Firefox Customizations (Notes)

Firefox Notes       (#firefox)

IE View (Firefox extension, right-click) will bring up Internet Explorer window of same name.  ♦ (#ieview_topic)

As popular as IEView is, Launchy does so much more and if you install Launchy then IEView becomes redundant.
 

Firefox View (available where Firefox extensions are available, right-click) will bring up Firefox window ♦ (#firefoxview_topic)

of same name from Internet Explorer. 
 

Install CopyURL_plus text editor extension (#copyurl_notes)

Creation of <a href=""></a>   ♦  (install CopyURL plus text editor extension, right-click)  (#copyurl)

URL+ submenu (context menu),
based on additions to userbelow,
More information in copyurlplus.htm
Example output of builtin Plain Text choices
Specific short example

(-)	Copy URL + Title
(-)	Copy URL + Selection
(-)	Copy URL + Title + Selection
(1)	Copy URL + <dt>title<dd>selection / url
(2)	Copy URL + <a href=...>...</a>
(3)	Copy URL + <a href=...title=selection>...</a>
(4)	Copy URL + <a href=...>...</a>, selection
(5)	Convert TEXT to HTML code
(6)	DIV Offset + <a href=...>...</a>, selection

The CopyURL+ extension for copying and pasting the link title, and url from the line anchor information, along with the current selection, is easily customized to format this information using patterns of your choice to paste into other applications.  Some suggested customization patterns are included for blogging, HTML, plain text for email, and other uses have been provided.

There are 3 builtin menu items that you may or may not see depending on what is selected,
and whether you RightClick on a link or not.  Forward slashes in display represent new line. 

B1:	Title/url	-- available, even if url has no Title
B2:	Selection/url	-- available if there is a selection
B3:	Title/selection/url	-- available if there is a selection

CopyURL+ Additions to user  (#copyurlplus_additions)

The following items are included within user.js in my Firefox profile directory for my customization of CopyURL Plus.
 

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.1.copy"," <dt><b>%TITLE_HTMLIFIED%</b>,</dt>\n<dd>%SEL_HTMLIFIED%\n<br><a href=\"%URL_HTMLIFIED%\">%URL_HTMLIFIED%</a> </dd>\n");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.1.label", "Copy URL + <dt>title<dd>selection / url");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.2.copy", "<a href=\"%URL_HTMLIFIED%\">%TITLE_HTMLIFIED%</a>");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.2.label", "Copy URL + <a href=...>...</a>");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.3.copy", "<a href=\"%URL%\">title=\"%SEL_HTMLIFIED%\" >%TITLE_HTMLIFIED%</a>");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.3.label", "Copy URL + <a href=... title=selection>...</a>");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.4.copy", "<a href=\"%URL_HTMLIFIED%\">%TITLE_HTMLIFIED%</a>,>%SEL_HTMLIFIED%");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.4.label", "Copy URL + <a href=...>...</a>, selection");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.5.copy", "%SEL_HTMLIFIED%\n\n");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.5.label", "Convert TEXT to HTML code");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.6.copy", "<div class=\"offset\"><a href=\"%URL_HTMLIFIED%\">%TITLE_HTMLIFIED%</a>, %SEL_HTMLIFIED%</div class=\"offset\">\n\n");

user_pref("copyurlplus.menus.6.label", "DIV URL + <a href=...>...</a>,selection");

The additions: 1) is a dictionary list entry, 2) is the basic HTML link, 3) HTML link selection internal, 4) HTML link selection external as comment, 5) will create HTML code from text, 6) will create an offset listing if you install the required style.  There is no check when presenting the additions that you have a selection or that the cursor is on a link.

If you end up with doubled set of options, see doubled problems on my page which provides more extensive notes on COPYURL Plus, create a link for HTML

Launchy Notes ♦, opening Notepad and other applications (#launchy_notes)

Launchy will launch a program, or editor from a webpage or a link.  The Notepad editor is included in Launchy context submenus, providing sought after ability to edit with Notepad when using Firefox.  I wanted to also include HTML-Kit and Edit Pad Lite.  Since it is more difficult to click on a submenu item, suggest installing the Launchy toolbar as well.

