Mozilla Firefox Settings

Browsers

Mozilla Firefox Settings

Introduction

Here are my Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short) settings. Since 2010 I've been having problems with Firefox on OS X, so I've been experimenting for example by enabling/disabling hardware acceleration and browser add-ons. See also: Browser Settings, Browser Add-On Settings, Programs, Operating Systems.

Dark Theme: Disable

Hamburger menu, Customize, Themes (button at the bottom), Light

Reader Mode with light and dark themes was introduced in Firefox 49 in 2016 (info)

Light and Dark compact themes were introduced in Firefox 53 in 2017 (info, info)

Dark Mode was improved in Firefox 61 in 2018 (info, info)

Dark Mode has been the default theme in Mac since about Firefox 62 in 2018 (info, info)

Dark Mode has been the default theme in Windows since about Firefox 63 in 2018 (info, info)

Mozilla Firefox 11

Introduction

Next tab: Ctrl + Tab, Ctrl + Page Down, Command + Option + ->

Plugins info: about:plugins

Support info: about:support (for example if you have WebGL problems)

Advanced settings: about:config

Preferences

General

When Firefox starts: [Show my home page]

Home Page: [http://www.google.com/]

Downloads

(*) Save files to: [Downloads]

Tabs

[x] Open new windows in a new tab instead

[ ] Warn me when closing multiple tabs

[x] Warn me when opening multiple tabs might slow down Firefox

[ ] Always show the tab bar

[ ] When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately

Content

[x] Block pop-up windows (OS X 10.7)

[x] Load images automatically

[x] Enable JavaScript

Advanced

Allow scripts to

[x] Move or resize popup windows

[ ] Raise or lower windows

[ ] Disable or replace context menus (sometimes popup windows are difficult to close)

Languages

English/United States [en-us]

English [en]

Finnish [fi]

Swedish/Finland [sv-fi]

German/Germany [de-de]

Privacy

Tracking

[ ] Tell websites I do not want to be tracked

History

Firefox will: [Remember history]

Location Bar

When using the location bar, suggest: [History and Bookmarks]

Security

[x] Warn me when sites try to install add-ons

[x] Block reported attack sites

[x] Block reported web forgeries

Passwords

[ ] Remember passwords for sites

[ ] Use a master password

Advanced

General

Accessibility

[ ] Always use the cursor keys to navigate within pages

[ ] Search for text when I start typing

[x] Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page

Browsing

[ ] Use autoscrolling (Windows XP feature when the middle button, or scroll wheel, is clicked)

[ ] Use smooth scrolling

[x] Use hardware acceleration when available (OS X: when disabled, videos are more quirky and CPU is in heavier use)

[ ] Check my spelling as I type

System Defaults

[ ] Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup

[x] Submit crash reports

[x] Submit performance data (Firefox consumes a lot of memory in OS X 10.7)

Network

Connection

Settings

Configure Proxies to Access the Internet

(*) No proxy

Offline Storage

Your cache is currently using 451 MB of disk space (OS X 10.7)

[ ] Override automatic cache management

[x] Tell me when a website asks to store data for offline use

Update

Automatically update

[x] Search Engines

Encryption

Protocols

[x] Use SSL 3.0

[x] Use TLS 1.0

Tools: Add-ons: Extensions

[x] DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 2.1.2.145 (OS X 10.7)

[ ] ZoneAlarm Security Engine 1.5.350.0 (Windows 7)

Tools: Add-ons: Plugins

(Comments: a single plugin may slow down browsing considerably. D is for disabled: Adobe Acrobat. iPhotoPhotocast (not needed). Picasa (not needed). Windows Live Photo Gallery (part of Windows Live Essentials).)

(Comments: Java is a security issue especially with OS X, so disable it except when using my bank website.)

[D] 11.5.7r609 (Shockwave Player, April 29, 2010) (disable, because there is a newer version) (OS X 10.7)

[D] Adobe Acrobat 10.1.3.23 (Windows 7)

[D] Adobe Acrobat NPAPI Plug-in 10.1.3 (OS X 10.7)

[ ] DivX Plus Web Player 2.2 (speed up videos by utilizing your graphics card, so CPU doesn't do all the work) (OS X 10.7)

[ ] DivX VOD Helper Plug-in 1.1 (Video on Demand, DivX's version of digital rights management or DRM) (OS X 10.7)

[ ] DivX Web Player 1.4.0.233 (Fedora 16)

[ ] Flip4Mac Windows Media Plugin 2.3.4 (OS X 10.7)

[ ] Gnome Shell Integration (Fedora 16)

[D] Google Earth Plug-in 6.0 (OS X 10.7) (usually not used)

[D] Google Talk NPAPI Plugin 2.8.7.6830 (OS X 10.7) (usually not used)

[D] Google Talk Plugin 2.8.5.6620 (Windows 7) (usually not used)

[D] Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator 0.1.44.15 (Windows 7) (usually not used)

[ ] Google Update 1.3.21.111 (Windows 7)

[D] iPhotoPhotocast 7.0 (OS X 10.7)

[ ] iTunes Application Detector (Fedora 16)

[ ] iTunes Application Detector 1.0.1.1 (Windows 7)

[D] Java Applet Plug-in 14.0.3 (OS X 10.7)

[D] Java Deployment Toolkit 6.0.310.5 (Windows 7)

[D] Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U31 6.0.310.5 (Windows 7)

[ ] npFFApi 1.0.0.1 (Windows 7)

[D] Picasa 1.0 (OS X 10.7)

[D] Picasa 3.0.0.0 (Windows 7)

[ ] QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.6 (Fedora 16)

[ ] QuickTime Plug-in 7.7.1 7.7.1.0 (Windows 7)

[ ] Shockwave Flash 11.2.202.228 (OS X 10.7)

[ ] Shockwave for Director 11.6.4.634 (view interactive web content created by the Macromedia Director) (Windows 7)

[D] Silverlight Plug-In 5.0.61118.0 (Windows 7) (usually not used)

[D] Silverlight Plug-In 5.0.61118.0 (OS X 10.7) (usually not used)

[ ] VLC Multimedia Plugin (compatible Totem 3.2.1) (Fedora 16)

[ ] VLC Web Plugin 2.0.0.0 (Windows 7)

[D] Windows Live Photo Gallery 15.4.3538.513 (Windows 7)

[ ] Windows Media Player Plug-in 10 (compatible; Totem) (Fedora 16)

Navigation Toolbar

Toolbar items: Home, Back, Forward, Address Bar, Search Bar

OLDER VERSIONS (ARCHIVE)

Mozilla Firefox 3 (Windows, Mac, Linux)

View: Toolbars: [ ] Bookmarks Toolbar

View: [x] Status Bar

Add-ons:

Live HTTP headers

Security tab:

[ ] Remember passwords for sites

Mozilla Firefox 3 (Mandriva)

In addition to regular settings mentioned above:

Advanced: Network tab: Settings button:

(*) No Proxy (may help with wireless network)

Last modified: September 8th, 2019

Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)

URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/mozilla-firefox-settings