I thought id once again do some maintenance on this thread as it seems to be really old right now. The original purpose for this thread was to help people who had slow connections and wanted to find a way to make it a bit faster. Nowadays most people have broadband or faster so the purpose of this thread has changed somewhat to more of a tweaking of appearance, usage of system resources and a whole lot more.

The layout of the tweaks are described here:

*initial comments*
*tweak name*
*tweak type*
*default value*

*main description*


To use these tweaks you must have firefox (theres an obvious one!). Type into the address bar "about:config" (no quotes...again, obvious). It will take you to a page with a huge list of configurations, as the name suggests. There are three types of tweaks:
String - Uses any character and used for tweaks like what website you are taken to if you click the throbber.
Integer - Numbers. These will specify things like how long to wait before displaying a webpage or how many connections to have.
Boolean - Either a true or a false. Used for tweaks that require a yes or no answer like whether or not to reduce memory usage when minimized.

To add a new tweak, right click anywhere on the page, and click new, then select the type of tweak. To modify an existing tweak, double click on it. Note that doing so on a boolean will set it to the opposite tweak it was previously.

Note: Although the chances of stuffing up firefox to the point that it cannot be used, or your bookmarks and other things disappear are slim if you tweak responsibly, i will still say that I will not be held responsible for any stuff-ups. Besides, you can always reinstall firefox or create another profile to do tweaks on.
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Contents:


Accessibility
Alerts
App
Browser
Config
Content
Dom
Extensions
Network
Nglayout
Plugin
Privacy

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accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound
[Boolean]
True

By default this is set to true, which means the Find as you type feature makes a noise as you enter characters in a string which is not found on the current page. To turn this annoying sound off, set this option to False.


accessibility.typeaheadfind.linksonly
[Boolean]
False
If set to true, this setting makes the Find as you type feature search only for links on a page.



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Alerts:

alerts.totalOpenTime
[Integer]
4000

Determines for how many milliseconds to show the .Download complete. or .Updates Available. alerts. I recommend reducing this to 2 seconds (2000).



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app.update.auto
[Boolean]
True

When set to true, this enables Firefox to automatically download and install detected updates. The degree to which updates are installed automatically is determined by app.update.mode. Setting this to false allows you to determine the action to be taken, install or not.


app.update.enabled
[Boolean]
True

Setting this option to true enables Firefox to check at regular intervals for updated versions of Firefox. These can usually be due to security issues and as such it would be recommended to leave this set to true. This is the same as the Automatically check for updates to - Firefox option in the Advanced, Update tab.


app.update.interval
[Integer]
86400

The value entered here specifies the amount of time, in seconds, that Firefox waits before checking for updates.


app.update.mode
[Integer]
1

This setting sets how the Automatic Updates features handles updates available for Firefox when app.update.auto is set to true. Two options are available (This is the same as the When updates to Firefox are found option in the Advanced, Update tab):

0. Selecting this option enables Firefox to automatically download and install any available updates. This is recommended for hassle-free Firefox maintenance and will ensure the latest security and other updates are installed when released.

1. This option specifies that Firefox prompts you where a Firefox update available will break compatibility with any installed Extensions/Themes. In such cases you may wish to wait for a compatible Extension/Theme to be released, or to install the update regardless.



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browser.cache.disk.parent_directory
[String]

This entry allows you to specify a location for the cache directory (The default location will be in the Profiles directory). If entering this location in about:config use the standard path format, e.g. C:\Windows\Temp, whereas if entering this into the User.js file via text editor double \ are required in the path, e.g. C:\\Windows\\Temp.


browser.bookmarks.import_system_favorites
[Boolean]
False

If set to true, Firefox will always show the current Internet Explorer Favorites list in your Firefox Bookmarks menu. This list is updated live directly from IE, and cannot be deleted. If you use IE and Firefox together, this is a good way of making sure your IE bookmarks are instantly available in Firefox without having to re-import them all the time.


browser.bookmarks.livemark_refresh_seconds
[Integer]
3600

This is the number of seconds Firefox waits between checking for updates to any Live (RSS) Bookmarks you may have. The default is 3600 seconds = 1 hour, and for most purposes this is fine.


browser.bookmarks.restore_default_bookmarks
[Boolean]
True

This setting checks to see if your Bookmarks.html file (which contains your bookmarks) is missing or corrupted. If it is, and this setting is set to True, Firefox will replace it with one of the backup Bookmarks files it has kept.