	Launchy (Context menu)
	Launchy Links context menu

The following code goes into the launchy.xml file that you create in your chrome directory (see customizations), per instructions in http://gemal.dk/mozilla/launchy.html     Launchy will look for a file called launchy.xml in the chrome directory in your profile

(If you are bothered by words running through tables, especially on low resolution monitors, see write-up with Toggle Word Wrap).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configurations xmlns="http://launchy.mozdev.org/configurations">
  <application>
    <label>Edit Pad Lite</label>
    <type>7</type>
    <command>C:\program files\JGsoft\EditPadLite\editpad.exe
    </command>
    <arguments>-editor</arguments>
  </application>
  <application>
    <label>MS Front Page</label>
    <type>7</type>,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
    <command>%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office
      XP\Office10\frontpg.exe</command>
    <arguments></arguments>
  </application>
  <application>
    <label>Windows Explorer *1</label>
    <type>1</type>
    <command>c:\ winnt\explorer.exe</command>
    <arguments></arguments>
  </application>
  <application>
    <label>HTML-Kit</label>
    <type>7</type>
    <command>%ProgramFiles%\Chami\HTML-Kit\Bin\HTMLKit.exe</command>
    <arguments></arguments>
  </application>
</configurations>

Before adding anything to launchy.xml use Tools/extensions select launchy and check the options list.  Even though Windows Explorer should work as File Explorers (type 6) from options, I had to add it to browsers (type 1) for it to work for me to look at directories and to verify an extension is opening in it's default (opened bug 8874).  Although not shown I did find value in also adding NOTEPAD to extensions (type 1) so that you can get to notepad from a link, not recommended for others because a fragment-id would mess up direct usage.

With the above XML for Launchy in place, I get the additional context menus in Firefox that I wanted and basically the results I want and need to use the Windows Explorer, not to be confused with Internet Explorer. 

1. A link of the form http://bugzilla.mozdev.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8874 will fail in Launchy with “The path '8874' does not exist or is not a directory” -- an error message, but quite tolerable and understandable as there is no file extension.  [right click on the above link, choose Launchy then choose Open link in Windows Explorer *1]
2. A link of the form http://gemal.dk/mozilla/launchy.html will open just fine in the default browser and is needed and lets me know if my default browser is properly defined and working.  [right click on the above link, choose Launchy then choose Open Link in Windows Explorer *1]
3. Open a link to a local directory such as file:///c:/temp/ in Firefox, then right-click on white space (non link) then from Launchy bring up Windows Explorer.  [left-click to open link, then right click within the browser's directory view to bring up launchy then Open in Windows Explorer *1]
   The additional entry for Windows Explorer is needed to open said directory with Windows Explorer from within HTML.
4. Don't open the link from the browser but use the Launchy context menu to open the link to a local directory such as file:///c:/temp/ [right click on the above link and choose Open link in Windows Explorer *1 or from the Launchy default Browse link in Explorer.
   In the case of Open Link there actually is no need for the additional XLM definition, though I personally like it as a choice with the browsers even if duplicated.
5. A link to a .jpg file such as ../icons/ff_launchy_irfanview.jpg opens according to it's file type and lets me know that it is properly defined and working, and more to the point lets me bring it up in it's intended application without additional definitions for launchy.  [right click on the above link, choose Launchy then choose View Image in IrfanView]
6. Place cursor anywhere but a picture or a link on this page, using Launchy this page should reopen this page in the default browser.  [right click on the above link and choose Open in Windows Explorer *1]

Don't worry too much about the type, you will see how they group from the above examples.  Within their group the items are alphabetical.

To help create a Launchy entry use file search to find the directory, if you have a problem it could be you have more than one, or you can't simply use something like frontpg.exe as you could from the Run program dialog.

If you have installed Irfanview (and have .jpg defaulting to IrfanView) you can read the Exif Data information recorded by digital cameras or photo retouching by right-clicking on the picture, choose Launchy, then Irfanview, use shortcut character “I” to see picture information.  [notes on Irfanview]

Webdings and wingdings Fonts can be made available in Firefox.  (#wingdings)

|| that’s all  (´(&#180), ’(’), and as arial -- that’s all  (´(&#180), ’(’) ) ||     ¥ z Q

Any changes that you make to the fonts, apply only to your own system, the main purpose here is so that you can see pages the same in Firefox as seen in Internet Explorer.  I did include a barcode font described on my Mail Merge page (Excel & MS Word) just to show that any fonts you added to your Windows system can also be made available in Firefox.

Writing your own HTML then you should be using HTML escapes or Unicode characters, though you may not find a substitute for everything even in Unicode.  For more information on symbols used in HTML see my Symbols page.

