TyCamTech.com

If you've used Firefox for more than say, a day... you already know about Firefox's memory hogging issues. Plus, you realize that it does load pages quite a bit quicker than IE but still, it could be faster. I am going to share with you some of the common suggestions floating around the internet as well as some not so common ones. Why these are not included as standard settings in Firefox when you install it is anyone's guess. 

Here is how we'll fix some of the memory issues and make it load pages faster all in one fell swoop!

In the Firefox address bar (where you usually enter or see the website address), type in about:config and press enter. You'll get a prompt warning you, says something kooky like 'Here by dragons' or what ever.. just click the button to continue.

The spreadsheet looking page you see next is where the nuts and bolts of Firefox are kept. You can make or break the browser here and also, make the changes that I am about to outline.

Ground Rules First: Not all of what I'm about to tell you are already listed... some of these things will need to be added. You can do that simply by right clicking somewhere and choosing New > but as you'll see, there are 3 choices. Now listen carefully... if you are going to enter that has a true or false setting, it's a Boolean, if you are going to enter something that has letters in it, it's a String and if it's only numbers, it's an Integer. Got that? Easy enough? Ok, let's begin.

This first bunch of settings are for everyone, the bunches below are dependant on your computer speed, and internet speed.

For everyone:

config.trim_on_minimize: true
network.http.pipelining: true
network.http.proxy.pipelining: true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: 8
content.notify.backoffcount: 5
plugin.expose_full_path: true
ui.submenuDelay: 0

So to recap, if it says true, it's a boolean, if it's a number, it's an integer. There are no strings listed yet.

These will increase the number of items you can download at one time, the number of requests to a page you can make at one time, things like that... but the truly magical one is the trim_on_minimize that will cut your ram usage down to 50mb the moment you minimize Firefox, no matter how much ram it's currently using.

 If you have: Fast Computer, Fast Connection

content.interrupt.parsing: true
content.max.tokenizing.time: 2250000
content.notify.interval: 750000
content.notify.ontimer: true
content.switch.threshold: 750000
nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 0
network.http.max-connections: 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server: 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy: 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server: 8
browser.cache.memory.capacity: 65536

A couple settings of note - Firefox is allocated 4096 KB of memory by default and in this configuration we give it roughly 65MB as denoted by the last line. This can be changed according to what is used.

If you have: Fast Computer, Slower Connection

content.max.tokenizing.time: 2250000
content.notify.interval: 750000
content.notify.ontimer: true
content.switch.threshold: 750000
network.http.max-connections: 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server: 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy: 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server: 8
nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 0
browser.cache.memory.capacity: 65536

If you have: Fast Computer, Slow Connection

browser.xul.error_pages.enabled: true
content.interrupt.parsing: true
content.max.tokenizing.time: 3000000
content.maxtextrun: 8191
content.notify.interval: 750000
content.notify.ontimer: true
content.switch.threshold: 750000
network.http.max-connections: 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server: 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy: 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server: 4
nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 0
browser.cache.memory.capacity: 65536

If you have: Slow Computer, Fast Connection

content.max.tokenizing.time: 3000000
content.notify.backoffcount: 5
content.notify.interval: 1000000
content.notify.ontimer: true
content.switch.threshold: 1000000
content.maxtextrun: 4095
nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 1000
network.http.max-connections: 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server: 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy: 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server: 8
dom.disable_window_status_change: true


If you have: Slow Computer, Slow Connection

content.max.tokenizing.time: 2250000
content.notify.interval: 750000
content.notify.ontimer: true
content.switch.threshold: 750000
nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 750
network.http.max-connections: 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server: 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy: 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server: 4
dom.disable_window_status_change: true

Use the one that best suits your situation, but really you can't go wrong with any one of them so don't have any fear of "guessing wrong". They will all help, just some will help more than others.

Make these changes, restart Firefox to ensure that they all are in effect and try browsing around again. You should notice a difference, sometimes large, sometimes smaller but it will make a difference.

If these tips have helped and you'd like to say thank you, please take the time to donate... any amount, no matter how small, is appreciated.