browser.cache.check_doc_frequency
[Integer]
3

This setting determines how often Firefox checks for newer versions of the page you are viewing. This setting is similar to Internet Explorer\'s \'Check for newer versions of stored pages\' setting. If set to 0 Firefox only checks once per browser session; if set to 1 Firefox checks every time a page is viewed; if set to 2 Firefox never checks (i.e. it always uses the version stored locally in your browser cached); and if set to 3 (the default) Firefox checks at automatically determined intervals. If you browse mostly pages which update their content often (i.e. daily) or have a lot of dynamic content you may wish to set this to 1 though it may slow down browsing speed, especially on slower connections. Otherwise the default of 3 is best for fastest browsing on most connections. You can experiment to see if 0 suits your needs, but don't use a value of 2.


browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl
[Boolean]
False

If set to true, this setting allows the caching of secure web pages in your browser cache. This speeds up loading of commonly-visited secure pages, but is an obvious security risk and for that reason it is recommended you keep this at false.


browser.cache.memory.capacity
[Integer]
32768

This setting determines whether Firefox uses system RAM to cache itself, improving performance. A value of 0 turns off caching into RAM (not recommended), while a value of -1 tells Firefox to automatically determine the amount of RAM to use. I suggest you manually specify the amount of RAM to be used (in kilobytes) to prevent Firefox from blowing out too much. For example, I recommend a value of 32768 (32MB) for systems with 512MB of RAM or more. For those with less RAM, try a value of 16384 (16MB). If you have any problems, set this value to -1.


browser.cache.memory.enable
[Boolean]
(true)*default*

This setting works in conjunction with the browser.cache.memory.capacity setting above. If set to true, Firefox will use the value specified in the browser.cache.memory.capacity setting to determine how much RAM to use. If set to false, Firefox will not use any RAM to cache, resulting in a performance drop.


browser.chrome.toolbar_tips
[Boolean]
True

This tweak determines whether or not the tool tips are enabled or not whenever you roll the mouse over certain buttons on the toolbar.


browser.display.show_image_placeholders
[Boolean]
True

Some people can be quite impatient when a picture is loading, and a placeholder does little to improve that. If you have a slow connection, it is better to have this setting as false. For faster connections, it all depends on your preferences.


browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone
[Boolean]
False

At default, it is set to false so that your manager doesn’t close itself. setting it to true gets this thing out of the way the moment it is done. some people like to watch progress, but they don’t need to waste space or the time to close it.


browser.download.manager.flashCount
[Integer]
2000

At default, flashes the download manager icon in your taskbar for 2 seconds, some may prefer zero seconds to reduce annoyance, so adjust it to your preference.


browser.download.manager.openDelay
[Integer]
0

At default opens up the download manager immediately, which can be a big pain if you are downloading 10Kb files to your desktop, you don’t need that annoying manager to pop up.


browser.download.manager.showAlertInterval
[Integer]
2000

This edits the anount of time it takes to be showing the download alerts.


browser.enable_automatic_image_resizing
[Boolean]
True

Doing a google image search, then find that when you load a large picture, it automatically resizes it for you? some dont mind but a lot of others get annoyed by it as it would get harder to notice small things on the picture and smaller text usually reduced in quality, sometimes becoming unbearable.


browser.formfill.Enable
[Boolean]
True

Setting this to false disables the little drop down list whenever you type something like your address or credit card into a form. for people who are worried about their security, i suggest you disable this.


browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
[String]
-1

Whenever you jump around the Internet, Firefox caches your previous pages to make your internet browsing blazing fast. However this causes Firefox to consume memory that you may not ever need to use.


browser.tab.autoHide
[Boolean]
True

This is used to hide that extra row used by tabs. if you really need all your space to see the website, or just dont use tabbed browsing, keep this true. however, you may set this to false if you dont like it constantly appearing and disappearing every time you have one, then multiple tabs.


browser.tabs.closeButtons
[Integer]
1

Another tab interface change in Firefox 2 is the addition of a close button on each individual tab. Some people like this but others hate it, saying it causes them to accidentally close a tab when just trying to switch to it. If you're a hater, revert to the Firefox 1.5 behavior by changing the value to 3. This will not display close tabs on individual tabs, and turn on a single close tab button at the right end of the tab bar. Or for the people who middle-click to close a tab, change it to 2, so it wont display any close buttons.


browser.tabs.tabMinWidth
[Integer]
100

Power surfers who open more than a dozen tabs will notice that Firefox 2 minimizes tabs to a certain width, then sets the excess to scroll off the tab bar with left and right arrows. As someone who often has more than a dozen tabs open, not being able to see them all would make someone crazy. One solution is to reduce the minimum tab width so that more tabs fit in the bar before the scroll kicks in. That way, you can fit more tabs in.


browser.throbber.url
[String]

