Firefox Tweaks/Tricks, necessary Updates & any Questions you like

[Vajras]

we used to have a FF thread on the old forum that went so ...

Stumbled upon this site - as always, use them/it at your own risk but have tried a few and so far no FUBAR's

For example, i have never liked using Adobe Acrobat with FF (too much bloatware) but FoxitReader and he suggested it too

The Firefox Extension Guru

/edit - correct link

[teemac]

AdBlock Plus - blocks adds on most pages (uses less bandwidth and makes pages very fast to load)

FoxMarks - (recently renamed XMarks) saves all your bookmarks to a central site and can be syncronised on all your machines anytime anywhere - never lose your bookmarks list again.

Been using these 2 automatically on all new machines from home or at the computer shop where I work. I personally have used them for years and do recommend them.

[WikiWill]

Good tips guys.

I use Flashblock to save a lot of sanity/time/CPU on some sites I visit.

I also use ChatZilla, which is a neat IRC client.

Of course, I always install the English (Aussie) dictionary for every FF install.  My grammar may suck big ones but I do like to spell this nonsense correctly 

[yoda]

As a part time web designer I couldn't live without the Web Developer Toolbar :)

But I also run Adblock Plus and Flashblock mentioned by others

[Mike Mitchell]

My favourites are FireFTP, Inspect, CSS Viewer, CSS Editor and FireBug, . Just wish I could get the HTML Editor working as well as the CSS Editor.

[Vajras]

As well as (most of) the above (like Adblock Plus, Chatzilla, always the Oz spell check -the OOo one is great) i also use Forecast Fox, Session Manager, MIME Edit and Sxipper.

[Scott]

WebDev Toolbar, HTML Validator, Flashblock + Adblock and Net Usage Item are my favourite ones for me.

[Vajras]

Has anyone seen this Addon in their FF?

It's a little hard to read but is a FF Addon that the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 update, pushed through the Windows Update service to all recent editions of Windows in February 2009, installed without asking - it's called the M$ ".NET Framework Assistant" firefox extension.

I didn't get the Addon but did get a bit of M$ crap scattered around.

Read more and remove here and a msdn blog about it here with same remove instructions

[attachment deleted by admin]

[WikiWill]

Yeah I have it on my home FF.  I haven't tried removing it but thanks for the pointer to those instructions.

[clownius]

I better get removing it then thanks for that.  Its nice to know M$ is sabotaging the competitions product so its no longer better.

[WikiWill]

Yeah, I'm not a lawyer, but the silent modification of a competitor's product behaviour has to be a questionable practice.  For now I've just ticked the box to "prompt before running ClickOnce apps" and have also disabled the plug-in.

[Vajras]

@ WW & Mr Clownius - wise choices - it still amazes me the stuff that Bill's old crowd still wants to foist upon us - some people there get it, some still don't!!

Anyway, rant off and during the meanwhile... today's quite important news...

Please note: If you're still using Firefox 2.0.0.x, this version is no longer supported and contains known security vulnerabilities. Please upgrade to Firefox 3 by downloading Firefox 3.0.9 from getfirefox.com.

Firefox 3.0.9 security and stability release now available - posted by ss on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 4:08 pm

As part of the Mozilla Corporation's ongoing security and stability process, Firefox 3.0.9 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users as a free download from getfirefox.com.

We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 3, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting "Check for Updates..." from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please see the Firefox 3.0.9 release notes.

[edit] - corrected links

[WikiWill]

Hey Vajras, don't know if you'll know this...  I just checked my FF version and I'm still on 3.0.1.  I have auto-update selected in options.  I'm about to test this but I think it's because I don't run as an admin on this machine, so it doesn't have permission to install updates (and is not prompting either).  I wondered why it had been so quiet lately!  Do you think that's the reason?

EDIT:  Just confirmed that if I log on as an admin (this is on Windows Vista) then I receive the FF updates as expected.  I might check their support site re that issue.  I'll have to watch that in future  :furious:

[Vajras]

or couldn't you change the user account permissions to reflect what you want to happen or not?

[Brods]

No Script has to be my favorite plugin not yet mentioned.
Adblock Plus and Flashblock are right up there too (ForecastFox is nifty too).

I have had no problems using Firefox 3.1 Beta 3. Though some plugins aren't compatible, most of the good ones are (lots of developer ones aren't though).