about:config tweeks i like to make #
Here's a few about:config hacks i like to do (typing about:config into the addressbar of Firefox and you will get to a page where you can change a lot of the FF preferences):
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled - true
When browsing a page with a lot of pix on it i usually middle click the pix (to open the pic in a new tab) to look at after i have read the page. If for some reason one of the pix fails to load FF snaps me to that tab with a dialog box, not just any dialog box but a modal dialog box. A Modal dialog box freezes FF until you click OK or something, very annoying. This setting changes it from a dialog box to an error page, more importantly it doesn't snap you from the page (tab) you are on to the error tab so you can go on reading the page you are on even if a pic didn't load.
extensions.newAddons - false (right-click and make this Boolean preference if it is not there, it probably won't be there)
This one stops the add-on manger popping up after you restart after installing an add-on. So annoying, "Yes Firefox, i know i just installed an add-on, thank you very much".
browser.tabs.closeButtons - 2
This one takes the close (X) off the tabs. i middle-click (scroll wheel) links to open them in a new tab and i middle-click the tabs to close them, i don't need the X.
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth - 72
The default for this one is 100. It sets how small the tabs can be (in pixels) before scroll arrows appear on the right of the tab bar. The add-on FaviconizeTab helps here as you can set it to shrink certain site tabs down to the favicon, a lot of sites don't give very useful information in the tab text so shrinking them down to just the icon saves space.
noscript.firstRunRedirection - false
Stops the page loading after a NoScript update. There was quite a little war about this recently.
view_source.editor.external - true
and then...
view_source.editor.path - V:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\Notepad++Portable.exe
Set to true then specify the path to the editor you want to use when you right-click/View Page Source on a web-page.
As i run my FF portable always from a truecrypt container mounted to the V:\ drive i set my path to the very cool Notepad++, you can set it to whatever editor you would like to use.
browser.urlbar.maxRichResults - 0 (default = 12)
Turns the "awesome bar" off. Whenever i try to change anything in the URL bar my FF freezes and the HD start working hard, this is the awesome bar doing it's thing. The first thing i do with a new FF install is remove the search toolbar as i use Quicksearches so i type in the URL bar a lot and the awesome bar freeze is very annoying.
This post is also a reference for me. i have been using the same install of FF for about two years now because it is portable and i can just copy it around to new PCs. If i ever did need to make a new FF install it's nice to have a place to reference all the tweeks i made, these are my main ones.
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled - true
When browsing a page with a lot of pix on it i usually middle click the pix (to open the pic in a new tab) to look at after i have read the page. If for some reason one of the pix fails to load FF snaps me to that tab with a dialog box, not just any dialog box but a modal dialog box. A Modal dialog box freezes FF until you click OK or something, very annoying. This setting changes it from a dialog box to an error page, more importantly it doesn't snap you from the page (tab) you are on to the error tab so you can go on reading the page you are on even if a pic didn't load.
extensions.newAddons - false (right-click and make this Boolean preference if it is not there, it probably won't be there)
This one stops the add-on manger popping up after you restart after installing an add-on. So annoying, "Yes Firefox, i know i just installed an add-on, thank you very much".
browser.tabs.closeButtons - 2
This one takes the close (X) off the tabs. i middle-click (scroll wheel) links to open them in a new tab and i middle-click the tabs to close them, i don't need the X.
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth - 72
The default for this one is 100. It sets how small the tabs can be (in pixels) before scroll arrows appear on the right of the tab bar. The add-on FaviconizeTab helps here as you can set it to shrink certain site tabs down to the favicon, a lot of sites don't give very useful information in the tab text so shrinking them down to just the icon saves space.
noscript.firstRunRedirection - false
Stops the page loading after a NoScript update. There was quite a little war about this recently.
view_source.editor.external - true
and then...
view_source.editor.path - V:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\Notepad++Portable.exe
Set to true then specify the path to the editor you want to use when you right-click/View Page Source on a web-page.
As i run my FF portable always from a truecrypt container mounted to the V:\ drive i set my path to the very cool Notepad++, you can set it to whatever editor you would like to use.
browser.urlbar.maxRichResults - 0 (default = 12)
Turns the "awesome bar" off. Whenever i try to change anything in the URL bar my FF freezes and the HD start working hard, this is the awesome bar doing it's thing. The first thing i do with a new FF install is remove the search toolbar as i use Quicksearches so i type in the URL bar a lot and the awesome bar freeze is very annoying.
This post is also a reference for me. i have been using the same install of FF for about two years now because it is portable and i can just copy it around to new PCs. If i ever did need to make a new FF install it's nice to have a place to reference all the tweeks i made, these are my main ones.
Labels: about:config, Firefox tip, tweek