This setting determines the page which opens if you click on the 'throbber' - the small animated circle to the right of the address bar. You can change the URL to whichever site you want. The default is the Firefox Central page.


browser.xul.error_pages.enabled
[Boolean]
False

If set to true, Firefox will displays a full error page when it runs into an error (such as a page does not exist. error). If set to false, Firefox will only bring up a small dialog box with the error message, which is the default behavior. I recommend this setting be left at false for maximum convenience.


browser.chrome.toolbar_tips
[Boolean]
True*default*
This tweak determines whether or not the tool tips are enabled or not whenever you roll the mouse over certain buttons on the toolbar


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config.trim_on_minimize
[Boolean]
False
This setting only works in Windows, and determines whether Firefox - much like other Windows applications - reduces its memory usage when minimized to the Taskbar. If set to true (the default), it will use less memory when minimized, which is useful for systems with low RAM and multiple open applications. However if set to false it will speed up minimizing/maximizing Firefox, as it will not constantly attempt to reduce and reclaim RAM


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Content:

content.notify.interval
[Integer]
120000

This value in microseconds (where 1000 microseconds = 1 millisecond) determines how long Firefox buffers network data before displaying it. By default this is 120000 microseconds (120 milliseconds). Lowering this setting can improve display speed in Firefox, however it will also increase CPU usage to do so. Experiment with slight drops in value to 100000 or even 50000 and see if your results are beneficial. Don\'t drop this value to one which is extremely low however. If in doubt, do not change this value as you are more likely to slow Firefox down than speed it up.


content.switch.threshold
[Integer]
750000

This setting determines how long Firefox waits for user input (mouse or keyboard input) before switching to a less-responsive but less system-intensive low frequency mode. The default is 750000 milliseconds, but raising this value might keep Firefox more responsive after long periods of inaction at the cost of greater system load.


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Dom:

dom.popup_maximum
[Integer]
2

This setting determines the maximum number of simultaneous popup windows which can be open at any time. The default is 20, but I recommend a very low value such as 2, since most of the time users will only ever have 1 or 2 open legitimate popups on their screen at once, and this also helps prevent websites from flooding your screen with lots of popups.


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Extensions:

extensions.dss.enabled
[Boolean]
False

If set to true, this option enables Dynamic Skin Switching (DSS). This means that whenever you change a theme in Firefox, its changes will be implemented and visible immediately, rather than having to close down all Firefox windows and relaunching Firefox. While this is handy, it can be quite buggy so if you\'re having problems with glitches in themes set this back to false.


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network.cookie.lifetime.days
[Integer]
90

When network.cookie.lifetimePolicy is set to 3, this option specifies how long, in days, a cookie is stored before expiration (Ignoring the expiration date of the cookie if longer than what’s set), the default being 90 days. Increase or decrease this as you see fit.


network.http.redirection-limit
[Integer]
20

The value entered here specifies the maximum number of redirects that can be attempted consecutively, e.g. after replying in a forum you may be redirected to your response. As noted in Bug 153888 the default value has been increased from 10 to 20 (on account of nytimes.com). While you may prefer to decrease this value to avoid exploitation by certain sites, it may be necessary to increase the value in order for some to work (If this is the case an error page stating Redirection limit for this URL exceeded will appear).


network.http.keep-alive
[Boolean]
False

Setting this to true enables the use of persistent connections. This can provide more efficient connections with legacy servers as it streamlines the process, e.g. fewer TCP connections/packets and pipelining support. In the event of problems arising with legacy servers set this to false. HTTP/1.1 supports persistent connections by default.


network.http.pipelining.firstrequest
[Boolean]
False

*no info found about this*: This was a tweak i found along with all the other pipelining tweaks. i currently have this on my FF config. i will be posting any results about it here.


network.http.max-connections
[Integer]
24

This setting determines how many simultaneous HTTP connections can be made by Firefox. The default is already 24, however for most people on moderate to fast Internet connections you can try raising this to a value like 48 or even 96 to allow for more open connections, thereby speeding up browsing multiple pages. The maximum is 65535, but remember that by raising this setting you are only raising the maximum possible number of connections. You aren\'t forcing Firefox to increase the actual number of connections it makes every time; if your system actually attempted to force 300 connections to open at once for example it would likely slow down to a crawl.


network.http.max-connections-per-server
[Integer]
8

This setting determines how many simultaneous connections can be made to a single server. The default is 8, however you can increase the value for broadband connections to something like 16 or 32 to attempt to increase browsing speed. The maximum is 255, however note that raising this setting to a high value (in conjunction with a high value for the network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-.* settings below) may be construed as a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack by some servers and your connection may be refused. Aside from that, it may actually slow down your browsing and it\'s also poor netiquette to hammer people\'s servers with dozens of connections from a single machine, so I strongly suggest that you keep this value sane (e.g. 8 or 16).


