Once I got started tweaking Firefox, I really wasn’t able to stop. Not that I was looking for anything – I just managed to stumble upon a few things while I was browsing.
The first tip allows you to enable an extra tabbed browsing option. Firefox allows you to open new links requested from other applications in new tabs, but what about those on web pages? Not possible without installing this line in your user.js file:
// Reveal more tab/window options:
user_pref("browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs", true);
Once in place, you can go to the Tools > Options > Advanced screen, where you will have the option to change the behavior of opening new links from a web page. If you do this, you might also be interested in this tip:
/* Force New Windows Restrictions
0: Default - Divert *all* new windows to current tab/window or new tab
1: Don't divert *any* windows spawned by JS
2: Don't divert JS windows that include size/placement/toolbar info */
user_pref("browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction", 2);
This setting allows you to divert those new windows. The value 0 means that all windows go to the selection, while a 1 diverts all but Javascript windows, and a 2 diverts Javascript, but not those that include size/placement/toolbar information. Very sweet. I’ve found that a setting of 2 here works well.
One other tip has to do with the rendering of the page. By default, Firefox will wait 250 milliseconds (a quarter of a second) prior to displaying anything. Change this value to the value you like and you should see some speed gains:
// Last value in milliseconds (default is 250)
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
Each of these changes goes into the user.js file, which you can find in your profile directory. If you can’t find it there, just create a new one. You will need to exit and restart prior to seeing the changes take effect.
In each case, the comment (the part inside the /* */ marks) isn’t really needed – it just helps to show you what values you can use and what the option does for you, for when you look back in a few months and have no idea why you added it.
Comments
4 responses to “More Firefox Tweaks”
Did some tweaks and Firefox IM Translator was lost. Window pops up but is non-responsive. Whats going on? Gratis!
True enough on the paint delay, Rod. I remembered reading that, and I even thought it was on Asa’s site, but I didn’t want to actually go looking for it. Still, it seems to be a matter of preference – I’m not disappointed with the results I’ve seen, but I do understand how it might not work as well as expected. I’m going to keep an eye on it and see how things work out.
Thanks for that new_window restrictions tip. Very handy.
As for the paint delay, Asa Dotzler recommends against it.
Hrm. The option that the first tip enables is already available in my Firefox (nightly build 20050116 Firefox/1.0+), and I’ve never done that hack. So maybe they just decided to enable it by default in a later version than you’re using.
Also, another way to make the second change without editing user.js by hand is by using the prefs editor built into Firefox. Open a new tab and type ‘about:config’ into the address bar to bring it up. Then right click and choose New -> Integer. Enter ‘nglayout.initialpaint.delay’ as the preference name, and enter 0 in the prompt box that pops up. Any changes you make to the defaults in the prefs editor are marked in bold, and are saved to the user.js file (as noted in the user.js section here).