Firefox 3.X Tweakz
by admin on Aug.14, 2009, under General (Not OS Specific)
These are some General and Advanced setting changes that I have found really effect over all performance, security, andstability of Firefox, and all of them are “undo-able” just in case they don’t agree with your preference/perception.
F.Y.I. You can make all the about:config changes you want and then do a single Firefox restart, there is no need to restart with each individual change 
Disable Firefox Pre-fetching:
Firefox is set by default to go to every link on the page that has pre-fetch ability and use your bandwidth, RAM, CPU cycles, and Hard Drive IO to load each link before you click it just in case you do click each link. However, this is all wasted if you are loading a single page just to copy something and then close it.
1. open firefox and type in about:config in your URL bar.
2. when prompted answer yes, “I’ll be careful, I promise” :p
3. in the empty filter bar at the top type in the following:
network.prefetch-next
4. to change the value from true or use pre-fetching to false or vice versa simply double click the entry and check the value at the far right.
5. Restart Firefox for the change to take effect.
Increase initial Firefox load speed:
Here is an open source solution “pre-loader” to make Firefox open up faster just like many other software apps do
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffpreloader/files/
Increase Initial Page Load Speed
It’s a common misconception that lowering the following manually created setting to 0 will in fact make a website load faster, as you can only load it as fast as your internet connection can download it. By lowering the setting to 0 you only tell your browser to try and render faster than even business class/speed internet can even grab the data.
1. In about:config filter search for:
nglayout.initialpaint.delay
to ensure it does not already exist.
3.
a. If it does exist double click it to modify it to 250.
b.If it does not exist, right click an empty spot below the filter search bar and go to new and select integer, and name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and give it the value of 250
4. restart firefox for it to take effect.
Memory/RAM
I’ve found the following articles VERY useful for my custom setup:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reducing_memory_usage_(Firefox)
http://www.aviransplace.com/2006/10/22/tip-reduce-firefox-memory-usage/
Favorite tip to reduce memory usage in Mozilla Firefox
1. Type about:config in the Firefox address bar
2. Search for:
browser.sessionhistory.max_entries
3. Double click on the value 50, change it to something lower, <Max # of tabs you use> should be good.
4. Restart Firefox for it to take effect.
On average we surf less than 5 of the websites we previously surfed before, there is no need to usage up that much memory (which is 50 by default)
Disable Delay Time When Installing Add-on
Every time you wanted to install a Firefox add-on, you will have to wait for several seconds before the actual installation starts. If you are tired of waiting, you can turn the:
security.dialog_enable_delay
off in about:config so that the installation will start immediately upon clicking. Remember to restart Firefox to make it take effect.
Autofill Address in URL Bar
Other than the smart location feature, you can also get your URL bar to autofill the address as you type the URL.
1. Open about:config
2. Type in the filter box with:
browser.urlbar.autofill
3. double click it to change the default Boolean from false to true.
4. Restart Firefox for it to take effect.
Make Search Results Open In a New Tab
To make search results from the search bar open in a new tab instead of making you navigate away from the page you are on
1. Open about:config
2. Type this into the filter search:
browser.search.openintab
3. Double click it to change from false to true.
4. Restart Firefox for the change to take effect.
Some Useful Addons
Auto Copy for Firefox (for those who don’t use Linux):
it allows you to highlight text and have it directly copied to clipboard (just like in Linux) and you can set it up to paste with middle click too.
http://downloads.mozdev.org/autocopy/autocopy-v1.0.xpi
Password Manager Export Utility/Addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2848
Video Download Helper:
This addon allows you to download flv files, swf files, MP3s, MP4s, MPGs, and can convert on the fly after downloading them
My Favorite Windows Software
by admin on Apr.17, 2009, under Windows Vista
I am not being paid or compensated to advertise this list of software, I only offer these suggestions as they are my personal preference.