I just wanted to be able to include some symbols regardless of the browser.  On my search page are some symbols at the top which are fine in Internet Explorer but no good in Firefox.  I have included some JavaScript on the search page to spell out some of the material that would otherwise be completely ambiguous.  Can't use UDF-8 either for the webpage because that would mess up Internet Explorer.  An attempt to use images proved unwieldy.  Found the solution though in adding the fonts to Firefox as follows: 

This customization, if wanted, usually has to be redone after each upgrade to Firefox.  [Windows fonts]

To Make Webdings and Wingdings available ♦  make the following changes: 
#-- Free 3 of 9 barcode available from Matthew Welch http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/
#-- fixing by hand -- Enabling Symbol font for Mozilla on Windows
#-- http://hutchinson.belmont.ma.us/tth/Wfonts.html
#-- file:///c:/program files/Mozilla Firefox/res/fonts/fontEncoding.properties
# Symbol font
#encoding.symbol.ttf = Adobe-Symbol-Encoding
encoding.free3of9.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.symbol.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.wingdings.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.wingdings2.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.wingdings3.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.webdings.ttf = windows-1252

#For the changes above, use an editor (HTML-Kit) that will not make it CRLF, must be LF -- Do Not Use NOTEPAD. 
#-- for Mozilla file is file:///c:/program files/Mozilla/res/fonts/fontEncoding.properties
#-- for Firefox portable file is #-- file:///F:/FirefoxPortable/App/firefox/res/fonts/fontEncoding.properties

Once completed you should be able to see:  symbol(D delta),  webdings(‡ skier‡),  wingdings(( black phone, ♦ star, ¥ target, z point of interest, Q airplane),  wingdings 2(' white phone, R check mark in a box, ù 3 stars),  and wingdings 3(_ arrow) in Mozilla just like you; would see in Internet Explorer.  If those are correct you should be able to see this Font Table on your PC system exactly as it appears in IE on your PC system. 

‡  In the example above the double dagger(‡) symbol &#8225; has been substituted for Windows &#135; and still shows a skier in a successfully implemented webdings font.

Windows characters 130-159 (x'80'-x'8F') are considered invalid by W3C standards, though widely recognized and in use from the 1980's and now registered as the windows-1252 code page (Win-Latin1) at IANA [ref, ref.] and are described in The ISO 8859 Alphabet Soup document.

Short test for superscript/subscript, okay in firefox where x^n_i renders correctly as x^n_i, but IE6 displays as xⁿ_i as if it was xⁿ_i   [Ref]

Notepad  (#notepad)

Not having an automatic tie in to Notepad for View Source, can be alleviated by any of the following:

• Configuration Changes to tie into Notepad with Ctrl+U
    view_source.editor.external set to True
    view_source.editor.path set to c:\winnt\notepad.exe   [use \windows\ in Vista instead of \winnt\]
  The above is now a documented Tip in Firefox Help: Tips & Tricks, “View page source using an external program”.
  Note the above change will change your Edit,View (Ctrl+U) to Notepad as an editor, so you lose the nondestructive browser viewer.
    You can still view source in the DOM with a keyword shortcut ("view-source:"):    javascript:location = 'view-source:'+location
  There is also a problem with view_source.editor.path in that "View Selection Source" on the Context Menu often fails.
  
  Getting "unresponsive script errors" on context "view source" have increased dom.max_script_run_time in about:config from 10 to 15, but don't expect that to change anything.  try extracting the notepad symbol at end of this page with view source selection.  DOM is busted Fx2 also happens in safe-mode see ...
  
  
• Launchy, provides for notepad see notes (above) and in extension table (below).  If not on your local drive Notepad brings up a temporary copy, which is easily identified at the title bar.
   
• MenuX.  provides Alt+X as a shortcut.  MenuX has/causes too many problems so suggest not using MenuX.
• Web Developer, provides default shortcut of Ctrl+Shift+` (accent grave) but you must specify the location of notepad (i.e. c:/winnt/notepad.exe or in Vista use c:/windows/notepad.exe),  You can change the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+` to the easier to use Alt+X with the keyconfig extension.  If not on your local drive Notepad brings up a temporary copy, which is easily identified at the title bar.  I prefer the configuration change though, since I've found out about it (see first item using Ctrl+U).
• JSView Add-on, allows you to open the source code of any web page in a new tab or in an external editor.  If the website you are viewing contains any external js/css files, an icon will appear that says "CSS", "JS", or both.  Each individual file can then be viewed by clicking on the filename from various menus.  (Haven't tried this ext because not really working with JavaScript, or CSS).

