Increase Maximum Number Of Connections

When you go to download multiple files you may notice that Firefox will only let you download two files at a time. If you want to download more you will have to increase the number of connections Firefox can make.

• Name: network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server
• The preference name already exists and does not need to be created.
• Default Value: 2
• Possible values:
  • Increase the value to something larger than 2 if you want to have the ability to download more files simultaneously.

Open Search Box Results In New Tab

The search box in the upper-right corner of Firefox makes it really easy to search your favorite sites. You can get each of those search queries to open in a new tab with this simple tweak:

• Name: browser.search.openintab
• The preference name already exists and does not need to be created.
• Default Value: false
• Possible values:
  • false - open search box results in current tab
  • true - open search box results in new tab

How To Disable Session Restore

The built-in session restore feature is really nice but I use Tab Mix Plus and its session restore is a little nicer (it remembers things like tabs that I have protected). It has some nice features but if you don’t disable the one that Firefox has then you may end up receiving duplicates of all your tabs.

• Name: browser.sessionstore.enabled
• The preference name does not exist and needs to be created. Use an Boolean type when creating the preference.
• Default Value: true
• Possible values:
  • false - disables the built-in session restore
  • true - enables the built-in session restore

Lower The Physical Memory Used When Minimized

This last one is a classic for our site. This article was posted back in March of 2006 and has received over 4,300 Diggs. Since that time it has brought in nearly 200,000 unique visitors and many find that it does exactly what they want.

This tweak will send Firefox to your virtual memory when you minimize the browser, therefore freeing your physical memory for other programs to use. Firefox will reduce its physical memory usage, when minimized, to approximately 10MB (give or take some) and when you maximize Firefox it will take back the memory that it needs. Some people argue that this is not a good thing to do but other browsers, like Opera, have are setup to do this by default.

• Name: config.trim_on_minimize
• The preference name does not exist and needs to be created. Use an Boolean type when creating the preference.
• Default Value: N/A
• Possible values:
  • true - this enables Firefox to be written to the virtual memory when minimized.