Thursday, October 26, 2006

Play around Firefox 2.0 'about:config'

With Firefox2.0 there are many features added to the 'about:config'. Thanx to Gina Trapani for his tweaks.

About about:config

:: Enter 'about:config' in address bar to configure Firefox
:: A long list of keys and its values (along with there type) are presented. Each key modifies one of the overall features of Firefox

The Filter

:: The 'filter' text box at the top of the page is used to search for the keys of our interest. As you enter the 'key' in the 'filter' the results narrow down to the required

Modify the KEY

:: Double click the key of interest and enter appropriate values. The values depend on the type of the key. In case of 'boolean' type the values toggle between 'true' and
'false'

Few interesting KEY's

--> middle click for new TAB

:::: Enter 'middlemouse' in the filter. double click the key 'middlemouse.openNewWindow' to toggle its value to 'true'. Restart Firefox and from next time to open a URL in new tab just middle click on it. (This option is true by default in Windows but for Linux Firefox 1.5, this option is false by default and this tweak comes very handy)

--> Tab close buttons

:::: Firefox 2.0 has this nasty little close button for each tab. The more the number of tabs, the more the close buttons and more probability of accidentally closing a page. To disable:
key : browser.tabs.closeButtons
Value : 2 (1 - show close buttons on all tabs, 2 - do not show any close
tabs, 3 - behave Firefox 1.5 way)

--> Restrict RAM for Firefox

:::: At the time of writing this blog, Firefox was consuming the most RAM than any application (94904k) and with only 4 tabs open. To restrict the amount of RAM Firefox can use:
Key : browser.cache.disk.capacity
Value : appropriate value according to the System RAM
Recommended : RAM 512MB to 1GB, try 15000.
RAM 128MB to 512M, try 5000.

--> Enable Spell Check

:::: One of the additional features of Firefox 2.0 is its 'Spell Check'. If it isn't already enabled here is how:
Key : layout.spellcheckDefault
Value : 2 (Enable spell check)

--> Disable 'GO'

:::: Been using Firefox for more than a year now and i never really used the little 'GO' button at the end of the Address Bar. If you feel the same here is how to disable:
Key : browser.urlbar.hideGoButton
Value : true (its hide go button so value must be 'true' not 'false')

--> Disable Prefetching

:::: To save bandwidth its always good to stop downloading stuff that you might not view. Since Firefox pre-fetch links that it thinks you might view later, its better to turn this feature off
Key : network.prefetch-next
Value : false

To know about what each key in 'about:config' does you know what to do (HINT: Google)

PS: Thanx to Gina Trapani of LifeHacker for the tweaks listed above. Comment any tweaks that are helpful
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