If you change your default editor, you can still view the source of a webpage from the location bar as follows:  [ref(1), ref(2)]
  view-source:http://www.google.com/

Default Browser  (#defaultbrowser)

default browser — it doesn't really matter.
Though Firefox is now my default browser, I had continued with IE as the default just in case it made a difference, as it does on the Microsoft update sites.  Was perfectly happy that Firefox was invoked from links in Outlook Express which was all that really mattered to me – perhaps because Firefox was installed later.– You've normally decided which browser you want to use by selecting that icon from your Quick Launch or from the desktop, but Launchy provides the means to bring up any additional installed browser looking at the same page you have up from within Firefox.

folder options, files types... and Windows Explorer, because I have added Explorer to the list of browsers within the launchy.xml , it is easy to remove the filename portion of a URL at the location bar to get to the directory listing (on your local drive, and some websites) then to use Launchy to invoke Explorer which since it is a directory brings up Explorer listing.  Columns in the directory not normally seen in a default Windows directory have been included via View, Choose Columns.  The Comments column is used by Excel.  You might choose different or additional columns for other directories.  Directions to make Firefox your default browser.

Name	Size	Type	Modified	Created	Accessed	Attrib.	Comm.
firefox.htm	194 KB	HTM File	2006-05-24 09:53 PM	2004-08-09 10:45 AM	2006-05-26 12:00 AM	A
rightff.htm	69 KB	HTM File	2006-05-26 06:45 AM	2004-08-11 11:03 PM	2006-05-26 12:00 AM	A
index.htm	3 KB	HTM File	2004-11-02 98:56 AM	2004-08-16 11:42 AM	2006-05-26 12:00 AM	A

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

• Case sensitivity of fragment id:  Unix servers are case sensitive, so all files and directories, have been created as lowercase.  But Mozilla Firefox has extended this problem to the HTML id= tags as well, so that they are also case sensitive.  (called fragment id and by definition is not part of the URL)
  Response: See standard and see discussion;  I'm going to keep it here anyway because it seems arbitrary, and “not defined” and “(incorrectly)” seem contradictory when on this side of the fence. 
  Reason for keeping this here as a problem:  HTML must be changed and others who write mainly for Internet Explorer should be aware of this problem.  Users who rely on fragment id should be aware of possible failures.
  Help with locating fragment id problems:  Check web page with W3C Link Checker similar to using The W3C Markup Validation Service
  Help with viewing fragment id:  Bookmarklets:  Show Classes and ID, id visible;  Extensions:  Aardvark, Colorzilla
  #top, requires an actual id= or a name= anchor in Firefox and Opera.
   
• Adjacent hyphens within comment:  This error is flagged in HTML-Kit and failure to correct will result in missing areas of content in Firefox.   The following is an example, solution change the inner hyphens to equal signs.  Easy to find and fix, result is easier to see, but is something to watch out for.  (#hyphens)
    <-- ------------------ snip out for other model --------- -->
    This code will be ignored in Firefox.  (to locate and fix search for triple hyphen)
    <-- -------- end of -- snip out for other model --------- -->
   
• Adobe pdf files load slowly in Windows? (#pdf) ♦, Adobe Reader 6.0 for Windows loads lots of unused plugins on startup (bloated).  You would do much better eliminating these plugins and opening PDF files externally with the Adobe Acrobat Reader from your browser rather than within your browser.  You do not want these plug-ins using valuable system resources.  Trying to use the plug-ins within a browser greatly diminishes your ability to properly use the Acrobat Reader and you lose screen space to both browser and Acrobat Reader toolbars and menus. 
  Set the options in Firefox, do not install the PDF Download Extension as it is not needed.  See complete instructions on my PDF page
   
• Can not paste table from Firefox to Excel: (#excel)
  To paste into Excel you will have to switch to Internet Explorer, you can use IEView extension or to keep down the number of extensions you have/use you can use Launchy to open same page in IE, then copy and paste.  (Table Examples).  Excel 12 will use XML).
   
• MacroMedia Flash  (#flash), some run and some don't, solution is to uncheck "obj-tabs" option in Adblock.  [ref 2005-10-18] .  Upgrading to Firefox 1.5.0.1 seemed to work for some, but then got sound only even after moving window and scrollbars, so if using ADBLOCK suggest you uncheck the option.  IE users may have the same problem with flash files and I've not run across a solution.
   
• Minor annoyances:  (#minor)  The above are problems for most everyone, this one is an annoyance for anyone that has their own web pages on their own harddrive.  IE would look at directory as you type in a page on your local drive, but Firefox will only suggest pages as you type that have been read meaning they have to be in your history file; however, since it is the local drive you can look at the directory.  Workaround:  the directory is listed within Firefox, so you can view the directory and select the file.  You can invoke Launchy to invoke Windows Explorer from the directory or file.  You can use Launchy to invoke Notepad from within the file.
   