Below is a list of some open source software that I recommend you at least try. I think you might find you like at least 5 of these applications for your Windows setup, in fact I went so far as to make my own AIO (All In One) installer with a Navigable GUI. It’s only 96.5MB in size, and can be downloaded here:
AIO32-Bit_Free_Appz GUI Download
Free Software
7-Zip: Free archive management and creation software. Handles .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .7z, .rar and plenty more.
get it free
Avira Anti-Virus: Rated 1st place in free Anti-Virus solutions and 3rd place overall by MaximumPC. It does have the occasional pop-up ad, but I don’t mind it since it’s free!
CCleaner (CrapCleaner): This is the best solution for cleaning up cached, temp files, internet tracks, & wiping free space that I have used so far, and it’s free!
Clone Remover (by Moleskinsoft): Need to make sure you aren’t inadvertently keeping multiple copies of your files, and wasting hard drive space? Want to be safe, and not remove critical Windows system files while searching for duplicates? want to get it free?
Digsby IM: This IM client handles every type that Pidgin does, AND it handles email, facebook, MySpace, LinkedIN, & MUCH more. Also, unlike pidgin, Digsby bypasses most firewall setups by using port 80 to connect instead of the specialized ports for the individual Protocols. Beware when installing Digsby, as they have to include several “free offers” for adware type software. Simply accept the initial Digsby license agreement during install and decline any “free offers” you don’t want.
DVDShrink: Need to make an 8.5GB DVD fit on a 4.7GB DVD disc? don’t want to loose quality, or features? want to be able to remove Different Languages, and sharpen or smooth out video and possibly make the new 4.7GB DVD region free? don’t want to have to pay for it? Get DVDShrink FREE now!
Notepad++: My favorite text editor, and code editor. It offers line numbers, support for Java, C/C+/C++/C#, PHP, HTML, Javascript, Perl and many more. It uses tabs so you can work on multiple projects, or multiple parts of a single project without the mess of windows opened, and the greatest part is it’s FREE!
Peerguardian 2: Use uTorrent, or another P2P file sharing type? Scared of Government or ISPs spying on you illegally? Those horrible people don’t respect your privacy, so this software can help you. This software will actively watch incoming, and outgoing requests to known evils like those mentioned and block them entirely based off of a list or multiple lists depending on your preference which are downloaded on a schedule automatically. This software can even fully block out all HTTP traffic if you set it to, it works on Vista and it’s free.
Quicktime Alternative: Sick of Apple Quicktime, and all it’s bloat? Tired of having to kill off it’s constant attempts to contact “home” against your will? Get Quicktime Alternative, it installs all the video playing ability of Quicktime, but uses Windows Media Player, or even VLC to play .mov and other Quicktime only formats, and it’s FREE!
Real Alternative: Just like Quicktime Alternative, this is a substitute for Realtime media player. It utilizes Windows MediaPlayer and/or VLC to play .rma .rmv and .rm files and it’s free.
Recuva: Need to recover file that you accidentally deleted? Can’t find a software that will recover files you deleted with Shift + Del keys? Don’t want to pay for it?
Revo Uninstaller: Ever install a software and have it fail, but can’t uninstall it? ever worry about uninstalling software and find it leaves a mass of junk strung across your hard driver and registry? just want the job done right? don’t want to pay for a software that can do it?
Songbird: Need something like iTunes that also handles podcasts but don’t want to use their HORRIBLE software? don’t want to have to pay for it?
Synergy: Ever wanted to use your PC Tower and Laptop together, but don’t want the mess of multiple mice and keyboards strewn across your lap/desk? Ever wanted to copy something to your clipboard and paste it to your laptop or vice-versa? Want to do all this without additional hardware, or at any cost out of pocket? Get Synergy, it’s FREE!
Taskbar Shuffle: This is a free software Windows Vista that allows you to Move the buttons/windows/tabs on your taskbar so you can position them as you like (great for those who suffer from OCD) Example: you can place your open Firefox window first, then Thunderbird or switch them around freely. FREE SOFTWARE!!!
