Google site search for   http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/ 

Firefox Problems & Issues (Notes)



This page content has been ripped out of my Firefox Customizations (Notes) page to make it smaller, and so that problems are basically on a different page than notes about extensions.

Some problem solving material remains on the main page that provide solutions for problems that would not likely be viewed as problems but as alternatives such as how to make Ctrl+U Open into Notepad, additional notes on blocking ads besides extensions. 

Newest area is near bottom: Fx4 Firefox 4.0 Problem/Solving and Orientation

Firefox Problems:
      Things that don't always work, or never worked (#problems)

Unrelated problem:  HTML-Kit scroll wheel direction is reversed in the Edit window, and only in the edit window, to all other usage in Windows.  Scroll wheel direction works fine in HELP (browser).
 
Some problem items have solutions and have been moved to Firefox Notes in the frame above.

Problems in starting Firefox – problems cont'd (#willnotstartup)

If Firefox will not start, first check to see if FIREFOX.EXE is already running by checking your running tasks — ctrl+alt+del, Task Manager, Processes.  If it is already running then terminate that task and try again, this usually gets you back.

Had a rather serious problem in that Firefox would come up in the running tasks (Ctrl+Alt+Del) but not in the running Application (tab) and terminating and restarting did not work.   Had to backup my profile (2005-03-19), uninstall Firefox from the file folder (not found in uninstall programs), and delete all it's files and then a complete reinstall of Firefox 1.0.1 (and 1.0.2 was coming out the next week is now available).  Probably somewhat of a symptom the firefox that would not start had a zero size XUL.mfl
  http://techpatterns.com/forums/about372.htm (which is not a Firefox forum), and in
 http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up#How_to_Make_Firefox_Start
Though safe mode did not help, I did have to delete and recreate a profile, after reinstalling Firefox.  Safe mode allows you to disable or uninstall extensions without invoking any extensions -- for Windows the command would be:
  "C:\program files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -safe-mode
  firefox.exe -profilemanager

Some other things you can do with Start Run or System shortcuts:

  firefox.exe -new-window about:blank
  firefox.exe -new-window <url>
    see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Command_line_arguments
#List_of_command_line_arguments_.28incomplete.29
Some Quick Launch suggestions for Windows users

   

Restoring some specific profile files, after reinstalling Firefox after complete removal.
Files I restored from my thumbdrive backup so far were: bookmarks.html, cookies.txt, chrome/userChrome.css, chrome/userContent.css, and chrome/launchy.xml which put me in good shape for my options, and menus, then simply reinstalled the extensions that I really needed.  Was a lot more conservative about what I really need as you can see to the right (I had a slow memory impaired computer, much better after upgrading from 128MB RAM to 512MB RAM since then).  With limited RAM the important ones are:  Adblock, Context Highlight, Copy URL+, Drag to Tab (built-in), Launchy, InfoLister (better than Listzilla), Sort Bookmarks, and Web Developer.

The good news is that I don't seem to have the extra Mozilla Firefox window without customizations opening along with the Firefox window when I open Firefox.


Related Material:  Gripes about Firefox web browser (computergripes.com)

Alternate browsers
There is no excuse for being shut out from the internet when your favorite browser fails at a critical moment, you should always have a couple of other browsers installed and available to fall back on to check connectivity and to search for a resolution of problems. 


image url: http://www.google.com/imageslogo_sm.gif
link url: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en
width: 150px
height: 55px
Don't know where this came from, but when I hover over an image this shows up, and it is annoying, covers up text, and even worse often gets stuck and won't go away.  Seems to match description of various “floating image toolbar” extensions -- but I have no such extension installed that I know of.  In fact the comments on one such extensions say it is annoying.  Incidentally properties on the context menu provides additional information: size on disk (if not local), and alternate text – to this annoyance is absolutely worthless.  Finally resolved:  turn off option in MenuX -- Display tips for tools/images -- now back to displaying titles only in a small strip for images (not alt).

[small FF Window] Another annoyance is when a Firefox window opens too small, not only is it hard to find, but it is hard to resize with the cursor unless you remember to use Alt+SpaceBar first to move or resize a window. 

Fx2 FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)   (#fx2)
-- [also see Fx3 and particularly Fx3 comments and issues ] --

    Problems/Solutions/Changes

Initial comments concerning what I was going to do in Firefox 2.

Fx2 - about:config preferences   (#fx2config)

How To Modify Hidden Preferences Using about:config, only if you don't know how.
browser.tabs.closeButtons   3 (Display a single close button at the end of the tab strip -- Firefox 1.x behavior)
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth 10 (still only 24 tabs FULL width, to do better make changes to userChrome.css)
extensions.checkCompatibility False (read the article, can be risky), use False to continue to use old extensions
browser.urlbar.hideGoButton True (to remove "Go" button from Location bar)
Also see Tabs configuration, extracted from About:config entries and About:config entries - MozillaZine Knowledge Base, and for more information on Tab usage see Tabbed Browsing in Firefox and a tabs test page 001 Tab Capacity Test (with underscore).

Fx2 - Sudden Connection Refused Messages (#firewall)

Common problem after a Firefox automatic update is a failure in being able to connect to the internet, caused by Firewall rejecting connection.

Fx2 - menus   (#fx2menus)

Fx2 - Private Data   (#fx2data)

Fx2 - Toolbars   (#fx2toolbars)

Fx2 - Bookmarks Bar   (#bookmarksbar)

Fx2 - Bookmarks   (#fx2bookmarks)

Fx2 - Files   (#fx2files)

Fx2 - Find and scrolling problems (#fx2find)

Fx2 - Home Page differs   (#fx2home)   more info

Fx2 - localstore.rdf   (#localstore)

   Appears to be the most common problem in moving up to Fx2, but also common after updating Firefox or extensions.

Fx2 - Tabs Bar   (#fx2tabsbar)

Fx2 - Extensions   (#fx2ext)

Problem that was missed by 2.0.0.8 and will be fixed in next update:

Bug 396695 - Add-ons are disabled after updating. Users can fix this problem by opening their profile folder and removing three files (extensions.rdf, extensions.ini and extensions.cache) Actual bug title was "Add-ons go into 'needs to restart' loop commonly after a firefox update" [ref: regression-bugs-in-Firefox-2008]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_ themes_or_extensions_-_Firefox#Corrupt_extension_files

Fx2 - Status Bar (#fx2statusbar)

Fx2 - Display (#fx2display)

Fx2 - Fonts   (#fx2fonts)

Fx2 - Images   (#fx2images)

Fx2 Videos won't play (#fx2videos)

Fx2 Problem sites  (#fx2sites)

    Link Checks, check how items are opened for some of the sites listed here.

    See additional comments just below the following list.

Additional comments concerning use of popups, cookies, passwords all sites:

Many sites require JavaScript and under Advanced the only item I allow is for scripts to raise or lower windows. 

pop-ups while I do have exceptions (tools, options, contents;  exceptions) for when pop-ups are turned off, I generally do not suppress pop-ups, but do rely on other means of controlling unwanted urls including the Adblock extension, and hosts file. 

Put another way, any site that serves third party ads in images or pop-ups is unlikely to have your interests at heart and makes a mockery of any privacy policy statement they show on their site.  Unfortunately there are far too many such sites to block third party images

If you have "Redirect Remover" (RDR) extension you will have to make some exceptions, and it is easily enabled/disabled at the status bar.  The "Adblock" and "GreaseMonkey" extensions are easily enabled/disabled at the status bar without affecting your entire session by going through tools, addons.

Concerning sites requiring passwords to view material, avoid them if you can.  Less than 1% of the sites cause a lot of problems.  Unless they hold your money or confidential material, there really isn't much need for most of them, nor for you to use such sites.  Be sure to use unique passwords.  See private data

Long time to download (#slow)
Pipelining may slow down some sites such that they never appear to download or take a long time to download.  A common site that is mentioned is filehippo.com, which was slower but did load; whereas, acdsee.com simply took forever, and was not improved with pipelining off (nefarious site, after it loads, it redownloads, privacy policy also is slow).

Content in Firefox window bounces (#bounces)

Window shakes (Mozillazine KB), Content within Firefox window bounces, jitters, dances, dancing\ due to lack of bookmarks, bookmarks toolbar, or bad theme. (2006-12-26)

Calling Out (#callout)

Connections established on startup - Firefox - MozillaZine Knowledge Base, SSL, Live Bookmarks, updates, home page, phishing sites, prefetch links

Script Busy   (#scriptbusy)

Something to test after adding/enabling an Extension: Ctrl+A (select all) followed by right-click to bring up context menu.  Big problem if instead of context menu you get "A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding.  You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete [Stop Script] [Continue]".  These extensions are a problem: and have been disabled/uninstalled:  Line Marker (200607), Quick Sum (0.1), Translate (0.6.0.9), gTranslate (0.3.1).  Also as you approach Firefox 2.0.0.12 some extensions that get (not responding) and similar errors. 

Fx3 - Firefox 3 ♦ section FAQ, etc. (#fx3)  [also see Fx2 FAQ and notes]

Organization of this page:  Generate the Table of Contents (Alt+O) for this page and other webpages by installing the Document Map extension, then from the View menu, click on sidebar and then Document Map.  You are not at the top of the current page. 
firefox 3 tags keyword description create  places smart bookmarks

Fx3 - Concerns initial roll-out (#fx3rollout)

These may be of particular concern to many new users of Fx3.

Some of my experience with Firefox 3, and attempting to gain more information is on my page Places -- bookmark tags, as of yet nothing on how to use bookmark tags, just lots of problems because of starred bookmarks (quick bookmarks), and of making keyword bookmarks more difficult to create.


