Disable Antivirus Scanning

For Windows users when Firefox 3 finishes downloading a file it will initiate a virus scan using any antivirus application that the user has installed on the computer. If you download a lot of files (especially large files) this can become a bottleneck for you as you wait for each file to be scanned, especially when many antivirus applications will automatically scan all incoming files. That means each file you download might get scanned twice.

By jumping into the about:config you can enable or disable this setting at your leisure:

• Name: browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone
• Preference Needs to be Created: No
• Preference Type: Boolean
• Default Value: True
• Possible values:
  • True - Scans each download with the installed antivirus application
  • False - Does not scan each download with the installed antivirus application

Firefox

Here I will list the most common "about:" pages for each browser with an explanation of what they will display.

"about:" or "about:about" - Either of these, will give you version information concerning your build of Firefox.

"about:blank" - Displays a blank page.

"about:plugins" - Displays a page listing the names and information of allinstalled plugins.

"about:cache" - Displays cache service information.

"about:cache?device=memory" - Displays information about the memory usage, with each entry listed individually.

"about:cache?device=disk" - Same as above but displays the items cached to your disk along with cache location on disk and again the listing of cached items."about:mozilla" - Displays an amusing page from a fictional book titled "The Book of Mozilla"."about:buildconfig" - Displays the build target platform, build tools (compiler), and configure arguements."about:config" - Displays an interface for setting and adjusting a number of browser configuration components."about:credits" - Lists people who contributed to Mozilla."about:logo" - Seamonkey only. Shows about:screen logo."about:licence" - Displays the EULA."about:license" - Same as above."about:neterror" - Displays the default "page can not be reached" page.

How to Easily Save All Images and Media Files

One other interesting feature I have fond in Firefox 3 is that you can easily save all media and image files. To do this first you need to click on the site identification button sitting just left to the address bar. A “Manage Information” Button will pop up. Click on it and you will see another popup with lot of options. Select the Media Option. Here you can see all the images and other media files availble in that web page. Select any or all, then click on the Save As button. This will ask you to specify a folder where it will save all the media and image files.

I am also using flash block extension which blocks all annoying video and flash contents and help the pages to load faster. Interclue is another useful add-on I have installed, which helps me see less and know more, click less and do more, and warns me of dangerous sites.

Firefox 3 Hacks And Tweaks

The following tweaks are obtained by typing about:config and then modifying the page. Make sure you take a back up copy just in case something goes wrong. Here are some of the hacks for the experimantally oriented.

Step one: Type about:config in the address bar and hit enter

Step two: Make the following modifications to the file by typing in the values on the respective fields to get the desired result (feel free to experiment)

1. To enable/disable Single Click Select URL of address bar

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll = True 

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll = False

2. To auto Complete URL while typing in the address Bar

browser.urlbar.autoFill=True

3. To set the number of auto complete URL in the address bar

browser.urlbar.maxRichResults = #

(# indicates the number of auto complete URLs shown. The default is 12)

4. To disabler Browser Toolbar Tip

browser.chrome.toolbar_tips = False

5. To paste copied content by clicking the center button on the mouse

middlemouse.paste = True

6. To disable blinking text

browser.blink_allowed = False

7. To create a single close button to for all Firefox Opened Tabs.

browser.tabs.closeButtons = 3

8. To increase number of recently closed tabs.

browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo=15

9. Right click view source in your editor

view_source.editor.external=True

view_source.editor.path= Path of Editor 

10. To enable fast scrolling across tabs

toolkit.scrollbox.scrollIncrement =75

11. To stop displaying website icon in address bar and on the tabs

browser.chrome.site_icons = False

12. To enable spell check in text fields

layout.spellcheckDefault = 2

13. To speed up the browser

network.http.max-connections 30 to 96

network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8

network.http.pipelining false to true

network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8

network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true

network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true

14. To disable annoying browser behavior

Change the followowing values to 'false'

dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar

dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar

dom.disable_window_move_resize

dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar

15. To show more tabs on single window

browser.tabs.tabMinWidth = 75

16. To display search results in new tab

browser.search.openintab=True.