Unlocker: Ever tried to delete a file or folder but Windows told you NO!? Ever tried to safely remove a storage device such as a thumb drive or external hard drive only to be told Windows can’t do it? Want to find out why and fix it, for FREE!? get unlocker
VLC Media Player: Ever wanted to play videos on your computer right out of the box without having to download individual codecs to play them which may even break your OS Install? I suggest VLC, it has it’s own video codec repository and has enough options and EQ (equalizer) settings to satisfy most of your needs, it can even play .flv files as audio/video. And best of all it’s FREE!
NON-Free Software
Diskeeper: Sick of having to defragment your hard drive all of the time? not seeing any results from Windows default deframenter? Wish you would get less fragmentation during simple software installs? Diskeeper has an AWESOME setup for automatic defragmentation based on a schedule, and also has options to allow you to defragment in the background while you are doing other things like playing games, surfing the internet, watching videos, listening to music, & even compiling code! it will only use resources when they are conveniently available without disrupting you as the user. Also, it can actively defragment while files are being placed on your hard drive, almost as sufficient as the UNIX file system does to avoid fragmentation. Diskeeper is able to defragment external drives, and thumbdrives. I have noticed CONSIDERABLE difference in hard drive performance as far as responsiveness and in benchmarks using HDTach. It’s well worth it!
Just $29.95 for Diskeeper Home
Getright: Sick of being limited to a maximum of 2 simultaneous downloads by your internet browser? Want a faster download speed than what the server is allowing you? Want to be able to pause the download and resume it later? want a list of community compiled file mirrors in case yours isn’t “up to speed” or reliable? get it right with GetRight!
Just $19.95 with 1 year of software upgrades
TuneUp Utilities 2010: Do you play full screen games or use full screen apps where the pretty features of Vista or Windows 7 are just wasted RAM in the background? I do, and I downloaded this app specifically because it has the ability to change to “Turbo Mode” with a single click and disable approx. 800MB worth of RAM robbing flashy effects while I game or watch a video, and then immediately switch back to the cool looking effects with another click after I’m done. It also has a LOAD of responsiveness boosting changes and suggestions, with a wizard to help you best setup your machine to your liking
General
by admin on Apr.17, 2009, under Windows Vista
Page File
*Recommended*
Single Hard Drive: 2x the amount of Physical Memory (RAM) for both Min. & Max.
Example: you have 2048MB (2GB) RAM, the setting would be 4096MB for both Min. & Max.
Two Hard Drives: Amount of Physical Memory (RAM) for both Min. & Max. on each drive making a total of 2x amount of Physical Memory (RAM) Total Pagefile.
Example: you have 2048MB (2GB) RAM, the setting would be 2048MB for both Min. & Max. on each drive making a total of 4096MB (4GB) page file
Three Hard Drives: 0.66x Amount of Physical Memory (RAM) for both Min. & Max. on each drive making 2x amount of Physical Memory (RAM) Total Pagefile.
Example: you have 2048MB (2GB) RAM, the setting would be 1365MB for both Min. & Max. on each drive making a total of 4096MB (2GB) or 2x amount of Physical Memory (RAM) Total Pagefile.
ATI/GUI In Windows
*Recommended*
Windows XP: Download drivers for you ATI Graphics solution
and I suggest using ATI Tray Tools by Ray Adams which generally come with the Omega Drivers Package, but if not, you can get it here
Windows Vista: Download drivers for your ATI Graphics solution
nVidia Drivers
*Recommended*
Windows ALL: Download the Omega Drivers for your nVidia solution
And a neat Utility I highly recommend (in case it doesn’t come with the package)
AGP Graphics
*Recommended*
BIOS Settings
AGP Speed: Set to the highest setting YOUR Graphics card supports, and bypass the Auto setting if possible.
Example: if you’re graphics card supports AGP 8x speed, manually set to 4x/8x for best performance.
AGP Fast Writes: You may notice a 10% performance increase in SOME games with this enabled, however there WILL be a HIGH instability issue as this bypasses the default system memory use setup. For OVERALL best Performance & Stability, leave disabled in the BIOS and the OS.