Firefox 3 Beta concerns Found (#fx3comments)

Fx3 Beta - Changes   (#fx3interface)
Fx3 Beta - Lost these extensions grayed out, can't make them singularly compatible   (#fx3ext)
Browser.bookmarks.overwritedefaultbooleanFalse more info
browser.places.importBookmarksHTMLuser setbooleanfalse 
browser.places.organizer.options.bookmarksuser setstringplace:queryType=1 
browser.send_pingsuser setbooleanFalse Bug: 401670, test ping
browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAlluser setbooleanFalse Turn off automatic select all on urlbar Ctrl+L, triple click will select all as will Ctrl+A [link] [reason]

Additional concerns and tweaks for Firefox 3 Beta testing are on places page, and on bookmarks page.

Other observations

Firefox 3.5.5   (#fx3p5)
See topics above concerning betas starting at Fx3 - Concerns initial roll-out
Fx3.6 Beta   (#fx3p6)

Fx4:  Firefox 4.0 Orientation, and Problems/Solutions/Issues   (#fx4)
-- [also see Fx2 and Fx3 issues above ] --

Orientation: These items are mainly from material that is shown to you when you first install Firefox.  The links will help you re-orientate yourself later.
****Is It Compatible? :: Add-ons for Firefox, Are your add-ons compatible with the next version of Firefox? Find out straight from the Add-ons window!
 
Extensions, Keyword Shortcuts, and User Styles (pages of mine)
MozillaZine articles -- Problems and Issues
These articles are for problem solving, Firefox 4.0 has reduced problem issues, most of these articles are to help you do something different, and to avoid problems by being aware of what you are doing.
MozillaZine articles -- Orientation, and How To articles

Fx4 Problems (most have solutions)   (#fx4_problems)

Problems: (note the solutions)

It is hard to comprehend how such a bad user interface came about in Firefox 4, while the underlying Firefox was greatly improved.  Not only do the UI changes make things harder to use, but they cause many extensions, themes, and styles to become more bloated.  (my opinion).  I have been working with the 4.0 Betas for over a year, so I do have solutions to most of the problems I encountered.

Before continuing, you might want to take a look at the changes that were made and how you were expected to cope with them.  Fortunately if you disagree you can customize things.  (Some screen shots:  [Fx0.8 ??] [ad] [fx1.0-3.0)] [Fx1] [fx2] [fx3] [fx3.5] [fx3.6] [fx5] [History] ) 
Here are examples (below) of what was changed in Firefox 4.0. 

It is possible to make Firefox 4.0 look like what you had in Firefox 3.6.16 and make some additional styling changes to help distinguish different profiles, reduce space on the bookmarks toolbar and whether a tab was read or not.  Click here to view my Before/After customizations.

Fix Firefox 4.0 toolbar user interface, problems (Make Firefox 4.0 look like 3.6) (#fx4interface)
locator information: http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox-problems.htm#fx4interface
subsection of Firefox 4.0 Orientation, and Problems/Solutions/Issues (see #fx4 above)
Numbered items are all subject to changed numbering / deletion/ rearrangement.
  1. If you are not familiar with customization of toolbars (placement of buttons), please read How do I customize the toolbars? | How to | Firefox Help (support.mozilla.com) -- Firefox HELP ("F1") -- (Pictures before/after customization [Fx4] [Fx5])
  2. To restore the Menu Bar:  View → Toolbars → (check) View Menu
    If you can't see menu click on "Alt" to see Menu Bar and other Toolbars temporarily or use "Alt+V" then continue as from View menu.  Restoring the Menu bar gives you back having the title on the title bar so you know what page you are on.  In either case, you always have the mouseover on the tabs and the list all tabs button to be able to see titles.  The new "Firefox" button replaces the Menu bar and hides titles.  If you restore the menu bar you normally will not see the "Firefox" button.
  3. To restore the Tab strip to its rightful place immediately above web page content:  View → Toolbars → (uncheck) Tabs on Top  ?
    The three bookmark icons show only as "Bookmarks" in the Customize dialog ("Alt+V" the one you need here shows as "Bookmark Toolbar Items" once on the tabstrip during customize.  The "bookmarks menu button" [bookmarks menu button] (with popup) brings up the bookmarks drop-down menu and if on the right side of the bookmarks bar -- Firefox 4 hid the menu bar, this serves as a bookmarks menu substitute.  The Bookmarks sidebar button [bookmarks sidebar] (no popup(brings up the bookmarksin the side bar ["Ctrl+B" bookmarks sidebar]
  4. Toolbar buttons moved to other side and combined/morphing buttons -- When the page is loaded the stop-reload-go button on right end of location bar becomes a reload button.  To restore old behavior, use normal customize to fix: (Alt+V → Toolbars → Customize)  Separate, move or remove Go [go] ["Enter"], Reload [reload] ["F5"] and Stop [stop]["Esc"] buttons. 
    Remove the Bookmarks sidebar [bookmarks sidebar] button ["Ctrl+B" bookmarks sidebar]; Return Home [Home] button ["Alt+Home"] from far right of navigation toolbar to the left side of the location bar, move new tab [+] on the tabs bar to to right side of Navigation bar to appear as [folder tab with plus.   Tab related keyboard shortcuts include: New Tab ["Ctrl+T"], Reopen Closed Tab ["Ctrl+Shift+T"], Close Tab ["Ctr+W"].
  5. Back/Forward toolbar button without drop-down -- use right-click (or hold left-click for a second) for dropdown, been doing that for long time and I had removed it on my copies of my navigation styles.  The older pages are at the bottom, the blue globe is the current position within the tab.  Click and hold on either button also works.  Use of a five button mouse saves time as you don't need to actually click on the Back/Forward arrows or use the Back ["Alt+<"] or Forward ["Ctrl+>"] keyboard shortcuts.  Also see "Finding a recent web page". (#bfdropdown")
  6. Title Bar missing, and loss of Menu bar -- you can regain the title in Firefox 4.0 by displaying the menu bar, and extensions such as Nightly Tester Tools will still work as long as the menu bar is displayed.  See Customize Toolbar (MozillaZine FAQ article), and particularly the section Restoring missing menu or other toolbars
  7. Menu changes (wording), "Organize Bookmarks" under the Bookmarks menu has been changed to "Show All Bookmarks -- Ctrl+Shift+B" with the same keyboard shortcut.  You may also view ALL of your bookmarks in the Bookmarks Sidebar ("Ctrl+B").  "Customize" under View("Alt+V") → Toolbars(T) → Customize... has been changed to Firefox → Options → Toolbar Layout
    Order within menus: including context menus such as "New Tab" and "New Window" were changed in Fx4, and as you add more extensions the order of menus will change.  The order of menu items, the addition of menu separators, and hiding of menu items can all be changed with the Menu Editor extension. [Notes].  Windows 7: see item #9 on my Windows 7 Home Premium page to Restore missing underscored letters in menus.
  8. Add-ons list messed up or hidden:  Tools → Add-ons ("Ctrl+Shift+A") → Extensions (left panel) → click on Name button to sort alphabetically.  Expand width of window if you don't see titles at left associated iconic menus for "Get Add-ons" (useless), "Extensions", "Appearance" (Themes/Personas), "Plugins", "User Styes", "Available Updates"
  9. RSS feed on the location bar has been replaced by " subscribe to this page..." in the bookmarks menu, or the subscribe button [subscribe] can be moved to toolbar or back into the location bar with customize.  The old style button with color can be restored with an extension as gray vs color, shows up a lot better than gray vs black.
  10. Status bar (renamed to add-ons bar), the status reporting, and urls are still not back inside the bar, so you will still need to install - Status-4-Evar restores use of status bar functionality in the replacement add-ons bar, explicit directions in this page of mine.  People struggled for most of year with this and the mess was partially fixed, but you will still need the extension.  The only good thing, so far (4.0) that came out of the changed Graphical User Interface (GUI) was that there is now a keyboard shortcut, “Ctrl+/”, to toggle the add-ons bar on or off, which is the same as using View → Toolbars → (check/uncheck) Add-ons bar (not finalized for Linux, which might be different[Bug 633819]).[Ref][Ref.  For those that want to use Organize Status Bar the 0.6.5 version is at the author's site.  Security padlock replaced by Site Identity Button on Location Bar. (ref)(addon)
     
    The first ten steps make Firefox 4.0 look like 3.6.*, that was all there was to it, almost entirely simple "customization" standard throughout all versions of Firefox, quick notes on usage, and one extension with explicit directions.  If you would like to restyle your toolbars to remove the wasted empty space on your toolbars now that you have all of your toolbars, skip down to Make your own styling changes.

    Web Forum users, who may have been referred here for primary or secondary problems.  As a courtesy to other users and to the person supplying the answer please mark the best solution (or resolution) to your question as solved that addresses your primary question, and if not clear in doing so, also provide a reply indicating what the problem really was and what part of the solution actually solved your problem.
    Problems that may occur immediately after any update (#fx4update)
  11. Firewalls may prevent use of Firefox after updating.  (Cannot connect after upgrading Firefox).  After fixing your Firewall rebooting might be wise, and clearing cache.  Norton product compatibility with Firefox Updates - Norton Community, Norton update for its extensions due soon, meanwhile disable the Norton extensions in Firefox so as not to crash Firefox [article date 2011-04-29, they expect to have a fix win about a week, and they should be marked as compatible with sub releases i.e. 4.0.*].
  12. Lost bookmarks - MozillaZine Knowledge Base, are often caused by allowing Firefox to create a new profile.  To avoid this problem don't let the installation start Firefox for you as that may create a new profile, instead start Firefox in your normal manner after the install.
     
