Customize Firefox 4 With These Simple Tweaks

[DKT27]

Firefox 4 is expected to bring one of the most significant stylistic overhauls that the browser has undertaken since the initial transition from the old Mozilla suite.

Although the final release is still a few weeks away, we've already had a taste of its look and feel thanks to the eight betas pushed out so far. Firefox 4's UI is simplistic and streamlined but it has also drawn criticism for dropping elements like page titles in the title bar or simply for being too "Chrome-like."

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Make that ugly orange menu button movable and more

Let's start with the obvious. Firefox 4 UI Fixer is a handy add-on that introduces several interesting modifications to the browser's user interface, including the option to move the orange Firefox menu button so that the page title is displayed again, or restoring the "New Tab" option to tab context menu.

It also allows you to move status bar icons from extensions to any location, which can be especially useful if you only use a handful of extensions and hate to see all that wasted space from the add-on bar at the bottom of your screen. Simply relocate those icons next to the awesome bar, for example.

The add-on works on the latest test versions of Firefox (from b7 onwards) and has been tested across all platforms. To customize your Firefox UI go to Add-ons then in the Options dialog choose the desired options. Needless to say, Mozilla may still have some minor changes in store when the final version of Firefox 4 debuts, but with Firefox 4 UI Fixer covering many different areas of the UI under a single add-on we are sure this will remain handy for sometime to come.

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Disable the new tab button

Firefox offers an additional way to open new tabs with a little "+" icon at the end of your open tabs bar. I hardly ever use this button. If you're already more comfortable with another way of opening tabs, such as using the Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut or double-clicking on an empty tab area, you might want to get rid of this option and save some space (every bit counts when you're switching between dozens of open tabs). All it takes is a simple userChrome.css file tweak:

1. Go to the chrome folder inside your profile directory (the easiest way is to enter "about:support" on your Firefox address bar, then click on the "Open Containing Folder" next to Profile Directory and find the chrome folder).
2. Unless you've made other tweaks before there should be a file called userChrome-example.css. Open it, add the line .tabs-newtab-button {display: none;} and save as userChrome.css.
3. Restart Firefox and the new tab button should be gone.

Move or disable the close tab button If you want to take things a step further it's also possible to save a few pixels by keeping the close tab button from appearing on each open tab. You just need to do a little editing in your about:config page.

1. Enter "about:config" on your Firefox address bar and type browser.tabs.closeButtons in the filter box.
2. From there you can double click the entry and set any value between 0 and 3.

Setting it to '0' will mean only the active tab has a close button. The default setting '1' sees a close button on each tab, '2' on none of them and '3' also on none of them but places a close button to the right-end of the tab bar.

We hope that these quick customization tips will help you tailor Mozilla's browser closer to your needs.

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Speed Up Firefox by Loading Tabs On-demand

Firefox users who are used to having fifteen or more tabs open while surfing the web, or perhaps tend to load up their browser with a bunch of open pages from their last session, will surely know the impact this can have in terms of performance. It may not be a major issue on powerful desktop PCs with processing muscle and memory to spare, but you can bet more modest rigs and most laptops will struggle trying to pull up a huge list of pages at the same time. Luckily, there are ways heavy tab users can ease the memory-guzzling effect that their browsing habits can have on their systems – and today we'll specifically mention two: using the BarTab extension or making a quick about:config tweak.

The aforementioned BarTab extension lightens Firefox's memory load and prevents crashes by unloading tabs that you are currently not using but want to keep accessible. It can intercept when tabs are opened in the background or restored after a browser restart and will only load the content when the tab is actually visited. It also allows you to free memory by unloading already loaded tabs, either manually or automatically when they haven't been used for a specified time.

It's a pretty straightforward tool. After downloading the extension here, go to the add-on preferences window and you'll see a handful of options where you can basically choose when to load or unload tabs, and you can also create rules for sites that you always want to keep loaded when their corresponding tabs are open.

If you are using Firefox 4 Beta 7 you can enable the core function of BarTab without having to install the add-on. Simply access the about:config menu (type it in the address bar and click through the warning message) and look for the key 'browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs'. Double click on it, change the value to 0 in the prompt window, and restart. Note that this only applies to session restores, not opening tabs in the background, but it can make launching Firefox considerably faster when multiple tabs are open, as only the one that is visible will actually load up.

The feature was just introduced in the latest Firefox 4 beta and by default it's set to load 3 concurrent tabs at a time. So even if you don't tweak this option you'll notice faster session restores when multiple tabs are open, but instead of loading just the one you are viewing, it will simultaneously load three and move on to the next batch afterwards.

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Force your add-ons to work

Firefox wouldn't be where it is without extensions, and we know many of you rely on them for school, work, and entertainment – we do too. Some developers drag their feet when it comes to updates, and while you can't make them work faster, you can force Firefox to ignore the incompatibility of your add-ons with a simple change in about:config.

1. Enter about:config in the address bar and click through the warning message.
2. Right click anywhere on the page and select New > Boolean.
3. Enter this: extensions.checkCompatibility.4.0b
4. Set the value of the new entry to false when asked.
5. Restart Firefox if necessary.

If that's one too many mouse clicks for you, just install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter. In addition to forcing your rusty extensions to work, you can flag them as compatible or incompatible to inform Mozilla and the add-on developer. It goes without saying that your mileage will vary when enabling outdated add-ons, but we've had good luck so far, especially with the less complex add-ons.

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Open new tabs after the active tab

If you open a link in a new tab in Firefox 3.6 or Firefox 4, it will start right beside whatever tab it was launched from – just like Chrome. Earlier versions shoved new tabs to the back of the line, and call us picky, but it can be hard to break old habits. Share our sentiments? Here's a thirty-second fix:

1. Enter about:config in the address bar and click through the warning message.
2. Filter browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent.
3. Double click the entry to disable it.
4. Restart Firefox if necessary.

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Disable taskbar previews for every tab

Instead of showing one taskbar preview per window, the Firefox 4 beta displays a preview for every single tab you have open. Tangerine menu button aside, this has to be the most annoying setting on what is otherwise a very impressive refresh, especially if you're juggling many windows with tons of tabs. Thankfully, it only takes a moment to turn off:

1. Enter about:config in the address bar and click through the warning message.
2. Filter browser.taskbar.previews.enable.
3. Double click the entry to disable.
4. Restart Firefox if necessary.

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Move tabs back to the bottom

Yeah, we all get it. Firefox isn't the first browser to shift tabs above the address bar. Opera and Chrome have long used this layout, and for a good reason: it makes more sense. To clear things up once and for all, Mozilla recently released a video explaining why tabs are on top in Firefox 4. Unconvinced by their logic? Then put the tabs back "where they belong":

1. Click the Firefox button.
2. Go to Customize > uncheck Tabs on Top

View: Original Article. And this and this.

Comments:

I've merged and picked the best out of three different articles of a same website. I tried my best to put what should be applying to the latest betas and upcoming final.

[KotaXor]

will wait for version 4 to be finalise. Nice tweaks