AGP Aperture: LEAVE THIS SETTING AS DEFAULT which is usually 64MB or 128MB. All this setting accomplishes is reserving the amount of your SYSTEM RAM for AGP data transfer, increasing this value will NOT gain you any performance in 98% of games, and those that it will, the difference is minor.
AGP Master 1WS Read/Write: This BIOS feature allows you to reduce the time the AGP bus-mastering device has to wait before it can initiate a read/write command, to only one wait state. This speeds up all reads that the AGP bus-master makes from the system memory. So, for better AGP read performance, enable this feature. Disable it only if you notice visual anomalies or if your system hangs on running.
AGP Prefetch: This feature controls the system controller’s AGP prefetch capability. When enabled, the system controller will prefetch data whenever the AGP device reads from the system memory. This speeds up AGP reads as it allows contiguous memory reads by the AGP device to proceed with minimal delay. Therefore, it is recommended that you enable this feature for better AGP read performance.
Sidebanding: This setting controls a method whereby additional new video requests are sent along with the main video information, in effect working alongside the main data channel. This increases bandwidth, which can improve performance, although not by much. In practice Sidebanding can cause instability, particularly on overclocked graphics cards. Sidebanding is usually enabled on most ATI graphics cards, and shouldn’t be causing any problems, however if there is a Sidebanding option in your BIOS, and you are experiencing problems, you can try disabling it to see if it helps.
Video BIOS Cacheable: This options stores the Video Card BIOS in the L2 cache of your CPU for faster access for the OS. However, Windows NT/95/98/ME/XP/Vista does not have any use for the BIOS, it relies solely on the device driver. So for NT/95/98/ME/XP/Vista: Disabled & for an older OS like DOS : Enabled.
Video Memory Cache Mode: It is highly recommended that you set this feature to USWC (Uncached Speculative Write Combining) for improved graphics and CPU Performance.
Windows Vista
by admin on Mar.12, 2009, under Windows Vista
Desktop/Display Changes
*Recomended*
Stop Microsoft Information Gathering (privacy) Clock> Change Date and Time Settings> Internet Time Tab> change Settings> Uncheck Synchronize with and Internet Time Server. ---- Make Start Menu display when you click it (not 4 seconds later) Run> regedit> nav. to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop > Change MenuShowDelay to 0 and close. ---- Disable uneeded flashy effects and shadows to free up HUGE resources Right click My Computer> Propterties> Advanced System Settings> Advanced> Under Performance click Settings> Set Visual Effets to Adjust for best Performance then to Custom> Check: Enable desktop composition Show translucent selection rectangle Smooth edges of screen fonts Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop Use visual styles on windows and buttons ---- Free Up System Resources (RAM & CPU Usage) Right Click Desktop> Personalize> Window Color and Appearance> Uncheck Enable Transparency and pick a color. **Optional** Make Desktop more responsive and load faster Right Click Desktop> Personalize> Desktop Background> Browse to a non-animated Picture/Image OR Choose a solid color. ---- Speed Up Start Menu (This disables searching for files from the Start Menu) Right click Taskbar> Properties> Start Menu tab> Customize> Change search files = Don't search for files. ---- Stop logging/listing your recently opened items/documents (privacy) Right click Taskbar> Properties> Start Menu tab> Uncheck: Store and display a list of recently opened files.