    For additional issues relating to an update itself see MozillaZine articles -- Problems and Issues above.
    Extension issues(#fx4ext)
  13. Problematic Extensions:  The easiest thing to check is the list of Problematic extensions at mozillazine.org if you can't immediately identify an extension by the problems it causes.  If you can open Firefox, opening one time in Safe Mode is now easier in Firefox 4 by using the the "Restart with Add-ons Disabled" to help you determine if the problem is caused by an extension.  Rather than disabling extensions one at a time to find the bad extension the best way is to turn half-off and work up or down from there see Extension issues for details.
  14. Compatibility:  One thing you can do before and after Firefox 4 is to install the Is It Compatible? extension, so you can easily check minVer and maxVer in the extensions list itself.  If an extension is not compatible with your version of Firefox, look at the extension site for the author's webpage which might have a newer version for testing.  Read the developer comments and user comments, and the upgrade notice on the extension's page as well as is the size justified for the functionality and usefulness of the extension or is it bloated.  You should be looking at that information before you install an extension as well so you understand the extension better, its features and what could go wrong.  Also check out Problematic extensions, which has already been mentioned.
    1. Google Toolbar, no longer supported by Google in Fx5 and above see Using Google Toolbar features without toolbars
  15. Force install for extensions that you are reasonably sure will work by overriding maxVer test of the extension for suitability. (#forceinstall)
    The Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension was created to test add-ons for upcoming Firefox releases to report whether they still work or are having some issues with alpha and beta releases. Note: Recommended for alpha and beta users only!  But is being used by those who only know how to install extensions, to run extensions that were okay on Firefox 4 and show up as not yet ready for 5.0 and 6.0.
    For others the old methods still work and can be combined or used on less frequently used profiles with the extensions.checkCompatibility This change will not affect the warning of incompatibility on the add-ons list (which is good).
      extensions.checkCompatibility.3.6  set to false
      extensions.checkCompatibility.4.0  set to false
      extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0  set to false
      extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0  set to false
    The most important information for an add-on is the full description, the developer comments (hidden), the version information/size (hidden) and user comments for an extension.  The crap has expanded (also used with, collections, blue bottom area) of the add-on page.  You can research an extension to see if others found it to work or not using your Troubleshooting Information report to check the Compatibility Reporting results of Beta testers as well based on an extensions GUID number.
    New/changed Fx4 features (#fx4new)
  16. Passwords in FF4, some slight differences in Remember passwords. See comment number 3 in the linked thread.
  17. Tab Candy (renamed to app tabs) - I can't see ever using it, as my tabs will(/should) narrow down anyway, and I have no intent of saving tabs permanently, this is causing lots of problems for others and will probably need some way to turn it completely off.  Intended for those who use tabs bar as if they were bookmarks.
  18. app-tabs (new in Fx4) has a keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E that conflicted with "Adblock Plus" extension.  The Adblock Plus extension now uses "Ctrl+Shift+F" for preferences.  Should other keyboard shortcuts result in conflicts there is always the "keyconfig" extension.  Firefox moved into extensions area when Ctrl+E failed muster with IE users not used to Ctrl+K (Search Bar).  Will use app-tabs in order to temporarily lock a tab so that links don't open in the tab, which is what I had used "Perma Tabs Mod" extension for.
  19. Tab Groups (new in Fx4) (Panorama) What are Tab Groups (video included)
  20. Sync not as complete as the extension was (which I never used) as it will only work with Firefox.  I doubt that I will try it until I get a second computer on Windows 7, or a mobile device to by synched.
  21. Check for updates: Firefox is now done through Help → About   to make sure you get the latest, but you should also be updating Firefox and extensions automatically with a confirmation via Tools → Options → Advanced → Update (another long standing convention or standard broken).
  22. Version information no longer in Help → About..., which breaks 20-30 years of conventional place to look in applications.  Mozilla moved it to Help → Troubleshooting Information ("about:support"), similar information in other applications has been included or linked from Help/About in other applications but not in Firefox. 
  23. Add-ons Manager went from 11 per page to 4 per page with less information than if you were using an extension to add additional material and links.  makes one wonder if Mozilla ever learns anything from extension developers, plus locking into a tab prevents viewing at the same time as a webpage unless you open another Window.  The Compatibility Reporter did make use of oversize buttons on new layout with added capability, but it is only for Beta not for Minefield and not for the production version.
  24. No control of where/how you view information: Add-ons list in a tab, Bookmark properties (from star) dialog in a door hanger.  Options often appear unlabelled as a gear on dialogs.  New formats take away ability to compare to another list, wastes more space.  (Add-ons pictures [Fx3] [Fx4])
  25. Text Area Resizing builtin to Fx4 but only for multi-line text boxes.  Typical of only halfway implementing extensions, so you may still appreciate Textarea Resizer and Mover.
  26. Alert, Confirm, and Prompt boxes are not quite as bad as during Beta but still stinketh.  Can check for yourself differences between Fx3 and Fx4 with the items under "Chaos" in k.html.
  27. Firefox/Projects/3.7 and 4.0 Theme and UI Revamp/Direction and Feedback - MozillaWiki
  28. Oxymoronical » extension manager, Add-ons Manager
  29. Tabs are included in the AwesomeBar search by including "%" see Location Bar search (internal - Auto Complete), only open visible tab titles/urls will searched, and the active tab is excluded.
  30. Videos of Firefox 4 Beta Features
  31. Restoring tabs from a lost session (#tabslost) is now done after restarting through the History menu with “Restore previous session”.   Also available from the default homepage[HELP article]
    For those that prefer the old way, you can change the value of browser.showQuitWarning to true for choice at end of session rather than trying to guess if you want old or new at beginning of session, or for better security. [Bug 635231] [Bug 636777#c22] [Bug 629485].  The following settings are for those that want to make a choice at the end of the session: [Ref] [Ref]
    • browser.showQuitWarning user set boolean true
    • browser.tabs.warnOnClose default boolean true
    • browser.warnOnQuit default boolean true
    • browser.warnOnRestart user set boolean true
    If you had tabs open at the end of the session, you will be able to restore your tabs in the new session regardless of you have browser.showQuitWarning if set to true and you reply yes, the tabs will be automatically restored, if you replied no the tabs will be available through History menu.  If you had tabs open at end and browser.showQuitWarning is set to false then no message is issued about saving tabs and they will not be restored automatically but will be available through the History menu.  If you had no tabs open when closing Firefox there is no session to save or to restore. More information on configuration variables available in about:config (entries) and for users not familiar with the process there is about:config (How to change)
    If you don't want your tabs to be seen at all then close your tabs before closing the Window, information will still be in the History unless you use private browsing or remove your browsing history (Privacy options).
    Be sure that you are closing Firefox properly (see Close Firefox, below), and not just the Window.
    Private Browsing or clearing browsing history will prevent restoring session, and use of History in the awesomebar [picture]
  32. "moz-action:switchtab," may appear as a prefix in single line AwesomeBar results ("oldbar" extension), or instead as :[tab]: switch to tab symbol on the second line of the AwesomeBar results to indicate that it is an already open tab other than the active tab.  If the url is bookmarked, either the bookmark Star :[*]: or the bookmark tag :[//]: (luggage tag) symbol will also appear in the AwesomeBar results. [More]
  33. Tab width configuration options removed from about:config, styles that change width may need reworking.  References: mozilla-central - changeset - 47222:181a0b76dc4a (code) and Bug 574654 Styles affected or may need changes: Tabs Bar Minimal Size (9043). See Make your own styling changes the way they could have been done (below)
  34. Double-click on tabs bar maximizes window instead of opening a new tab.  Suggest turn off tabs on top (View), displaying Menu bar (View) and always showing tabs bar (Option).  Taking over the title bar and not putting the title into the title bar is irrational.  [Bug 575248, Windows].  [Bug 641490, Linux]
    Features messed up in earlier versions (#prefx4)
  35. tab close button, restore pre Fx2 method -- single close button at far right of tabs strip using about:config to restore feature with browser.tabs.closeButtons set to 3
  36. Open new tabs on far right, restore pre Fx3.6 behavior, set browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent to false in about:config
  37. Restore pre Fx3 keyword shortcut in Bookmark dialog with the "Add Bookmark Here ²" extension with my options so you have keyword once more in the bookmark dialog, and you can even remove the tag option, which has made the dialog very confusing to users and which made bookmarks less efficient.
  38. Closing Firefox ''(#close_firefox)'', avoid getting Firefox already running messages:  To properly shutdown Firefox when multiple windows or closing the last window use File → Exit/Quit (or Firefox button → Exit).  Closing Firefox with the [X] in the upper right corner closes the window ("Ctrl+W") but that does not necessarily close Firefox if it has subtasks running.  If you want to close and reopen Firefox use the "Restart" within Add-ons if you made a change requiring a restart, or install "Restartless Restart" ("Ctrl+Alt+R") which will allow you to take Firefox down and restart without having to check the Windows Task Manager to see if Firefox first actually ended. [Firefox hangs]
    Closing Firefox properly will not completely eliminate having to use the Windows Task Manager to close Firefox on Windows but it will certainly reduce the need to use it often.   Also See item #31 Restoring tabs from a lost session (#tabslost, above).
    Directions to close Firefox properly in all systems or failing that to force Firefox to close can be found in this MozillaZine article with directions for each system: kill application so you will know how to handle message:  "A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time."
  39. Searching:
    • Search Bar at MozillaZine
    • Location Bar search consists of an external search (after pressing Enter) changed from opening one page to displaying a list.  The Awesomebar feature is the intenal search (before pressing Enter).
    • External problems (below) describes search problems relating to Google, and to unwanted hijacking of searches by extensions.
  40. Unresponsive Script Warning, “A script on this page may be busy, or It may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.”  (My own dom.max_script_run_time is upped from 10 (default) to 30.
    Make your own styling changes the way they could have been done. (#fx4styles) [before/after picture]
  41. First install the "Stylish" extension (some items below have multiple styles to avoid renumbering items)
  42. Bookmarks Toolbar Fx4 Blue/Folders, Red/Bookmarks
    Navigation/Location Bar BIG Presentation Height - Themes and Skins for Browser - userstyles.org (or choose a style with a smaller font see description)
  43. Tab Color Underscoring active/read/unread (Fx3.6) , also requires Dickvl's TabVisited extension (a small .xpi) from MozillaZine. (solves problems with old style 9023 [Bug 487242])
  44. Tabs Bar Minimal Size makes Tabs bar smaller and allows tabs to really squeeze down as more are added.
  45. Tabs, Enlarge list-all-tabs button, additional background coloring to identify the list-all-tabs button (orangish), the close button (reddish) at the far right of the tabs bar, and a tabs counter (yellow).
  46. Color Toolbar(s) to identify profile is for users Using multiple profiles, and the comments and the style may be needed by users with Firefox problems with Windows Aero transparancy.
    Each style in the above list is independent and optional.  Each style can be modified by the user.  Single line summaries of many of the extensions and user styles that I use.
    Larger toolbars and buttons for those with disabilities and/or color buttons(#fx4large)
  47. Aeon Big (Theme, 2MB), large toolbar buttons with color and larger dialog symbols as well, but the dialog symbols may look nothing like Firefox dialog symbols.  Compare picture of Aeon Big to other distributed and smaller before/after picture.  You can open each in a new window ["Shift+click"] then click on images to use (+) magnifier cursor to enlarge images to normal size for comparisons.
  48. Strata XP (Theme (buttons), 13.3KB), replaces silhouette toolbar icons with color.  Icons are smaller and perhaps less distinguishable. : Good choice for those that just want color in their toolbar buttons.  [Tech Tips]
  49. Tango FX4 (Theme-buttons, 14.3KB), better coloring than Strata, but blobby, bad new tab button.[Tech Tips]
     