network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server
[Integer]
8

If you are not connected to a proxy, this setting determines how many connections to a single server to keep alive at any time. The default is 2, however you can attempt a higher value such as 8 to improve browser speed. As mentioned in the settings above, raising this to a very high value will put stress on the particular website server you are connected to and will either result in a refused connection, or slower response times from the web page for every person trying to connect to it. Do not raise this value to one which is very high as it is inconsiderate and counter-productive if everyone does so.


network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
[Integer]
8

This setting determines the maximum number of requests to send when using the HTTP Pipelining feature (see above). The default is 4, and the maximum possible is 8 (higher values are ignored). I recommend setting this to 8 and only reducing it back to 4 if you experience any problems with the Pipelining feature.


network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy
[Integer]
8

Same as the server variation except this is used for proxies.


network.http.max-connections-per-proxy
[Integer]
8

Same as the server variation except this is used for proxies.


network.prefetch-next
[Boolean]
True

Firefox has this wacky little feature that downloads pages from links it thinks you may click on pages you view, like the top result on a page of Google results. This means you use up bandwidth and CPU cycles and store history for web pages you may not have ever viewed. To stop that, set it to false.


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Nglayout:

nglayout.initialpaint.delay
[Integer]
250

This setting determines how many milliseconds Firefox should wait before it starts to display the page contents. This brief delay allows Firefox to load and arrange the various page components as correctly as possible. The default is 250 milliseconds which isn\'t very long, but you can try setting this to 0 to see if it improves the responsive feel of Firefox. However some users report faster overall page load times with the default value or even higher, so experiment to see which value suits your browsing habits.


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Plugin:

plugin.default_plugin_disabled
[Boolean]
True

When viewing a web page which requires a Plugin (such as Flash) Firefox will prompt the user to install this plugin. If you don\'t ever want to see any such prompts, set this setting to False.


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privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage
[Boolean]
True

By default the first time Firefox blocks a popup (if the popup blocker is enabled in Tools>Options>Web Features) then it will ask you whether you want to display a message each time a popup is blocked. The answer you provide at that time sets the default for this setting, but you can change it around by editing this preference at any time. For the sake of reducing annoyance I recommend you set this to False.


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Warning: Some tweaks can be set to such a high or insane value that if many people do it, it might overload the websites servers. When that does happen, there is the possibility that some users IP's could get blocked from that server and the user would be unable to access any sites on that particular server.


Any questions, comments, or if you want to report a problem with the tweaks or the page itself, just post it here.

This message was edited by hiigaran on Jul 08 2007.

How do I get to the place to input the codes again? I don't remember.

Type about:config in the addressbar, and press enter

Oh, haha, I thought it would be something obvious. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

FireFox TweakGuide via TweakFactor.

via? if anyone wants more codes id gladly look up more and add them to my already large list

I just use fasterfox...

So do I, but I haven't noticed a difference...

i find fasterfox to be just an empty shell. the thing about extensions is that they would do the exact same thing as if you were to type in the data into about:config yourself
EDIT: i forgot to add to that that extensions use up more resources, they have to be updated all the time, they slow down the loading of FF and, for the few who use 56K or slower, would be annoying to download(the extension AND the updates)

This message was edited by hiigaran on Oct 18 2006.

quote hiigaran

via?

vi·a Pronunciation (vee a)
prep.
1. By way of: went to Pittsburgh via Philadelphia.
2. By means of: sent the letter via airmail

I have faster fox, but I cant figure out what setting I need, and I cant tell it does anything to speed up my connection. I already have a pretty slow connection as it is, so that dosnt help much.

well ill look for those other codes later today or tomorrow. but what kind of connection do you have slayer?

EDIT: Ok i have added the code in:

quote

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server

remember to read the info about it as it is not supposed to be used insanely.

EDIT: Sorry for the bad organizing of the tweaks...i will get the better sorted over the next few days or so

This message was edited by hiigaran on Oct 18 2006.

ive updated the tweaks again. look under speed up connection.
also, there are some tweaks like http.pipelining that also have a similar one for proxies. in this case it would be http.proxy.pipelining. if you use proxies just ask for the appropriate tweak and i would gladly post it

PS: sorry for the double post. depending on the conditions, i might have to do it a few more times until i cant find any more tweaks

just keepin u busy. as it says in ur interests u check out new replies immediately.

oh ha ha. any real posts people? if anyone here has tweaks i can add to this list id be more than happy to update it