Your Firefox defaults
For various reasons, I’ve been installing Firefox on several clean machines recently and I noticed there are a few settings I change as soon as the setup ends:
- Set the tab bar to be always visible (Options/Tabs)
- Prevent web pages from resizing and rising windows, and hijacking the context menu (Options/Content/JavaScript)
- Enable smooth scrolling (Options/advanced)
- Merge the stop and reload buttons (with this hack)
- Hide the Home button (View/Toolbars/Customize…)
- Hide the bookmarks toolbar (View/Toolbars)
- Set it to start with previous session’s windows and tabs (Options/Main)
- Set Gmail as my email (mailto:) handler (Options/Applications)
I am curious about what other people have for their defaults, so, excluding extensions and themes, what are your must have customizations?
Comments
Marco
Most of what I set up first are extensions (including my tab settings via Tab Mix Plus!) but other than that…
1. Set the start page to about:blank
2. Set the tab bar to always be visible. Also add a “New Tab” button in the bookmarks toolbar
3. Set downloads to “Always ask where to save”
4. Merge the stop and reload buttons
As far as in-browser settings goes, the defaults are pretty good for me other than those four. Again, most of my customizations are via extensions, and I set those up right away too :)
Offset
1. Keep Cookies until I close Firefox
2. Always ask me where to save files
3. I always drag the Bookmark Toolbar items to the right of the file menu and disable the toolbar menu.
Chris Noble
Interesting – I must try the merge stop/reload hack… Mine include,
1. Set my homepage to a custom local one
2. Use small icons (for nav, home, reload etc)
3. Move “bookmarks toolbar items” up to right of text menus (then turn off the bookmarks toolbar to save space for #4)
4. Always show tab bar
5. Turn off 3rd party cookies
6. Set Gmail for mailto: links
7. Set search results to open in new tab (about:config browser.search.openintab)
There’s a few others, but that’s the main ones.
Ryan Scott Scheel
I do #1, #2, #6, and #7. I just now did #5 after now noticing it. It seems that I know the location of my buttons so well I don’t ever notice it…
Ferdinand
#1 install Tiny Menu
#2 move everything in the menu toolbar and remove the navigation and bookmark toolbar
#3 install colorfultabs
#4 install tabs open relative
#5 set animation from normal to once
#6 install noscript
#7 set cookies to: save cookies until Firefox is closed(I change this with permissions per website), don’t allow third party cookies
#8 install autopager
#9 remove home button, get new tab and downloadmanager button
Dayton Lowell
I do 2, 6, and 8. I also set “browser.search.openintab” to true in about:config. I also install the following extensions: Greasemonkey, DownThemAll!, Adblock plus and removetabs (to be able to close the left or right tabs).
gxg
I do the following:
1. Set the tab bar to be always visible (Options/Tabs)
2. Prevent web pages from resizing and rising windows, and hijacking the context menu (Options/Content/JavaScript)
3. Merge the stop and reload buttons (with this hack)
4. Hide the Home button (View/Toolbars/Customize…)
5. Hide the bookmarks toolbar (View/Toolbars)
6. Set Gmail as my email (mailto:) handler (Options/Applications)
7. set cookies to: save cookies until Firefox is closed(I change this with permissions per website), don’t allow third party cookies
I sometimes hide the Home button too. That depends on the screen resolution.
Ruslan_Y
1. +
2. +/- (all, but not context menu)
3. – (hate it)
4. – (do not use it)
5. – (maybe’ll use it, but not now)
6. +
7. – (use about:blank instead)
8. – (use thunderbird as the default)
In addition to it I used to do this:
1. Move the to bookmarks from removed bookmarks toolbar to menu bar.
3. Set default download location to another folder.
4. Enable “find as you type”.
5. Disable java.
6. Disable all types of updates (do not have unlimited traffic to update everything, but start update manually frequently (or updates from downloaded release)).