    An alternative for those who find toolbars and text hard to read and want a larger size the following extension works well for that purpose for font sizes at and between 12 and 20 -- Theme Font & Size Changer (464.9 KB), it is a very large extension.  The use Styles may be more suitable to just change a few things such as increase size of text in the location bar and decrease size of text on tabs.
    Problems some people think is Mozilla -- it's not. (#fx4external)
  50. Turn OFF Google Instant via http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en and check your setting regularly, You should now be able to see 100 hits per page again and make sure that is not grayed out in your Google Preferences.  (#googleinstant)
    Related to Google changes
    • Use the "Google Enhancer" extension, but do not use "Optimize Google" extension.
    • Assuming for now it is okay to use "Site Advisor" (ver 3.3.1) extension as long as Google Instant is turned off.
    • Expect that McAfee Site Advisor causing problems interacting with "Optimize Google" causing jittering and screen repainting and slowing down.  Disabling "Optimize Google" seems to work and can use Site Advisor. 
    It appears the "Google Instant Previews" is no longer in Google Preferences, so what if someone had it -- did it go away, can they turn it off.  There were also extensions that did same/similiar that might need to be uninstalled to get rid of similar things such as "Cool Preview". "Show Suggestions" is independent of Google Instant so you can still see suggestions on the search bar, but not be crippled by Google Instant.
  51. (user beware) ask.com is suddenly became the default search from the location bar, or the default search engine.  Mozilla did not make ask.com your search engine.  Users get suckered into an install.  See Problematic extensions.  Yahoo toolbar can not only be pain to remove [see removing Yahoo toolbar and restore default search engine (Q850287)], but here is a picture of something similar where additional software in this case the yahoo toolbar would be installed by the unsuspecting user.  Refuse anything you did not ask for.  Refuse all third party toolbars.
    Options, Tools → Options (various) (#fx4options)
  52. Tools>Options:  This will be difficult to figure out what you had before and lost with a new profile, or what got changed in going up to 4.0, but here are some things that might be overlooked as items you may have changed.  Remember these are all personal choices. For more descriptive information with each item see Options Window HELP
    • General, home page, downloads, where to save files. (should not have changed from your version 3 profile)
      • Default home page is now about:home was previously a Google page
    • Tabs, I have the first five checked, the sixth for Windows previews is unchecked.
    • Content, pop-ups optional, keep images and javascript checked (advanced JS: what I have checked varies)
      • Colors: all checked except use systems colors
      • Fonts: Western; Serif, 16; Times New Roman; Aria; Courier New, 17; None; Allow; Western (ISO-8859-15)
        If you have a problem with Font sizes, also see zoom things.
    • Privacy see picture, make sure you don't clear your history.
    • Security: all five items checked. You should protect your passwords with a Master Password that you must not forget.
       
  53. Check to see if Java is installed and working:  check at java.com -- crapware alert tries to install Yahoo Toolbar [pic]
    Barely worth mentioning, affect few users. (#fx4minor)
  54. Bookmarking via bookmarks menu and tabs context menu
    Firefox, depending on where you look this is what you see.
    • Bookmark this Tab ( tab context menu) - 3.6 (dropped 5.0 use bookmark Star :[*]:)
    • Bookmark this Page (bookmarks menu) - 3.6 (dropped 5.0 use bookmark Star :[*]:)
    • Bookmark all Tabs (tabs context & bookmarks menu) 3.6 and 5.0, grayed out in both 3.6 and 5.0 when only 1 tab.
    I expect single tab from context menu was dropped to make room for pinning a tab in 5.0 (app-tab) in tab context menu.
    (Google Chrome uses bookmark all tabs for 1 tab or all in tab context menu.)
    Avoid 7.0.1 and up, if possible, no longer suitable for serious users. (#fx7crap)
    Continues to be slow, erratic mouse movement and loss of mouse control for periods of time, high cpu usage.
    System Requirements for the latest Firefox (Firefox 9.0).  For other versions of Firefox see the Firefox wikipedia page.
  55. See Firefox 7 Notes.  There is no extension yet to return lost functionality of running JavaScript from location bar, or of using resize and move
    Firefox 7.0.1 and up is a cess pool.
    windows, but it is insane for a browser to become bloated to take away features and then require a extension to restore features.  JavaScript cannot be run from the location bar, and resize/move scripts cannot be run from bookmarks or webpages.  What then is going to protect us from bad webpages, and more important what is going to protect us from Firefox itself or even our own moving of windows away from where we really want them later.  For some absurdities just to be able to resize/move a window using JavaScript see this MozillaZine article.  Or the even more absurd manner of having to open an extra popup window as in the nicely laid out resizeMyBrowser, only to have to repopulate the new window afterwards -- I suppose the resize bookmarklets could open a popup window divorcing themselves from the original window, with only the original window keeping its tabs intact.  The workarounds entirely destroy the efficacy of use of such bookmarklets.
  56. http: was removed from url address in location bar (https: is left undisturbed) to repair damage -- set browser.urlbar.trimURLs to false in about:config
  57. The AwesomeBar search and sidebar search no longer work properly, they won't pick up javascript bookmarks properly, and seems to be case sensitive in some manner. Obviously related to damages caused loss of JavaScript usage (Bug 565541 – Web sites shouldn't be allowed to resize main window
    resize
    FUBAR
    Recovery
    Picture with steps necessary to resize window to specific dimensions and/or location, now that your resize bookmarklets have been reduced to a repository catalog of code to be copied and pasted into the Web Developer Web Console [Ctrl+Shift+K].
    Miscellaneous problems, many requiring changes to styles/extensions, some of unknown cause but reasonable solutions. (#fx4misc)
  58. Styles to override link color for visited fail (user error).  Styles Red: Mark visited links as read on unruly domains - Themes and Skins for about.com - userstyles.org (16842) and Red:visited -- Mark visited links Red - userstyles.org (17357) fail to change userstyles.com and google.com link colors to red for visited links. Works in 3.6.15 does not work in 4.0.  Problem was Remember my Browsing History got turned off.
  59. Remember my Browsing History (tools → Options → Privacy) got turned off.  Related problems with loss of Form History, and Download History.  [Picture]  [Picture]
  60. User name and password not remembered also see Privacy options in Viewing the browsing history.
  61. (pet peeve) Spell Checking is built-in to Firefox, please use it when filling in questions on web forums. 
  62. (adapt or substitute) PermaTabs Mod extension won't be able to lock tab from deletion (because of app-tab. but different), and won't be able to prevent links from opening in the same tab.  Another serious problem as in checking link validity (possibly also lost ability to color tab). [ref]
  63. (solution pending) Oversized Back/Forward buttons are ugly and wipe out significant area on the bookmarks toolbar, and intrudes on the menu bar.  Solved just have to check out solutions with other versions of Firefox and modify my userstyles.  Right now using Navigation/Location Bar BIG Presentation Height (with small icons, of course).
  64. (unresolved) Local files not being refreshed with Reload Neither "F5" nor "Ctrl+F5" will refresh local file:///c/... have to use "Ctrl+L" and re-enter. [bug -=-=-=-] (maybe Ctrl+F5 five times works) This may be applicable ONLY to those with a fragment-id (i.e. firefox-problems.htm#fx4) in the address.
  65. (perhaps load) Switching Tabs is sometimes slow what's happening in another window, add-ons list → about:support, possibly curved tabs, sometimes vertical scrolling is slow. BarTab (disabled) and config option are from 3.6 not 4.0 will check these out later because not the same as I have on minefield.
  66. Bug 581646 – After bug 578614 landed, there is no tab context menu when right-clicking on the empty space to the right of the tabs, but some commands actually do need it. Only applies to Windows users to include (unwanted) aero effects.  The context menu was dumped on all but the primary (first) tab, so additional tabs, empty space on the tabs bar, tabs list, tab close button on right, all show the same default context menu on toolbars that allows selection of toolbars and ends with "Customize...".  This makes all extensions that add to the tabs context menu appear to fail including this one I use extensively "Multiple Tab Handler" (fixed), those I use sometimes "Perma Tabs Mod" (color and links to new tabs destroyed by app-tab ), "Fox Splitter" (formerly Split Browser), and one that I used to use "Duplicate Tab". As seen in mixed results of "Compatibility Reporter" [1] [2] [3]
    Update:  Tab context menus fixed on tabs, but empty space on tab bar will continue to be barren (Windows only because of Aero.  Nobody in their right mind uses transparency or no title bar, but Firefox can't check how you may have turned it off, and probably most people who have Aero on don't know how to turn Aero off).
    Note:  The space to the right of the tabs is basically a dead area for tab context menus, but the extensions previously listed are working, and double-clicking in the empty area will create a new tab, so things are almost normal.
  67. (bad proposal) Combine tabs bar on the location bar and/or hide the location bar.  (my comment why it would be bad) I need all the space I can get on one row dedicated to tabs.  I need the title bar and location bar so I can see where I am at in fact I make the location bar larger than needed so people can see it projected on a screen.  When I say larger the text is larger but my location bar is definitely using less vertical toolbar space than what is distributed in both Firefox 3 and Firefox 4 and that is through styles the very chrome (appearance) that Mozilla keeps messing up.  While I could combine search bar with location bar with a keyword shortcut of "?" like Google Chrome, with its bad toolbar chrome, I choose not to and want both bars large as possible.  I also use the Search bar as a mini notepad for visual display and cut and paste reservoir and comparisons.  Ctrl+L can be used to enter into the location bar when hidden though not quite a replacement for Open Long Url for reworking some long urls.
    This can easily be undone with customization.
  68. (unsolved) ghostly/ugly/unmoveable hard to read dialog boxes for alert, confirm, and prompt, nor will a dialog accept a background color with styling.  Pictures for Fx4 (left) vs Fx3 (right) for Alert (test Alert), and for Prompt (test Prompt). [fx4_broken_prompt (pictures)]
    Extensions for which links were not supplied can be found on my main firefox.htm extensions table.

