Hacks to Make Firefox Faster than Google Chrome: Google Chrome has now eclipsed Mozilla Firefox in the speed category. However, I still use Firefox as my main web browser because it is still better than Chrome in certain areas.But just recently, I tried a few tweaks that significantly improved the speed of Firefox making it a little bit snappier than the latest version of Google Chrome when loading webpages.
Here are some of the things that I did that helps make Firefox somewhat faster than Chrome:
1. Type about:config into the Firefox URL/address bar and hit ENTER. You will be warned that you might void your warranty if you change some advanced settings, but just go on and trust me :-)
2. Inside the Firefox configuration page, scroll down and look for the following entries:
network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
Set their values to “true” by double-clicking each one of them.
3. Next up, find this entry:
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Double-click and set the value to 8.
4. Right-click anywhere inside the config page and select New --> Integer. Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set the value to “0″.
5. Right-click anywhere inside the config page and select New --> Integer. Name it content.notify.interval and set the value to “500000″.
6. Right-click anywhere inside the config page and select New --> Boolean. Name it content.notify.ontimer and set the value to “true″.
7. Right-click anywhere inside the config page and select New --> Integer. Name it content.switch.threshold and set the value to “250000″.
8. Right-click anywhere inside the config page and select New --> Boolean. Name it content.interrupt.parsing and set the value to “false″.
That's about it. You should be able to notice the speed improvement immediately after applying the above tweaks.
Disabling Firefox addons that you don't use often, blocking flash content, and using a lightweight theme will also help speed up Firefox.
Your post is very excellent from which I benefited a great deal. Thank you!
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Very interesting! Could you please provide more informations about what these tweaks do?
Your post is very excellent from which I benefited a great deal. Thank you!
I have translated it into Chinese. Welcome to your return visit.
Oh wow... this is it! the guide that I'm looking for. I can't abandon my trusty FF. :D
Salamat sa pag share netong tweaks jun! :)
There's a Firefox Add-on called Tweak Network, that a very good job. It's been around for several years...
There is a Firefox Add-on called Tweak Network that has been around for several years now. It does a good job.
I agree with Daniele...
An explanation for what every tweak does would be better so I don't feel like I'm randomly making it "better"..
Thanks.
Dugg -> http://digg.com/software/Hacks_to_Make_Firefox_Faster_than_Google_Chrome_TechSource
I like to set this to True (or create a new Boolean and set this as the name, and make it True). It has sped things up significantly on my Debian setup, at least until IPv6 is useful:
network.dns.disableIPv6
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.dns.disableIPv6
"Some suggest that setting this preference to true on any OS will speed up connections, though this is probably a placebo effect."
True. Disabling IPv6 helps only on systems that pretend having working ipv6 while they do not.
If you are such case, then configure your OS properly.
I made the changes, and showed a significant increase in load times. Not the effect I expected.
I too would like to know what each of these hacks is doing. Am I sacrificing security for speed? If these additions are so great for performance why aren't they enabled in the first place?
Firefox version Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100330 Fedora/3.5.9-1.fc11 Firefox/3.5.9 on my Fedroa 11 machine doesn't have the entries.
Should I add them?
"2. Inside the Firefox configuration page, scroll down and look for the following entries:
network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
Set their values to “true” by double-clicking each one of them.
3. Next up, find this entry:
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests"
Don
Thank you!
According to the MozillaZine documentation, content.interrupt.parsing must be true for content.switch.threshold to take effect, otherwise content.switch.threshold is effectively 0.
also work in Windows. thanx
Very nice. Could you supply a script to apply these updates to prefs.js? I maintain 7 FF installations, 2 Linux, 5 Win.
Hi, thanks, but I am not a real fan of tweaking without knowing what I am doing, so would anyone mind to explain what exactly does these tweaks do and why is firefox faster after that? Thanks.
network.prefetch-next: false
This stops firefox from downloading pages (linked to on the current page) it thinks you might click on.
Saves bandwidth and speeds up browsing since it's only downloading the page you want (and it's contents.)
Followed your tips, eventhought i would appreciate an explenation of each tip, and it seems to be working...good job...
just use chrome, then you don't have to install extensions and do hacks to get speed
Any ideas how to reset all settings in about:config to default at once?
download plugin "Fasterfox Lite" & set it to "turbo charged" it will do all the above for you and maybe even some other tweaks :)
Awesome it works!
But when u do it and u exit out of firefox when u start it the first time it says its already running... hmm that's weird.
but it stops after the first time :)
my fox got faster..
but not as fast as chrome!
}:(
keren bangeet infonya. thx
Many thanks for sharing :)
I found some interesting post here gulalisweet.co.cc/firefox-faster-load/
its a very simple trick so you can load firefox faster than before.. You should try this it works great on my firefox! the browser would load faster than before
True. Disabling IPv6 helps only on systems that pretend having working ipv6 while they do not. If you are such case, then configure your OS properly.
it's work men...nice,,your the best(^_^)