How to Optimize Firefox Performance for Better Speed & Low Memory Usage

[fredlaso]

Mozilla Firefox is one of the top web browsers, But it is known for its notorious memory usage and slowing down after some time of intense use. I have read a lot of articles which provided tips to increase Firefox performance most of them are outdated and furthermore, Firefox team already worked on integrating those tips in the updated release. In this article I will share a few tips to optimize Firefox performance, Some of these are officially provided by Mozilla team themselves.

If you are using Firefox to read this page/article then before you start applying the tips mentioned here, I suggest you Bookmark this article or open it in another browser for time being because you need to restart Firefox several times throughout this article.

Lets get started.

Optimizing Firefox for Low Memory (RAM) Usage.

To decrease firefox memory usage, We will be using an application known as Firemin. It is a small software designed to optimize Firefox constantly and uses CPU power to decrease memory usage.

Step 1. Download a small software named Firemin.

Step 2. Extract the ZIP and Open Firemin.exe file.

Step 3. You will see that the Memory usage of Firefox has been decreased drastically.

Step 4. You can further decrease the memory usage by tweaking Firemin, Right click the Firemin icon in Notification bar > Options, Set the Slider to extreme right to decrease the memory usage.

Step 5. Firemin also optimizes the Firefox Databases to increase browser performance, To do that Bookmark this page > Close Firefox > Right click on Firemin > Optimize Firefox. Agree to the dialog boxes.

Now compare the memory usage of Firefox using Task Manager and see the difference.

The memory usage is.

Before using Firemin : 2,84,440 K

After using Firemin : 1,576 K

Optimizing Firefox for Better Speed and Performance.

I am aware of a number of about:config tweaks lying around the web claiming to increase Firefox performance, Some of it does work but not all of them are necessary now since Firefox has been working to improve these settings in the latest versions, Make sure you have the latest version of Firefox. Here I wont be writing in-depth about those tweaks instead there will be some simple clear tips and some addons.

Check Your Firefox Health Report.

With the latest Firefox, You can check your Firefox health status to see if it has problems and get detailed stats of the number of crashes, total time the browser was used for and much more. To check your Firefox Health Report, Open a new Tab and paste the following & press enter.

about:healthreport

Reset Firefox Profile.

Firefox uses Profile to manage your Browser Addons and other browser related files. Over time the profile gets cluttered with unnecessary files, Earlier you had to delete the folder manually and rebuilt it. But with the latest version of Firefox, Mozilla provides a one-click solution to reset your profile.

Remember that when you Reset your profile, You lose all your installed Addons and your customized Firefox browser settings. But your Bookmarks, History and Cookies are not deleted. So make a notepad file with names of all your addons.

You can find your Firefox Profile in here :

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

To reset your firefox profile,

Step 1. Open a new Tab in Firefox and paste the following url & press Enter.

about:support

Step 2. Click on Reset Firefox.

reset firefox

Step 3. In the popup again click on Reset Firefox.

Now your browser will restart with a fresh new profile, You will have to re-download all your extensions/addons.

Fix or Remove Problematic Addons/Extensions.

There are a number of Addons which still have some issues with Firefox and causes Memory leaks and crashes. Checkout this list of Addons and their associated problems plus fixes for them. You can checkout the list in here : Problematic Extensions.

Disable Themes.

If you are using Themes in your Firefox, Then you can disable them to increase your browser performance. Themes will slow down the browser with unnecessary animations and color combos.

You can disable themes by visiting : Firefox > Addons > Appearance.

Update your Plugins.

You need to keep your browser plugins up to date to ensure security and performance. To make sure you have the latest version of installed plugins, Visit Mozilla Plugin Check & Updates page.

In more details here: http://www.hacktabs.com/increase-firefox-performance/