• Closing Firefox’s Superfluous Windows, may be of interest for those who open Firefox from the desktop.  (I open from the launchpad).  Seem to have problem with Firefox 1.0PR but can't follow the direction file-type change in Explorer for: Select Extension: (NONE), File Type: HyperText Transfer Protocol
   
• Problems with FIND along with inability to use Page Up/Down keys, and the Spacebar to scroll up or down a page at a time continues to be a problem ever since Firefox 1.5.0.1 it is still a serious problem even in 2.0 (possibly fixed in 2.0.0.2).  More detail in Firefox find not working, though you can probably find what you need in the following workarounds.
   
  workarounds for FIND problem are just that, they are completely unsatisfactory. (most have to do with caret browsing)
  1. Highlight all, you really won't know if you see them all, and the main purpose of Find is to act like Find.
  2. Duplicate Tab extension to create a new window will work-around the problem by allowing you to open a new window, populating it with the content of the current Tab using Ctrl+Shift+N
  3. Use Launchy to bring up Internet Explorer or other alternate browser (IEView is another way to bring up IE).
  
  Almost a Solution to FIND problem is to turn OFF caret navigation which is tricky, since F7 can change it.  These are some of my about:config settings, the important one is that accessibility.browsewithcaret be set to false.  Needless to say this is also a workaround, and not a fix for the Firefox caret navigation problem

  accessibility.browsewithcaret	default	boolean	false
  accessibility.warn_on_browsewithcaret	default	boolean	true
  accessibility.typeaheadfind	default	boolean	false

  F7 is a toggle for caret browsing, when it comes with the dialog you must reply with NO concerning turning caret browsing on.
  The fix for this problem is to eliminate the MenuX extension.  Will be checking if problem recurs at all.

  Tools, Options, Advanced, General, Accessibility:
    [_] Always use the cursor keys to navigate within pages (formerly:  Allow text to be selected with the keyboard)  [uncheck same as false for caret]
    [x] Search for text when I start typing (formerly:  Begin Finding when you begin typing)  nice feature, hopefully not involved with problems
  With caret browsing off, the blinking cursor {|} is off.

  Bug 311376 – Occasionally ' or / keys start find bar even in textareas [slash, apostrophe, quote, FAYT].  Bypass: Uncheck the Search for text when I start typing (opposite of what was written above, [Nir 2007-06-21, also see Bug 311376#c40].

  You can go for hours or weeks without further problems, but will still have problems later on even though you are careful to keep caret browsing off, so keep in mind the other workaround about opening a new window (Ctrl+N) or if you installed Duplicate Tab (Ctrl+Shift+N) would be better.  In any case, if you are one of those that has a problem, you will never be able to work when caret browsing is on.  Another problem (feature) of caret browsing is that it changes getting to end of a page from End key to Ctrl+End key.
    The following additions to user.js should alleviate problem caused by inadvertently hitting F7 which changes the setting.  This will reset when Firefox is restarted.

  // Get SpaceBar, PageUp, PageDown to work properly if F7 hit accidentally
  //   see http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm#findproblem
   user_pref("accessibility.browsewithcaret", false);
   user_pref("accessibility.warn_on_browsewithcaret", true);
  

• Problems with vertical scrolling using Spacebar, and Page Up and Page Down continue through 1.5.0.7, though directly related to Find Problem (above) you can sometimes get these working on a page by moving the vertical scrollbar with the mouse, and you know for sure when it is not working.  (as opposed to Find problem)  Again major cause of problem is MenuX and especially if caret browsing is involved.
    Another problem, after a bad change to a .js file in the keyconfig extension then none of the vertical scrolling worked except the scrollbar itself. Backed off the change and this is working again (2008-03-22).
• Firefox will not always terminate  (#terminate) and when it won't terminate you can't start another instance of Firefox until you kill the running one seen only in the Task Manager.  Seems the bypass is to use File, Exit instead of the [X} close button, even though both may show the close multiple tabs warning.  (#terminate)
   
• Updates, update indicates later extension available for Linky but already had that update installed.  There were two Linky's in the Extensions list, uninstalled both of them and reinstalled (fixed).

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.

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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/About_protocol_links (about:config, about:cache,...)

    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.htm, 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 (builtin), 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.

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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. 

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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).

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.