Running both Fx3 and Fx4 or Returning to Fx3 (#backto3pt6)

Once you get past the cosmetic changes made by Firefox 4.0 and now 5.0, it would be unlikely that you would even think of giving up performance and going back to Firefox 3 or 4, but you do have the option.  You can install the latest version of Firefox 3.6 available from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-older.html - it will automatically use your current bookmarks, passwords etc.

What would be better than going back to 3.6 for experienced more technical users, would be use both browsers, with whichever one you want as your default browser.  Using multiple profiles, of course you could also try out the latest Betas as well instead of going backwards.

If an extension worked in Firefox 4.0, it should be working in Firefox 5.0 as well.  Most Firefox 4.0 extensions did get a Firefox 5 Compatibility Bump.

You can force 5.0 "compatibility" with the "Add-on Compatibility Reporter" extension, or with extensions.checkCompatibility using about:addons.

For those that really need an older version of Firefox releases (all releases, including 4.0.1 and 5.0) or with the latest of Firefox 3.  Mac OSX 10.4 users can't upgrade to 4.0.1

When you reinstall a different version, at the end of the install, don't let the install start Firefox for you, rather exit, and then start Firefox in the normal manner to avoid inadvertently creating and using a new profile without your bookmarks, etc.

Firefox 5 came out on-time on June 21st 2011, and later this year Firefox 6 will come out.  Changes you made to Firefox 4 will allow to to remain current, rather than having a larger jump to make later.

Check for extension updates or alternatives:

Stop Autoplay and stop indexing   (#autoplay)

You can to some extent prevent videos from all starting at once.  This can be a little tricky, meaning you don't really have control.  The idea is to keep the videos from playing yet show the first frame of the video so you can tell what it is.  Videos are not all the same. These solutions are in effect until you open a tab at which case you take control of starting/stopping/restarting a video.  If you don't stop the video or audio it it will continue to play when you go to another tab.  (nothing guaranteed). 

media.autoplay.enabled user set Boolean set to false in about:config
browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs to 0 in about:config
(do not use the "Stop Autoplay" extension, which stops picture from showing)

If you want to listen to the radio through your browser, you may want to use another window, another profile or even another browser, so that your main browsing session would not be affected by closing tabs or windows.

Some more things in Firefox

In your operating system turn off all indexing, though not directly related to autoplay many of those problems arise from the same sources and the same companies and the same privacy concerns, and can really bog down your system.
  http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/windows-7/win7.htm#autoplay
  http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/disable-autoplay-of-audio-cds-and-usb-drives/

Firefox 5.0 -9.0   (#fx4plus)

Firefox 6 (#fx6)

Firefox 5 and 6 were quick very little change to the user interface use the Fx4 notes items 1 thru 60+ above.

Firefox 7 Notes (#fx7)

Firefox 7.0.1 and up is broken by design.  None of the the other browsers have broken JavaScript on resizing/moving windows.  But IE probably will.  These changes take away user control to stop malware applications that these changes are supposed to prevent. It will not prevent malware but it does mess with user control.
JavaScript now broken by design.  Users can no longer resize and move windows with JavaScript.

Summary of steps described in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resizing_oversize_window

  1. use "Alt+Spacebar" in Windows to Maximize active window
  2. Change '''services.sync.prefs.sync.dom.disable_window_move_resize''' to '''false''' using about:config
  3. Create a bookmarklet (bookmark with JavaScript) having a location of
    javascript:self.resizeTo(1024,screen.availHeight);self.moveTo(screen.availWidth-1024,0);
    (reduce from 1024 if your screen width is less than 1024)
  4. Next about:config must be the active tab
  5. Invoke the bookmark directly from your bookmarks (with Firefox 7.0.1 you can no longer invoke a keyword shortcut from the location bar involving move/resize).

Firefox 8 Notes (#fx8)

for those who would like to test latest Firefox Beta you can obtain at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-beta.html look for English, per Planet Mozilla (Nov 26, 2007, the one that is not British is the US version)

Firefox 9 Notes (#fx9)

Firefox 10 Notes (#fx10)

[nightly latest-trunk builds)]

Firefox 12 Notes (#fx12)

How to restore the list-all-tabs button (make it visible). Problem caused by Bug 714281.  See Style 18553 and also recommend styles 9043 and 9023, or if you prefer a couple of short extensions see Permanent List All Tabs and also Prevent Tab Overflow (scrolling).  I will continue to use my user customizable styles involving tabs instead.

Firefox 12 is the final release to support Windows 2000 and Windows XP RTM & SP1. Ref

Firefox 13 Notes (#fx13)

Firefox 14 Notes (#fx14)

Firefox 15 Notes   (#fx15)   scheduled for August 28, 2012 release

Firefox 18 and 19 Notes   (#fx19)

Condolences to those who have tried to keep up through the bastardized versions of Firefox above Fx2.6.  You can no longer turn off tabs on top through the view options, so here are some preferences (about:config) for tabs. 

browser.newtab.urlabout:blank 
browser.tabs.closeButtons3will be lost in Fx31
browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTabfalse 
browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrentfalse 
browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplacefalse 
browser.tabs.loadGroup0 
browser.tabs.loadInBackgroundfalse 
browser.tabs.onTopfalse 
browser.tabs.openinnewtabtrue 
browser.tabs.tabClipWidth5 
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth0 
browser.tabs.warnOnClosefalse 
extensions.checkCompatibility.19.0false 
extensions.checkCompatibility.19.0afalse 

Firefox 23.0.1 Notes   (#fx23)

Have tabs on bottom (where they belong!):

Firefox 25.0 Notes   (#fx25)

Firefox 29.0 Notes   (#fx29)

Not paying much attention to what is happening anymore.  Really have little interest in browsers anymore they're all getting worse.

Steps to remediate Firefox 29 disaster ("The Emperor Has No Clothes" Disaster)
(fx3), (fx3 addons), (fx4 disaster (FF button)), (fx4b), (fx4b), (fx6_vs_chrom), Pictures (Window: 1076X599): (Before) (Firefox 29) (remediation 2), (early meld, (adding several styles one by one),