My Computer Changes
Open My Computer:
*Recomended* Make Vista use your Hard Drives cache (they disable it by default to prevent data loss in case of a sudden power failure) Right click any Hard Drive> Properties> Hardware Tab> Double Click any Hard Drive in the list> Policies tab> Check Enable write caching on the disk & Enable advanced performance> repeat for any additional Hard Drives. (Selecting Optimize for Performance on removable drives makes them run faster but REQUIRES you to safely remove them each time) ---- Free Up disk space, get rid of excess/unused features, and make Hard Drives/USB transfer faster Uninstall or change a Program> Turn Windows Features on or Off> Uncheck: Games (**Optional**, I don't play them) Indexing Service (**Optional**, makes searching slightly slower) Remote Diferential Compression (*Recomended*, USB devices transfer faster w/o uneeded compression) SNMP Feature (*Recomended*, Allows Internet traffic to flow freely without constant tests) Tablet PC Optional Components (*Recomended*, Takes up disk space, only used with Tablet PCs like a Palm Pilot) Windows DFS Replication Service (*Recomended*, Replicates all changes to files to all servers in your workgroup, if you are not using syncronization to a server in your workgroup this slows down USB and other drive transfers INCREDIBLY)
General Performance Changes
*Recomended* Have 1GB+ of RAM? use it! (This loads your drivers into RAM instead of using the hard drive) per Microsoft http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757875.aspx Run (as Admin)> Regedit> nav. to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTECurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management > Change DisablePagingExecutive to value 1 ---- Remove Windows 95 Backward Compatability, it's stunting performance Run (as Admin)> fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1 ---- Disable Windows Defender (Only if you have another Anti-Virus Solution) Start> Programs> Windows Defender> Tools> Options> Uncheck everything, especially Use Windows Defender. ---- If you have SP1 installed and NEVER plan to uninstall it Run (as Admin)> vsp1cln.exe ----
Using Vispa (http://vispa.whyeye.org/)
Open Vispa> Sections:
General
Disable Compressed Folders (**Optional**) Disable Net Crawling (*Recomended*, Security) Enable Fast Shutdown (*Recomended*, Performance) Disable Showing Last User (*Recomended*, Security) ***The Rest Set to Default*** (**Optional**, Privacy/Security)
Services
Disable UPnP Discovery Service (*Recomended*, Security) ***The Rest Seto to Default*** (**Optional**, Performance) All other settings per your preference. ---- **Optional** Open all Apps you would use generally (Example: I open 2 FF Windows, Pidgin, Filezilla, uTorrent, and Notepadd++) then folow these steps: Run> perfmon> on Left Pane, Under Monitoring Tools click Performance Monitor> on Right Pane, 3rd button from the left drop down and select Report> Right click blank spot> Add Counters...> Scrol through Left Top list to Memory and drop down> Click Cache Bytes Peak and press Add> Also under Memory, Click System Cache Resident Bytes and press Add> Ok> Now: Take the System Cache Resident Bytes Value (give or take 1-3 million) and add 50% to it (IE 80,000,000 + 40,000,000) then add that sum to the Cache Bytes Peak. If your total is higher than or within 30,000,000 of 268,000,000 STOP HERE and close out of all of that which you opened. If your total was 30,000,000+ less than 268,000,000 then folow these instructions: Run (as Admin)> fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2 > then reboot. and Follow the instructions again and add up your totals: If your new total is within 20,000,000 of 268,000,000 then: Run (as Admin)> fsutil behavior set memoryusage 1 > then reboot. If you new total is less 20,000,000 of 268,000,000 then you are fine and done.
Vista Service Configuration (All *Recomended*, Performance)
Run> services.msc > Scroll through the list and double click each of these services and change the drop down to match: Certificate Propagation: Disable Distributed Link Tracking Client: Disable Fax: Disable KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator: Automatic Netlogon: Disable Offline Files: Disable Remote Registry: Disable Smart Card: Disable Smart Card Removal Policy: Disable SNMP Trap: Disable Tablet PC Input Service: Disable Terminal Services UserMode Port Redirector: Disable TPM Base Services: Manual WebClient: Disable Windows Remote Management (WS-Management): Disable Windows Search: Disable (**Optional**, Makes searching a little slower) WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service: Disable
Neat Tricks
Make Shortcuts to things you have to click a BUNCH to get to
Right click Desktop> New> Shortcut> Type:
Location of item Result
control (This makes Control Panel Shortcut)
devmgmt.msc (This makes Device Manager Shortcut)
dfrgui.exe (This makes Windows Defrag Shortcut)
This is a long one, but it's for a a shortcut directly to Network Connections:
explorer.exe ::{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
Fresh Install Driver Order
Chipset Graphics Audio Ethernet/Wifi Others (no particular order)