7. Change default spell checker dictionary.
Additional plugins:
1. Flash plugin (updates to latest version)
Additional extensions:
1. Combined English/Russian spell dictionary
2. ImgLikeOpera
3. AdBlock
4. FlashBlock
5. Oldbar
6. PdfDownload
7. NewsFox
8. FileTitle
Jan
[x] Always ask where to store downloads
I hate the default location “Desktop”. And I think it is not a good setting for beginners, as I sometimes see people with really cluttered desktops. (X.zip, install-X.exe *and* X.lnk)
SIO
Nice guess. I do #1,#2,#3,#4,#5,#6,#7,#8
Plus some tweaks in about:config like increasing speed of scrolling, “Enter” behavior in searchbar etc. Can’t remember all – I never repeat this actions, I just copy whole profile when I need =)
Sune Graaskov
I do #2,#3,#5,#6,#7 + a bunch of extensions and a theme. And I change the fonts to ones that are readable.
matrixik
Sorry about second post but I forgot about one more thing:
http://userstyles.org/styles/8564
Bob
I do so many things that I stopped trying. Instead I have modified a default prefs.js, userChrome.css and userContent.css.
Tss
Instead of hiding Home button & Bookmarks toolbar, why don’t try this: http://userstyles.org/styles/13328 ?
Ken Saunders
1. Set the tab bar to be always visible (default setting for 3.1, finally)
2. Enable smooth scrolling
3. Disable autoscrolling
4. Disable automatically check for updates
5. Close the Downloads Manager when all downloads are finished
6. Uncheck remember what I’ve downloaded
7. Set (XPI) security.dialog_enable_delay to 0 (until I get MR Tech Toolkit installed)
8. Set layout.spellcheckDefault to 2 (spell check multi-line and single-line controls)
9. Set network.prefetch-next to false (why download links that I never visit)
Shame on you for not using Thunderbird, or at least for not lying and saying that you do for the free publicity. :)
And your #6 (Hide the bookmarks toolbar), man I can’t imagine using Firefox without it (and the Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar extension).
Thanks for your #2 (Prevent web pages from resizing and rising windows, and hijacking the context menu), I never considered it.
This was fun. nice post Percy. Mozilla would be wise to conduct such a survey for themselves.
George Coffey
My firefox defaults after installation(without Extensions or Themes)
Main
Homepage home.live.com
Downloads My Completed Downloads(DAP folder)
Privacy
Always Clear My Private Data when I close FIrefox(Select all items except Saved Passwords)
Ask me before cleaning private data
Security
Warn me when sites try to install addons
Tell Me if the site i’m visitng is a suspecting attack site
Tell Me if the site i’m visitng is a suspecting forgery
Deselected Remember Passwords(I use RoboForm
Warning Dialogue(select all)
Advanced
Update – Manual download
Ken SaundersJanuary 28th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Isn’t this a contradiction?
“Always Clear My Private Data when I close FIrefox(Select all items except Saved Passwords)”
“Deselected Remember Passwords(I use RoboForm”
I used RoboForm for a while a long time ago until I realized that I would have a need for more than just 10 passwords and I certainly wasn’t going to pay for a program to remember them.
You have to consider the amount of time and development that goes into Firefox security and the people who develop Firefox use Firefox and they trust that their passwords and login info are safe with Firefox and so do I but hey, we all have different tastes and beliefs.
Anonymous
1. Me too
2a. Prevent resizing. I leave this option alone or else certain vital popups wont work.
2b. Prevent popups hijacking the context menu. I do this too
3. I use YASS extension for this job.
4. Me too
5. Me too
6. I use QuickToolbars extension for this job.
7. Me too
8. I configure “mailto:” so it does nothing (network.protocol-handler.external.mailto). I get irritated whenever I accidentally click a mailto: and get the popup to configure outlook express.