  1. Disable "How Many Times Can I Back?" extension for now, the removal solves the problem of frozen tabs (unselectable tabs), for which the temporary solution until extension is disabled was Ctrl+W to close a tab, Ctrl+T to open a tab, and the "List All Tabs" button to change tabs. [ref]
  2. Addons Bar:  Install “The Addon Bar (restored)”, Gives you a place to put all your add-on buttons without over-crowding the navigation bar.  One third of the battle won.  Remove "Print Edit" button from Navigation bar. Except for the Home button.  Had to move all unreadable addon buttons to the restored addons bar so that they can be seen (properly) instead of empty rectangles or squished buttons.  Insert a "flexible space" from customize at beginning so your addon will appear at the righthand end.  Mentioned first because nothing will look correct until the addons bar is restored.
  3. Title Bar can be restored, see bottom of Customize toolbar dialog window.  Only Windows was affected not Macs. Linus(?).
  4. Menu Bar restore Alt+V(view) > (on) Menu Bar.
  5. If you use menu bar on Windows, move the search bar up there.
  6. Status Bar:  If you use the Status-4-Evar extension, put some of your addon icons into the Status bar that is created by the extension. Make sure the Status-4-Evar extension is active. You will have to turn if on/off through the View > Toolbars > Status bar.
  7. Addons Bar,  if you do not use the Status-4-Evar extension or you use a Mac install "The Addon Bar (restored)", and you will have the use of "Ctrl+/" again.  Move some of your extension icons to the Addons Bar.
  8. Might want to use "Color Toolbar(s) to identify profile (DM*) (style 9514): #F3E078 if want to associated dialogs with a profile and overcome some Aero effects from Windows on the menu bar.
  9. Navigation bar.  Move mishaped addons to the addons bar, or the menu bar.  Move Home button to whereit is more suitable.
  10. FUBAR - Unfortunately if you do not want the new Menu toolbar button ([] or [], you are SOL.  To add a further insult there is an Easter Egg if you remove all items from the Menu Bar.
  11. FUBAR - Bookmark Star no longers toggles with a Solid gold to indicate Bookmarked.  It is now Blue, and can be clicked to bookmark a page. Now blue instead of Gold, but solid color only appears for bookmarked page, if this double-trouble icons is to the right of the url bar (placement also fixes part about having to go inside dialog to unbookmark a page).
    FUBAR the bookmarks list ("Show your bookmarks", Ctrl+SHIFT+B) is attached to the star. SOL for those who don't want garbage on toolbars, and prefer to use keyboard shortcuts for some things. The attached bookmarks list is actually the dropdown arrow.  Fix this by collapsing.
    #bookmarks-menu-button toolbarbutton { visibility:collapse !important; }
    FUBAR navigation bar icons are not centered vertically and are too big.
    Summary of changes from a user perspective.
  12. Recommend Add Bookmark Here2 to retain your sanity and the ability to use Keywords in your bookmarks.  Nothing new about Fx 29 here.
  13. Bookmarks Bar:  restore Alt+V(view) > (on) Menu Bar, Bookmarks Bar, Addons Bar.  If you want to save space on the Bookmarks Bar, then use mainly folders, and use a style "Bookmarks Toolbar Fx4 Blue/Folders, Red/Bookmarks" (no change in style for Fx29, but you may want to save space).
  14. Just lost the space, and flexible space from the customization dialog.  It was there in Fx29 and disappeared.
  15. Tabs Bar:  Install "Tabs on Bottom (Australis) 0.4 -- works and works in combination with The Addon Bar (restored).  Needs some work but style "Tab Color Underscoring active/read/unread (Fx3.6)" is helpful. The extension will not be needed when style for Fx29 is in production, also probably eliminate the tabs height and width from configurations additional styles. About 2014-05-15 + 1 week.  FUBAR the default position of the New Tab button [+] is left side of the Tabs Bar.
  16. TabHistory extension dickvl must be active for styling to properly show Active tab (red), Restored tab (Green), Loading (magenta), Has been viewed (Blue).
  17. Library list shared by extended lists for bookmarks (Ctrl+Shift+B) and history (Ctrl+Shift+H).  Fx29 FUBARed columns. Restore them and move them as you like.  Name, Location, Most Recent Visited, Visit Count, Keyword, Parent Folder, Description, Added, Last used (most you can allocate narrow column to , especially if you just want to only know if something is there).
  18. FUBAR can not remove Tags item in "More Information" of Library list. (not new to Fx29) but a major annoyance consider how much space is wasted and what is left out.

Styles that will help alleviate Firefox 29 problems or at least the problems with using my styles in firefox 29.

Work Environment:  Anybody that thinks Firefox can be used in an IT Work Environment is insane.  Nobody would stand for all the changes and fiddling required, and nor would the support staff.

Backups.  Backup your prefs.js separately that is in your Firefox profile BEFORE you close Firefox.  Anti-virus program may destroy the file, when Firefox closes it restores the file to what configurations it is now/still using.  Backup your entire Firefox profile.  If you don't know where your profile is use about:support in the address bar, then "Open Containing Folder" gray text button in the report.

Usage problems with Firefox 29:

  1. Tabs freeze: use the tabs drop-down when that happens, which is another place besides optional Title Bar that you can see the complete titles, active tab is bolded. New tab(ctrl+T) still works, as does Close Tab (Ctrl+W). Restart does not fix, may have worked first time.  Double-click on a tab toggles full-screen.  Disabled "How Many Times Can I back?" and noted in Problematic extensions, along with an email to Piro (the author).
  2. Stylish extension 1.4.2: Not able to see code.  Styles can be enabled/disabled though. version 1.4.3 just made available, still do not see code. Stylish custom 0.7.7 disabled and can now see code.
  3. MP4: Lost all top toolbars after trying to view Times Squares video clip full screen (lower right corner of clip). Restart Firefox to restore toolbars. Same for the mp4 clip itself.  Having a title bar via toolbar customization prevented loss of top toolbars, but the mp4 clip still keeps stopping/freezing at 2 second mark refusing to continue.  This video continues to be a problem.  In Safari 11 sec video runs continuously and without a correct time length shown.  Rightside of that page has a comment that blog runs on Shutterstock images and video.
  4. Multiple Tab Handler Extension appears to be working since Firefox 29 was updated to 29.0.1, Multiple Tab Handler updated from 0.7.2013100801 to at least 0.7.2014050101 version (view all). stats, compatibility
  5. About 1 1/2 inches wasted at right of tabs bar, and 5/16 inch wasted at left side of tabs bar, and about 1/2 inch wasted vertically mainly at top of tabs bar. Hope to fix by modifying my Tab style. Solved space on right by turning on View > Toolbars > Menu Bar.  Wasted space is the space where the more tabs to the left or right indicators would be if they were used.  I squeeze tabs down and have no use for not narrowing tabs to fit.
  6. Invisible scrollbars can't be seen until you pass cursor over them. With styles off the scrollbar just shows empty scrollbar reserved space, but no scrollbars.  If Stylish is disabled completely in addons the scrollbars return, but just disabling all styles within Stylish does not work.  Problem turned out to be a style that was installed earlier to try to fix a different problem.  Got rid of "Real Full Screen Firefox" (style 33982).  My mistake in not finding quickly was that you must Reload(F5) web page after enabling/disabling this style in order to see the change.
  7. PasswordBox - can't get rid of the extension in addons but it no longer exists, sorry I ever tried to install it (unwanted).  May need registry clean-up per authoring site.  Did eventually fix problem, but was not simple to get rid of.
  8. Can no longer list passwords with an HTML file installed locally.  Too many sites are making things difficult and losing passwords, so a list is absolutely necessary.
    Solution:  forced to install an extension, chose Password Exporter :: Add-ons for Firefox
  9. AVG Free keeps deleting prefs.js simplifying about:config to hardly anything.  Glad I have a something left, the only thing that saved me was that Firefox restores it when it closes.  Firefox was usually running.  All of the renamed backups in the folder were also cleared.  So now have a new backup.  May have to switch to Avast. Prevented AVG from looking at profiles, probably a Mozilla developer's test left over from Beta testing acting like spyware to report some usage statistics.

The main problems have been resolved, if you have a solution or better solution (using Firefox) to one of the above Fx29 problems above, I'd like to hear from you. email comment for fx29

To be done:

  1. (reduce height and wasted space on on Tabs Bar, style xxxx needs rework)
  2. (fix address and navigation bar to be usable again), for now moving addons off of this toolbar and using style Navigation/Location Bar BIG Presentation Height - Themes and Skins for Browser (style 18864) so that Bookmarks STAR is is visible works.  The style was really meant to be used so people in the back of the room could see the address bar when the page was projected on a screen, but even this style is far more space friendly than the uncustomized height.
  3. (toggle production/test) will need help again from Ralph Fox, as this again fails to to switch back to file:///c: from an http://

Lost use of "sw" bookmarklet, will need more help from Ralph Fox. Can't find what was added to about:config, certainly don't want to use an addon, if possible.  Test the following bookmarklet on this small test file http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/b77.htm
Name:sw (toggle between text and production urls)
Location:javascript:(function(){var%20flip='file:///c:/copiedsite/dmcritchie/';var%20flop='http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/';var%20x_xc;try{var%20x_lip=String(flip).length;var%20x_lop=String(flop).length;var%20x_old=String(top.location.href);var%20x_do=0;var%20x_new='';if(x_old%20&&%20x_old.substring(0,x_lip).toLowerCase()==String(flip).toLowerCase()){x_new=flop+x_old.substring(x_lip);x_do=1;}else%20if(x_old%20&&%20x_old.substring(0,x_lop).toLowerCase()==String(flop).toLowerCase()){x_new=flip+x_old.substring(x_lop);x_do=1;}if(x_do){top.location=x_new;}}catch(x_xc){}void(0);})()
Keyword:sw
Description:sw: switch current url Test <--> Production Ralph Fox (2010-10-01 m.s.firefox) improved and pointed to fact it gets a security error see http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Links+to+local+or+network+pages+do+not+work but even with the "testlinks" extension still fails.  (more in somnats) http://kb.mozillazine.org/Links_to_local_pages_don%27t_work

Possibly an error in After the Deadline extension. Tools > Web Developer > Web Console Item in right "atd.js:656" points to ....  Messed up all the default settings so not showing errors now.

Fx29 (Australis) was so bad that I didn't come up with solutions until a whole year later

Found some solutions with a Google search of: firefox "use small icons" fx29 OR australis menu OR bookmark button

Mid June, and the current Firefox is 38.0.5 finally have some solutions to large buttons. Had been working crippled w/o "Bookmark Edit" (star button) because of additional baggage added, several icons not on toolbars because they are too big: "Textarea Cache". Other icons are still on toolbars but too big and illformed -- "Back button", "Open Menu button" (▤ &#x25A4;) had to be moved to addons bar and never look there for things I expect to be elsewhere.

