
2. Navigate to that folder in Explorer, locate the plug_ins subfolder and rename this folder to plug_ins_disabled.
3. Create a new plug_ins folder.
4. Move the files EWH32.api, printme.api and search.api from plug_ins_disabled to plug_ins.

##########

With the files listed, you get half the load time on low-end systems, and a 2-sec load time on high-end ones. Still, you might want to prefer using Acrobat Reader 4.05 on old systems, since it loads in just seven seconds instead of 20.
--the inquire article

It's right in front of the faq but it took me ages to find that one.

Why not use CSS to block ads? Works with any browser that allow you to set a custom style sheet.

"Perhaps they would integrate a Gmail mail client."

Does the source code count if I download it and build my own binary?

If you change to error pages instead of dialog boxes this problem should be solved for you. Details are on the Firefox Tips and Tricks page: Use error pages instead of dialog messages

Good luck...

Yeah, I know that. and that was a 0(zero), not an O(Capital o)
Although I do remember reading somewhere on a mozilla site something about "Despite what mathematics have taught you, 0.10 is higher than 0.9", in regard to the new release. They called it Preview Release 0.10, I think, and it kinda stuck with me for some reason.

... Actually, I just kinda managed to mix and match the two names. I got it from the headline on http://texturizer.net/firefox/(Mozilla Firefox 0.10 (1.0 Preview Release) Released) and managed to get it mixed up, sorry. :P
*bows*
Thanks for getting my mind straight :)

For those interested, here is a link to FoxyTunes;
http://www.iosart.com/foxytunes/firefox/ - an in-firefox mediaplayer control.

Find more (and some very cool ones like Bugmenot) here: Firefox extensions

I introduced my step-daughter's girl friend to Firefox when she was complaining about all the pop-ups in IE, but after about 5 minutes she switched back to IE. The only reason: In IE you can copy an image to the clip buffer and paste it into Photoshop or some other graphic program (she was grabbing pictures to make her Livejournal icons), but in Firefox (and Mozilla) you have to save the image and then open it in Photoshop as an extra step. Evidently managing all those little files was more effort to her than dismissing all the popups.

Pssssst. What really revolutionized my browsing and will make it very hard for me to switch away from FireFox is AdBlock. Right-click on any image, flash animation, or iframe, and you can permanently add it to a block list. (Sshhhhh Don't tell anyone, but I don't see ads on slashdot, CNN, NYTimes, or any of my favorite periodicals any more.) If there was a way to keep a centralized list of blocked sites or an easy way to import and export the lists, then you'd have a real-time distributed content-blocking system.

Texturizer.net has a nice collection of extensions you may not find on mozilla's dev site.

Some extensions I'm currently using:
Flat Bookmark Editing
Add Bookmark Here
CuteMenus
Paste and Go
Gmail Notifier(Still works)

Free iPods? Sure. freeipods.com

So why not install the Image Toolbar extension?

I hate registering

So use Bugmenot. If you are really clever you can use Firefox and use the bugmenot extension. hOORay!

No need to waste a mod point on something that does not deserve it.

As far as the Popup preferences, the best choice for mozilla is not to use the default but to install an extension. If you are using Mozilla suite, the best extension is the multizilla, which provides large amount of control over your tabs. (Where to open, where to go for close, what to do with new windows, etc.) A similar feature for the Firefox browser is given by the TabBrowser Extension.
Though I gotta say that I like multizilla better due to their better support of reopenning tabs and other small details. On the other hand, TabBrowser supports grouping of tabs and behaviors within groups which seems like an interesting improvement.

http://texturizer.net/firefox/tips.html#oth_usb , you see, it's not that difficult.
Interesting link tough.

I wish the Firefox page had easy front-page links to both the Extensions list and the Plug-ins list. Maybe I missed the link, but the most convenient way I know to find the plug-ins is through a search engine. Does anyone know why extensions and plug-ins have to have separate pages?

I would say that Firefox with the AdBlock extension is what you want. It's really easy to use: just right-click on annoying images and press ok (you can add wildcards to block all images from a certain server or directory, say ad.doubleclick.com/*). Works for Flash-stuff too.

Here it is.

This is a nice to that makes a "Compose GMail" option when you click a mailto: link.

This is the GMail Notifier that I think the parent was referring to. It displays the simple text "Gmail" at the bottom right of the browser window by the down button on the scroll bar. Hovering over it displays the number of unread emails, single clicking it opens gmail in a new tab, and double clicking lets you add, change, ir remove gmail login info. You should know that Google has blocked this program at least twice before so don't be alarmed if it stops working, just keep an eye on the webpage for a newer version.

Also, another neat google plugin displays a thumbnail to the left of many search results. It too displays the simple text "GP" near the bottom right scroll button. Single click it to turn it on and off again.

If you still have that invite, I could use one. My friend just finished his tour of duty in the air force and a bit jealous that I have a gmail account and he doesn't.

I use Mozilla Firefox and it's a breeze to block those ads using AdBlock

Just create a rule to either block 'vibrantmedia' and 'intellitxt'.

Easy as pie!