In addition:
9. Set the New Tab button between location bar and search bar.
10. Set browser.tabs.closeButtons to “2″ in about:config. I use middle click instead of close button.
11. Set config.trim_on_minimize to “true” in about:config. It trims memory usage when you minimise window.
12. Remove “dblclick” value from dom.popup_allowed_events.
13. Disable “Remember what I downloaded”
That and over 30 extensions.
mynam
Ubuntu Firefox
1. remove stop button
2. remove home button
3. remove activity indicator
4. remove bookmark toolbar
5. minor icons
6. automatically clean up all data when Firefox quits
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thartwer
1.)
small icons, removing home button, showing new tab button (if<3.1), bookmarks next to menu and no separate bookmarks toolbar
2.)
browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl;true
browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone;false
browser.tabs.closeButtons;3
layout.frames.force_resizability;true
network.http.pipelining.ssl;true
network.http.pipelining;true
network.http.proxy.pipelining;true
3.)
deactivating unnecessary plugins
4.)
installing and configuring NoScript, ReloadEvery and some Dictionaries
wguimb
Hey, some good stuff here.
I do some of those things but mostly I just use the newly installed firefox and kind of see what needs tweaking. Here are some I am most likely to mess with when doing my tailoring:
First and foremost is to import my old bookmarks.
1. Set the ‘Show My Homepage” and the homepage set to http://my.msn.com (Tools->Option->Main->Startup)
2. Set downloads to ‘Save files to’ NAS device folder (Tools->Option->Main->Downloads)
3. Set the ‘new pages should be opened in’ a new tab.
Set the ‘Always show tab bar’ and ‘when I open a new tab’ – switch to it immediately’ (Tools->Option->Tabs)
4. Keep Cookies until they expire (Tools->Option->Privacy)
3. Set mailto action: Use GMail (Tools->Options->Applications->ContentType)
6. Set the default font to “Verdana” and Size 17 (Tools->Option->Content)
7. Set search results to open in new tab (about:config browser.search.openintab = True)
I then addon the following extensions:
DownloadHelper 4.0.2
FlashBlock 1.5.8a1
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.6.0
Followed by a crap load of plugins….
BETTYE V. JOHNSON
I don’t know much about computers, and did not understand a lot of the previous posts, but I have a question about a default that aggravates me to no end. I am an old woman who uses the computer for e-mail and shopping and some other stuff. I have tons of extensions and themes. my problem: How do you get rid of that annoying message that drops down whenever you change pages or even login? Also, every time I go to use my computer and start Firefox, it goes to the login page. i am the only person who uses this computer, so I don’t log off ever. but lately it goes to that page every day. When I do log in, a message drops down that says Firefox prevented this page from loading. You have to click on ALLOW, and then it always pops right back up again. Is there any way to get rid of that? I have ATT and Yahoo as e-mail. Thanks, Bettye Johnson
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Morbus
I don’t install firefox. Ever. My profile is three years of now. But I guess I’d install quite a few extensions right away (I have 100+), enable find when I start typing and disable javascript highjacking. And one very important thing I never understood why it wasn’t set from default: I add the new tab button to the tab bar.
Elric
Am actually wondering if there is a hack or addin (an about:config option would be better) to force ALL bookmarks to open in a new tab, rather than having to right-click and use the context menu option every goddamn time
FerdinandJuly 13th, 2009 at 12:55 am
@Elric Open the bookmarks manager select multiple bookmarks by either holding CTRL and clicking them or by selecting one bookmark holding SHIFT and clicking on a bookmark at the end of the list. Then simply right click on the selection and choose open in tabs.
Elric
Am actually wondering if there is a hack or add-in (an about:config option would be better) to force ALL bookmarks to open in a new tab, rather than having to right-click and use the context menu option every goddamn time
FerdinandJuly 13th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Use your middle mouse button or mousewheel to click the bookmark or link in a page.
Happy
Agree with most of you, but I’m a fan of the bookmark bar!
2 plugins that made my widescreen sufing better is:
1: Hide menubar – https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/4762
2: Smart bookmarks bar – https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/4072 (and disable the name shows on hover)
Tadaa! My bookmarkbar can hold like 50 favorites :D
Elric
OMG – the Hide Menubar is a COMPLETE knock-off of the “disable menubar” extension.
Cody
about:config then browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth set to 200
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