Comments on: Make Firefox load faster

By: Rod

Rod — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:22:34 +0000

You know what would be great, if someone could create a reg file or some form of file that we could open with FF that would install these tweaks with a single click. Great post by the way, the tips work like a charm.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:32:12 +0000

Everyone once in a while, you’ve just got to give up and exit your browser and re-open it — and don’t re-open all of the tabs, though even if you, you’ll still usually use less RAM.

If you don’t want to lose the pages, just use “bookmark all tabs” in the bookmarks menu. Name it with the date.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:21:59 +0000

I used the about:config tweaks and FF started faster but still is relay slow.
It takes 48 sec to start.
Then I set of the update of FF, Adons and search: 35 sec.
This was first time startup after reboot.
Startup without boot take 15 sec.

First time startup should take only 15 sec, restart should take only max 2 sec.

Thank you for your tips
Vincent

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 04:38:00 +0000

I tried some of the changes listed here (not FasterFox, of course) and my made FF run MUCH faster. I only have 512 MB of RAM on my Mac (OS X Tiger) and a slower broadband connection (to save money).

The Web suffers from Wirth’s Law. Web pages are now usually 10 times as big as they need to be. Mostly because of Javascript (which is often 90% of a web page), so if you disable Javascript for most sites by using NoScript, they’ll load much faster.

(Yes, you’ll still get the JS that’s embedded in the HTML, but most of the JS is in external JS files.)

You can also use FlashBlock, so that Flash videos will not be downloaded and run unless you explicitly ask for them by clicking on a button that replaces the Flash object.

Or you can just uninstall Flash entirely.

Also, very few web designers know how to use CSS the right way, making it much too big.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:45:58 +0000

It worked for me

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:10:32 +0000

I don't think any of the suggested changes would have affected that. Check session restore settings.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:02:28 +0000

This was great information. My Firefox loads very fast now! I only have one problem that seems to have come from these changes. Before when I closed Firefox with several tabs open they would reopen the next time. Now when I open it I only get one tab open with my home page. I would prefer to have the tabs that I was working on before remain there.

I’m not sure which of the changes did this but is it possible to make this adjustment back to the way it was? I followed all the suggested tips including adjusting the RAM in about:config.

Thank you.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:28 +0000

This is amazing. After the tweaks, Firefox starts up much faster. Thanks and I’ll help spread the word.

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:34:44 +0000

Great advice re backing up, reformatting and reinstalling, always worth doing to speed up almost any tardy machine

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:30:45 +0000

Ah, okay. I getcha. So, we’re talking available RAM…that’s different. I’d just treat is as if it were 512Mb for any tweaks, the shared video chunk will take what it needs as and when presumably…