Firefox 31.0 Notes   (#fx31)

Firefox 33.0 Notes   (#fx33)

Firefox 34.0.5 Notes   (#fx34)

Fx34.0.5 forced another search change, didn't want the search change to Yahoo in 34.0.0, certainly don't want the search choices to be from 75 ambiguous icons instead of nice list of exactly what I had set up for search choices that indicated what the were, now it is all m3ss3d up.  “Design a system an idiot can use and only an idiot will want to use it.” Update gave me a choice try it now or later, I "x'd" out of it and got it anyway.  

The Field of icons comes up and covers up your toolbars and webpage as soon as you start to type into the search field.  Then and only then do you see the icon of the search you are actually set up to use.  Then you can click below on "Change search setttings" and can see the real search descriptions, but that is nonsensical.  If you click on the search icon you do not have to look at the field of ambiguous icons, but still have to first click on "Change Search Settings" and cannot reorder searches once there.  Yahoo sticks out like a sore thumb at the top, ahha I can uncheck it's box and not have to look at it, but not be able to invoke, okay.  But unchecking the Yahoo check box did nothing, except remove if from the ambiguous field of search icons.  My choice is Google, but it or any other search choice will not tell you on the search bar which one you are using. (foobar).    You cannot edit the descriptions, though that was probably also the case before once installed.

How can I restore the search bar drop down list and current search engine icon as it was in FF version 33?
browser.search.showOneOffButtons false (close and restart Firefox after changing in about:config to see my 160+ search engine choices)

The other thing trying to force synchronized passwords and bookmarks -- I don't want these shared on other devices, and certainly don't want it being made easier for Google to steal the information either.  So now its probably been stored outside of my computer without my permission.  I have different habits between desktop (actually a laptop), and my two Android devices. Gone backwards from the days when you could stack or switch between major folders of Netscape bookmarks.  I would not be able to scroll my bookmarks on Android to be able to use them, and only use a small fraction of my bookmarklets and hardly any other bookmarks on Android except for the speed dials of other browsers on Android.

Firefox 36.0.1 Notes   (#fx36)

Haven't done anything about the search engine icons covering up page when you enter a search.  [fixed see #fx34 above]

Another thing that probably came up about the same time as the search engine changes, was the nearly invisible scrollbars.  Just making a quick temporary fix here as it's been a long time since I've restyle scrollbars.  So I just quickly selected a style created about the same time as they were destroyed.  So I installed "Minamalist Chrome inspired Scrollbar " and substracted; x'303030' from each of the grayscale colors and for the light background of the scrollbar itself used #E1E1E1 instead of #F1F1F1 another case of Mozilla trying the make things right by repeating what is wrong (another case of bad color choices similar to Aero in Windows). But it eliminates or does not restore the smaller scrollers at ends of scrollbar.

Firefox 38.0.1 Notes   (#fx38)

Firefox 39 Notes   (#fx39)

firefox 39 | Mozilla Add-ons Blog will start warning about unsigned add-ons (Blog).  Twelve weeks later (2 update cycles), you will be unable to use add-ons not signed by Mozilla.  So I expect we will no longer be able to run add-ons written by old developers MIA.  More grief in the works:  Firefox will look at your history to show Suggested Tile ads.

Firefox 41.0.2   (#fx41) Firefox just about useless beyond this release

Keyword shortcuts still work, though they will work in later releases if you have no extensions, and no changes, I'm just not up to spending many hours searching down created problems where so called developers obviously do not use Firefox and do not listen to users and keep dropping features.  This is my fallback version.  I have lost numerous extensions along the way particularly in bookmark functionality.  Still working at this point: Search bar and drop-down search selection, keywords, (sorting bookmarks gone long ago).,

Firefox 42 Notes   (#fx42) Firefox just about useless now, November 3, 2015.

You are near the bottom of this page, for earlier problems/solutions look upward.

It is more and more obvious that Mozilla Developers are not Firefox users.  How can this crap be distributed as a release, or even as Firefox.  Am sick and tired of spending 100 hours everytime Firefox comes out with a new version.

Firefox 45 Notes   (#fx45) Same Shit - Firefox still useless

Firefox got updated to 43.0.1 without my permission, tested latest update 45.0 to test keyword shortcuts still useless (didn't even have JavaScript or %S) absolutely no good.  Think of a software update to your car that gives you no brakes, no lights, no reverse gear, windows don't roll down, no heater, and no air conditioning.  Reverting back to 41.0.2 to a version that works!  How can one wonder why Firefox is losing share.  Make it useless and people stop using it.  I can't tell other people to turn off updating and use an older version, but that is the only way that Firefox can be usefully used.

Maybe something in preferences

Firefox 47 Notes   (#fx47) Firefox keyword shortcuts finally working again

Updated to 47.0 (avail June 7, 2016) installed and updated addons on June 21, 2016.  Have keyword shortcuts working again, have bookmark properties.  Other things above still broke: use of Ctrl+/, keyword not in Library Bookmark list (Ctrl+Shift+B).  Lost use of TableToClipboard and still lost are InfoLister (Troubleshooting Information will have to suffice -- lacks descriptions), Sort Places (withdrawn by author for cause), CopyURL+ (abandoned early due to Mozilla updates), Element Properties 10, Menu Editor, Pocket, Readability (don't care, part of FF now), Tab Visited.  Search bar -- what good are a lot of useless logos w/o description covering page and why do I have to look at them if not changing.  BTW highly recommend "Scrollbar Search Highlighter" (click within search area to restore normal usage, Ctrl+K)

Appears that my bookmarks are automatically sorted (is respecting separators), turns out to be optional part of addon "Add Bookmark Here ²".

The following bookmarklets do not work when using their keyword to invoke
source:  javascript:location="view-source:"+location
You can manually prefix url with "view-source:" but that is sheer madness (workaround: Tools > Web Developer > Page Source, along with being stupid it is not the same!!!)

Launchy extension not working. as if missing all of its configuration

Al of graphics and trackers missing from Firefox addons, including invoking the addon, good thing I know there is a fix to always display version inforatopn at bottom of addons.

fx47: Don't remember when these features were dropped, but here are solutions:

fx47: Some additional steps required on small ASUS laptop: The ASUS had been running Fx 42, and would not update beyond 42.  Keyword shortcuts were working on it.

Firefox 48 Notes   (#fx48) Firefox broken again

  • Going back to 47.0.1 -- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-older-version-of-firefox, specifically for 47.0.1 (US English) which I have in downloads https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/47.0.1/win32/en-US/ (42MB, Jun 28, 2016)
  • Additional problems with 48.0.2 -- link to some popular Images from flipopular use the Skip button to view Evernote page in your browser.

    1. Could not view the big image with flipopular link that matches the text (did not work after rebooting Windows 10).  Works in Google Chrome and in Microsoft Edge.
    2. Could not include multiple contact lists in the bcc using Gmail to send from Firefox. (worked after rebooting Windows 10)
    3. Stylish extension still worked and can be toggled on/off, but the toolbar icon itself did not toggle appearance until after rebooting Windows 10.
    So had to use "Open With" extension to open that flipopular page with Google Chrome, from View menu, and have reverted Firefox back to 47.0.1.  Firefox 48 with Electrolysis changes was delivered to 1% of people receiving updates, and it is known to not work for people with extensions (shouldn't that be most everybody).  Unbelievable.  Next update cycle if still fails, change Multiprocess Windows to disabled as seen in 47.0.1 about:support (browser.tabs.remote.autostart to false, and browser.tabs.remote.force-enable to false).

    Skipped Firefox 49 and 50, trying out Fx51 now

    Firefox 51.0.1 Notes   (#fx51) Firefox broken again -- still trying

    Firefox 53.0.2 Notes   (#fx53) Firefox working with fix for MTH

    Firefox 55.0 Notes   (#fx55) improved tab handling and memory requiremets

    Firefox 56.0.2 Notes   (#fx56) End of the Line

    I have not and do not plan on updating Firefox on Windows 10 beyond what I am using for Firefox, 56.0.2.  Firefox no longer allows you to change the appearance (the Chrome) of Firefox toolbars, can no longer cram four times the amount in the toolbar space, so there is no advantage to Firefox over Chrome which they seem deadset on copying rather than being a leader.

    Mozilla seems to be quite set on making bookmarklets not useful, preventing me from resizing my screen with a bookmarklet and have destroyed the majority of the extensions I used and had to keep trying to find replacements for.  Keyword shortcuts on bookmarklets did survive after lots of complaints for a year, then when it went into production they brought them back within two weeks -- a bunch of prima donnas that modify Firefox right out of university and were not users to begin with.

    Mozilla developers step all over extensions and expect people who are dead or no longer playing with browsers to keep their extensions up to date when Mozilla never provided a good interface for extensions to begin with -- one should not have to modify a working extension.  The good extension writers have given up on Firefox.  Chrome extensions stink and don't do much of anything; nevertheless, I have found substitutes for some of my more important needs.

    Firefox 65.0.2 Notes   (#fx65) Fresh Restart 2019-02-12

    I will try to use the current version of Firefox on an ASUS X205T, but am using mostly Chrome now, but sticking to Firefox 56 on main laptop for working on websites etc.  These are directions for using FF65.  I had Firefox on this machine until a bad Windows update in April 2018.  I installed FF65 on it then replaced the profile folder with a Mar 2018 backup.  The profile is different than on my main laptop as this is for lighter work and no working on websites.  The order is not the same as I fixed stuff I did not like.  The extensions are what I used to have on the ASUS, but non of the styles I had in Stylish would work any longer so I have created a userChrome.css file for the important things.  BTW bookmarks no longer have decriptions, not a problem for Mozilla Developers, but a big problem for me -- there are extensions but don't know if compatible with what I had, obviously they have been removed, one of many reasons my main Firefox will remain at FF 56.0.2.
    1. First problem can't read tabs or menu with white lettering on black background.
      The fix:  type about:addons into the address bar, then select Themes, then change from dark(default) to Light (a theme with a light color scheme).
    2. You must be able to see all extension suffixes on your file on your Windows system in order to continue.  Open "File Manager" > File > Options > View (tab)
      Under Hidden files and folders, change toggle setting to "Show hidden files, folders, and drives.  Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".
    3. I created a userChrome.css, it is a text file that you will have to create a userChrome.css in the chrome folder of your profile folder.  You can open your profile folder using Help (Alt+H) > Trouble shooting > Open folder.  If you already have one make backup copy, and add my content to yours.
    The above will fix the following things.

