I’ve been using Firefox 3 since Release Candidate 1 (RC1) right up till the final stable version which was released a week ago. The BETA version was released much earlier but I did not test it because it is usually very unstable and used for testing purposes only. As for Release Candidate, it is the final stage before a full release. After installing Firefox RC1, it worked perfectly with no crashes and I noticed that websites loads faster than Firefox 2. The only problem was the incompatible extensions which doesn’t effect me much because I only use FlashGot.
Although the new Firefox 3 is able to load up website much faster than previous version of Firefox, there is still a way to speed up and optimize Firefox 3. I was skeptical at first, so I made a full backup of my Firefox profile, tuned Firefox 3 with a click and website loads EVEN FASTER!
If you type about:config at the Firefox URL bar, a bunch of advance settings will appear. It’s not easy knowing which one to change will improve Firefox’s performance but you can find them on lots of Firefox related websites. Instead of manually changing the settings one by one, here is a very useful free software that is able to optimize the latest Firefox 3 with just a click.
FireTune for Mozilla Firefox v1.x / 2.x / 3.x was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox. It is based on a collection of popular and well working optimization settings used and tested by the experts. Usually you have to optimize Firefox manually, which can be time consuming and difficult for the novice user. FireTune helps you here – it includes all the performance optimizations. The only thing you must do is: make your selection. FireTune does the work for you.
According to your specific computer speed and internet connection speed, FireTune will optimize several internal settings of Firefox for better performance. FireTune does NOT modify the Firefox executable, or any other Firefox binary file. Everything can be undone easily provided you saved your original profile configuration file with FireTune’s profile backup feature before. Details on what exactly FireTune does can be found in the FireTune help file.
The simple way to tell whether Firefox is faster after optimizing is to follow these instructions.
1. Clear the Cache of Firefox and close Firefox
2. Open Firefox, go to http://www.numion.com/stopwatch/ and do a speed test on http://www.neowin.net/. Note down the time taken to completely load the website.
3. Clear the cache and close Firefox.
Note: I’d advice you to go through step 1-3 a few times to get an average of load time before optimization.
4. Tune your Firefox with FireTune.
5. Start Firefox again, and repeat the speed test on http://www.neowin.net/
6. Compare the displayed result with the result from the test before the optimization
The developer of FireTune noticed a speed improvement of 2.05 seconds – the load time was 9.47 seconds before optimizations, and 7.42 seconds after optimization. I’ve tested it myself and also noticed a speed improvement of an average of 2-3 seconds. I visit many website and forums everyday and it could definitely save a lot of my time. Actually I’ve heard about FireTune long ago but never tested it. I am glad that I have now… If you are using the latest Firefox 3, I strongly recommend you to tweak, tune and optimize it with FireTune.
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Hey Raymond,
Invalid download link. Please re-upload the file.
well i’m from malaysia, although the internet here not as fast as other country but cool! less time (in second) loading page..
f you wanna optimize your internet performance, i suggest downloading dsl speed, it can boosts internet connection, thereby speeding up your computer
I had to go the manual route but it was easy and I am a novice by all standards. Speed was truly improved and am very, very, very happy.
Dude Thx!!
Before:
11 Secs
After:
4 Secs
This has certainly increased the speed or other words reduced the time considerably.
Thanks, been looking for something like this. I ran the program and FF runs much faster now. Greatly appreciated.
i m use firefox this is good only good not for excellent……….!
okz budy……….!
enjoy u r self…………….!
(Translated in English)
I improoved my FF of 16 seconds. Thanks.
Ciao,
ho avuto un incremento delle prestazioni di ben 16 secondi. Ottima guida, grazie.
ficou um pouco melhor valeu :D
Tried it a 2nd time a little over a month later
Before
00:00:07.520
00:00:06
00:00:07.779
After
00:00:05.863
00:00:14.809
00.00:07.515
only 1 trial was there any sort of decent improvement and the 8 second slower on the 2nd one more than made up for any improvement.
DUDE, this is great!
I’ve had firefox since the first release and i would always do the little About:Config changes to speed it up a bit, however they never worked quite as good as this.
Before = 22 seconds
After = 5 seconds
That is a freakin 17 second improvement! This is going on my Hdd so when i reformat i will always have ^^
This really works !
I use to open a bunch of websites in tabs with a click and the difference in speed is visible. Thx Raymond!
Memory usage also worse
Speed before:
00:00:04.774
00:00:05.702
00:00:06.683
Speed after:
00:00:05:426
00:00:07.707
00:00:07.194
Woow!
pages load as a blink………..
Waz Really very useful………..
Thanks alottttt!!!!!:)))))))
With any sort of decent processor the rendering of webp[ages is not the problem – it’s all in the downloadspeed. If I have half a second delay – do I care?
Well I applied all of my own tweaks already but I tried this and it’s awful
it applies a small handful of tweaks but there are many more you can use
this is half the speed of what my about:config can pull off
email me if you want…
Perfecto, thanks Raymond.
Thanks Raymond, it does reduce the loading time. By the way, may I know where did the backup setting folder was? I try to locate the folder, but i just can’t find it. I just want to know whether the Firetune really create the backup. Besides, can i restore the previous setting by using the window restore?
After using this program, the performance of Firefox was TERRIBLE. Initially, I had a 19 second search time. After using the tweak (Fast Computer/Fast Connection), it went to 24 seconds. I tried tweaking again (Slow Computer/Fast Connection) and got a 32 second search time. After restoring back to the original settings, I got a 7 second search time. Maybe this program works for some people but it did not work for me… Make sure to create a backup before using!!!
For incompatible extensions -
1. download their .xpi (save file rather than just opening)
2. open with winrar (or unzip of your choice)
3. pull out install.rdf
4. open this in notepad
5. Find the line that reads “maxVersion=” and change this number to a 3.0
6. Save file, drag back into winrar so it puts it back into the xpi
7. drag the edited xpi into an open FF window and it”ll ask if you want to install the addon
I suggust you try gamespot.com for the speed test as it is a pretty heavy site to load.
My loadingtime went from 9.8 sec to 2.6 sec
Thanks Raymond
No improvements here on browsing speed, only on memory usage.
00:00:09:466 originally.
00:00:11:208 after tweak.
Hmmmmm, I don’t use any other tweaking addons or software and it made it worse =/
But the second time I tried it it was:
00:00:08:581
So maybe it was slow due to me only just opening up firefox…
@inderpal: The Firefox Ultimate Optimizer only brings down the memory usage but not speed up web browsing.
Best one is Firefox Ultimate Optimizer1.1 after this my firefox uses only ~1mb. try it
I cant make it work with firefox portable from portableapps.com, it asks for the firefox path, but even when I select it I still get a “no portable firefox path found” error message :(.
Yup, I use TuneUP too and didn’t notice any speed improvements.
mEtRiX didn’t find any improvements maybe because he already used TuneUp Utilities to optimize Firefox 3.
Glad they finally came out with support for FF3 !
Thanks raymond ill test and back to leave comments
WOW thats great.
Thanks Raymond.
Nice one….can feel the difference of about 2-3 sec
But these 2-3 sec are crucial sometimes…
aMeY
1st time running without clear cache – 48 seconds.
2nd time running after clear cache – 21 seconds.