in

Hacks to Make Firefox Faster than Google Chrome

- - 58 comments
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.

58 comments

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very interesting! Could you please provide more informations about what these tweaks do?

    ReplyDelete
  3. DistroListMay 15, 2010

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 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! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. There's a Firefox Add-on called Tweak Network, that a very good job. It's been around for several years...

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is a Firefox Add-on called Tweak Network that has been around for several years now. It does a good job.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 15, 2010

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dugg -> http://digg.com/software/Hacks_to_Make_Firefox_Faster_than_Google_Chrome_TechSource

    ReplyDelete
  9. 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

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousMay 18, 2010

    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."

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousMay 19, 2010

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousMay 19, 2010

    I made the changes, and showed a significant increase in load times. Not the effect I expected.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousMay 19, 2010

    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?

    ReplyDelete
  14. 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

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousMay 20, 2010

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  16. also work in Windows. thanx

    ReplyDelete
  17. Very nice. Could you supply a script to apply these updates to prefs.js? I maintain 7 FF installations, 2 Linux, 5 Win.

    ReplyDelete
  18. LuciusMareMay 23, 2010

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousMay 26, 2010

    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.)

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousMay 27, 2010

    Followed your tips, eventhought i would appreciate an explenation of each tip, and it seems to be working...good job...

    ReplyDelete
  21. just use chrome, then you don't have to install extensions and do hacks to get speed

    ReplyDelete
  22. AnonymousMay 29, 2010

    Any ideas how to reset all settings in about:config to default at once?

    ReplyDelete
  23. download plugin "Fasterfox Lite" & set it to "turbo charged" it will do all the above for you and maybe even some other tweaks :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. 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 :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousJuly 01, 2010

    my fox got faster..
    but not as fast as chrome!
    }:(

    ReplyDelete
  26. AnonymousJuly 11, 2010

    keren bangeet infonya. thx

    ReplyDelete
  27. 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

    ReplyDelete
  28. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  29. it's work men...nice,,your the best(^_^)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Thanks for sharing...I did felt the speed increase! Kudos!

    ReplyDelete
  31. This is Awesome i did this to my laptop and this computer and love it Thanks!!!!!!!!! So much faster almost load pages instantly now.

    ReplyDelete
  32. MY FIREFOX IS FASTER FINALLY... FINALLYFASTER.COM
    LOL DOES THIS CHANGES THREAD MY SECURITY?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Thanks for sharing with us
    photoshop tutorials

    ReplyDelete
  34. Yes it's true! It works. But still... Chrome is mush faster when it comes to ajax oriented applications with complicated javascript. For some reason Chrome's javascript engine outperforms everyone else :(
    Anyway, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  35. it worked! wow! thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  36. its like my firefox is on steroids now.

    ReplyDelete
  37. There is no way "javascript" can be outperformed in one browser to another...because it is just that a script. Chrome is only faster because it uses prefetch options to store data for startup and different scripts while browsing. You can do the same with firefox hacks without creating a prefetch program that is going to slow down your pc boot-up or run in the background during offline use. Chrome sucks, only ignorant people would believe the browser itself is faster. You can compress dll's to make it load just as fast as chrome (without any prefetch -> start learning about start up services on your pc, youtube has some good tutorials search under bootvis)http://www.techsupportalert.com/how_to_make_firefox_faster.htm ......
    These mods will help you run information faster. There are also modifications to help you run script, or the easiest way is to just not run certain types of script unless you really need to visit every website or certain ones

    ReplyDelete
  38. this same mod has been done on IE for years and years

    ReplyDelete
  39. Try Thus One no Need to manually configure your FF Settings, NEW METHOD Speed Up Firefox In one Click..

    Here is the Download link

    http://filestrack.com/evbjws7git4k/NewFirefox_Optimizer.rar.html

    mirror

    http://www.duckload.com/download/1441627/NewFirefox_Optimizer.rar

    ReplyDelete
  40. I'm loving this. Thanks so much. You should really add a facebook like button on here. I don't always like to 'Share' things on there

    ReplyDelete
  41. dang,u are the best it actually made it faster than chrome,hurray

    ReplyDelete
  42. Simply AMAZING!!!!! Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
  43. didn't work for me. firefox 4 is just too fast to be improved.

    ReplyDelete
  44. wow.... i try it..

    thx for this man..

    your the man!!! huray... for you jun.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Only ignorant people use chrome? wtf, i dont want and i dont have the time to read a shitload of websites on how to make my browser go faster! that's why I and other people choose chrome, firefox is good, but chrome is faster, get over it you firefox faggots unless you improve your browser you'll lose all of your users to chrome, opera and ie.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Only ignorant people use chrome? wtf, i dont want and i dont have the time to read a shitload of websites on how to make my browser go faster! that's why I and other people choose chrome, firefox is good, but chrome is faster, get over it you firefox faggots unless you improve your browser you'll lose all of your users to chrome, opera and ie.

    ReplyDelete
  47. AnonymousMay 27, 2011

    THE NEW FIREFOX is a load of rubbish, the previous versions where quick, easy and simple to use, now FIREFOX with the latest update has LOST THE PLOT, now its slower, unstable, and also you have a plugin container.exe which strangles your CPU. In short i loved firefox i wish i never updated to a newer version but now that i have ive gone to chrome. Its fast, simple, quick, and really easy to use.....actually its a breath of fresh air compared to both firefox and i.e. Its EASY, FAST AND SIMPLE..the three keywords when developing a browser, firefox take note.

    ReplyDelete
  48. AnonymousMay 30, 2011

    Great stuff, this is a 10 on the R scale

    ReplyDelete
  49. AnonymousJuly 04, 2011

    great tutorial keep on sharing..,,... a big thanks....

    ReplyDelete
  50. awesome tutorial!!! it really helped my ff to increase its speed ^^

    ReplyDelete
  51. as of Firefox 6 i think this post is obsolete... FF6 is _as_ fast as Chrome, baby!

    ReplyDelete
  52. great share.. thank you a lot

    ReplyDelete
  53. Great tweaks Thanks It really help my slow comp.

    ReplyDelete
  54. really working trick

    ReplyDelete
  55. Big thanks from France, but What is the price to be paid? :)

    ReplyDelete
  56. While I appreciate the intent behind this article, it would be vastly beneficial to explain what each of these changes does. I am hesitant to start editing configuration files unless I know what is affected.

    Secondarily, of course, I am also very eager to learn more about the inner workings of Firefox on my CrunchBang Linux system.

    ReplyDelete