    Firefox 56 and 65 status (#fx65status)

    For bookmarklets descriptions are critical documentation, what it does, where it came from (more documentation), how it was modified or what it was modified from.  What I disliked was that descriptions were not searchable implying that Mozilla never considered them important.  Also keyword was not sortable in BM, but I placed the keyword as the first word in the bookmark title.  (and most of my keyword shortcuts included a colon)

    Mozilla destroyed keywords for a whole year in Betas saying tags were the same.  When that version finally went into production Mozilla had to restore use of the keyword within a few days. 

    I'd say that Mozilla stopped listening to users with the introduction of bookmark tags, making bookmarks inefficient and slow and trying to hide useful keyword and description fields.  Eventually the description field is no longer visible and the Add Bookmark Here 2 extension disappeared in Firefox 56.

    Just never understood why Mozilla developers were not users, so they never understood what they had and what they systematically destroyed.

    Sticking with Fx56. I have Fx65 on a small laptop with 32GB SSD drive modified my bookmarks toolbar on it with userChrome.css to eliminate all folder and bookmark icons that I used to do with Styles in the Stylish extension, but not ready to update Fx56 to Fx65 so mostly using Chrome.  Chrome extensions are getting better but don't have much in options or customizations. You can still find good stuff in Stylish, but you have to add them to userChrome yourself, specifically what Stylish was designed to save you from annoyances of unwiedly prone to any small error in userChrome messing up everything.

    I will probably install "Bookmark Notes" on the small laptop with Fx65, but really hope Mozilla will put descriptions back before I Iose them or can no longer use Fx56.  Of 5700 bookmarks, 1800 have required descriptions.  Unfortunately that extension is not what I consider a solution it is unwiedly to use and descriptions do not show up in properties or bookmark library listing. Addons are prevented from touching such things. So I removed it from my test.

    Not installing any extensions for bookmarking, bookmark descriptions belong with bookmarks and any extension is not part of Firefox and will not be carried between versions/machines/browsers without loss at some poimt.

    Why is Firefox removing the description field in bookmark properties? I found it very useful

    How do I sync Vivaldi with Google Account? - Quora -- my comments to a question

    Here is Mozilla's fabrication for removal of descriptions: 1402890 - Stop supporting and remove the description annotation. They ignore anybody who says differently.

  • Firefox Problems & Issues (Notes)
  • [FIXED] Certificate issue causing add-ons to be disabled or fail to install - Add-ons / Announcements - Mozilla Discourse (discourse.mozilla.org)
    Firefox 66.0.5 has been released, and we recommend that people update. Bookmark descriptions were assasinated in Firefox by Mozilla in Firefox 62.
  • Add-ons disabled or failing to install in Firefox | Mozilla Add-ons Blog (blog.mozilla.org)
  • 1549078 - Some users indicating both Studies are active, but all extensions are still disabled. (bugzilla.mozilla.org)
  • Mozilla Firefox Web Browser — Download Firefox in your language — Mozilla (mozilla.org)
  • Firefox Extended Support Release for Your Organization, Business, Enterprise — Mozilla (mozilla.org)
  • Mozilla Firefox Web Browser — Download Firefox Extended Support Release in your language — Mozilla (mozilla.org)

    BTW don't try saving bookmarks with or without descriptions to Evernote as Evernote removes Javascript links.  Firefox has removed descriptions from bookmarks, but you can still for a while export them even though not useable or visible in Firefox.  Mozilla made a major mistake in deleting addons from users systems they considered Legacy addons.  The removal of descriptions on bookmarks was deliberate in their downward spiral to be like Chrome.

    Current extensions on Fx65: (no importance to some having/not having/ links)
    Adblock Plus - free ad blocker,  AdBlocker for YouTube™,  All Tabs Helper,  Blur,  Bookmark Tab Here,  Bulk URL Opener,  Bookmark Notes,  Chrome Store Foxified (nothing found),  ClickTabSortClippingsContext SearchCopy All Tab Urls WE,  Copy Selected Tabs to Clipboard,  Disable Ctrl-Q and Cmd-Q,  Exif Viewer,  External Application Button,  Fennec TextWrap,  Font Inspector,  Free Backlink Checker by LRT (not good),  google redirect rewrite remover,  HeadingsMap (Ctrl+Shift+O dislike black background in sidebar),  ; HighlightAll,  ; Honey,  Html Validator,  InvisibleHand,  Link Analyzer,  Link Investigator,  Live editor for CSS and LESSMeasure-it (shortcut conflict)Multi-Keywords HighlighterMultiple Tab HandlerNextPlease,  Nuke Anything,  Parent Folder,  Print Edit WE,  Resurrect Pages,  Sticky Pinned Tabs,  Tab Counter Plus,  Table to ExcelTextarea Cache,  TitleCase,  Video Blocker,  WindowSizer,  wxIF
    List created from about:support (links added) pasted into to Notepad++ using regex "(0-9).* to "", and "\r" (with extended) to ", "


    Besides the page you are on, some help with the mess that developers continue to create, can be found in.

    Additional Links:


    Hidden information: There are additional comments hidden in link titles and abbreviation titles throughout this page, that you may want to make visible by clicking on the "paren tips" bookmarklet in the next topic, rather than mousing over individual items.  Better yet install and use them as "keyword shortcuts".

    Bookmarklets (#bookmarklets)

    My Firefox Keyword Shortcuts page describes my bookmarklets and keyword shortcuts.  Installing the "Add Bookmark Here ²" extension is highly recommended (my notes).

    Some bookmarklets that you may find useful on this page.  Click on each to change the appearance.  Each of these is intended to be used as a named keyword shortcut:
      bullets:#,  parentips:,  href:,  alt:,  hi:,   int:ext 
      Click on each of the links below for a short demo of bookmarklets --
    -- [bullets:#]  [paren tips]  [HREF visible]  [ALT visible]  [highlight links]  [int/ext links] [id] and then F5 to restores view.  
    Bookmarklets are short pieces of JavaScript coding.
     
        bullets:# paren tips HREF visible   ALT visible  highlight links  int/ext links   id:  

    Options and Configuration   (#options)

    Menus are a good way to learn about a browser and other applications.  Unfortunately Microsoft Excel was destroyed by the Ribbon, and browsers are hiding the Menu bar.  But you can return the menu bar or hide it in several ways in Firefox long before 4.0 turned it off by default.  [Keyword shortcut of Documentation links]
    Here are some additional bookmarklets to help search for Firefox solutions and add-ons.  I may add search forms later that you can convert to a search engine.  But I would suggest simply using the bookmarklets. (read about Bookmarklets in previous topic)

    Drag the bookmarklet to a bookmarks folder, bring up the bookmark properties and add the keyword as shown in each bookmarklet.  All of these use Google and the %S (or %s) within the bookmarks will be substituted by the text you include after the keyword when invoking from the location bar.

    ::   Sumo2:  ffs:  ffweb3:    addons:  Styles 

    Examples of use, all use Google search:
    ::profile  -- search kb.mozillazine.org (category links at bottom of pages for similar material)
    ffs:toolbars  -- search dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/
    sumo2:toolbars  -- search support.mozila.com
    ffweb3:keyboard shortcuts  -- search three locations: kb.mozillazine.org, dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/,
          and just kb for support.mozilla.com/kb
     
    ffweb3:intitle:keyboard shortcuts  -- search three locations: kb.mozillazine.org, dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/,
          and just kb for support.mozilla.com/kb
     
     addons:menu  -- search addons.mozilla.com w/o collections
     styles:toolbars  -- search userstyles.org

    Sorting tables   (#sortingtables)

    Sorting Tables can be done with a bookmarklet ( sorttable: ) or with and extension.  There is a table in the section above that you can test the bookmarklet on.  But a more practical use would be on the list of extensions from about:support (Help → Troubleshooting Information...).  The extension "TableTools2" is easier to use and offers many different sorting options.

     

    Where to get Help   (#wheretogethelp)

    Please try to search for solutions before asking for help.  Even if you can't find the answer to your problem, it will help you better define your problem.  (see Search for Problems Solutions above.)

    The support newsgroup for help with Firefox is mozilla.support.firefox which should be accessed from the server at news.mozilla.org via news://news.mozilla.org/mozilla.support.firefox You pick up your answers in the thread where you post not in email.  Also available via Google Groups by same name mozilla.support.firefox

    For more information on getting help through newsgroups see newsgroups on my main Firefox page.


     
    "if you make software for idiots, only idiots will use it", is not the same as
    "Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot."

    "Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them." — Albert Einstein
    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a
    touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. – Albert Einstein
    Insanity: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." – Albert Einstein [BrainyQuote]


    This page was ripped out of my Firefox (notes) page on Mar 18, 2011.
    [Go Back] [Return to TOP]

    Main Firefox pages (on-site):  [Customizations, Extensions],  [Tabs],  [Bookmarks],  [Keyword shortcuts],  [Context and other menus]  [Passwords]

    Please send your comments concerning this web page to: David McRitchie send email comments (site comments/corrections)
    The email contains the url of this page if you have any Redirect Remover you will need to exempt mailto:

    Copyright © 2004 - 2014,  F. David McRitchie,  All Rights Reserved