Mozilla Firefox Optimization

Hello All

Are there ways to optimize Mozilla Firefox browser? I have a Windows XP Home Ed PC, SP2, Pentium IV 1300 mHz, 1.3 Ghz, 256Mb RAM with a cable modem. I run Mozilla 5.0 Firefox 1.0.7 as my browser, and notice the following:

* It takes a few moments to load up and seems to process a lot
of files while opening (based on Bitdefender File Zone scan)
* It uses 30MB or more of RAM when running idle, more if I'm doing
multiple tabs surfing
* It sometimes won't shutdown when closed and I have to use
End Process in Task Manager to shut it down

I notice there are a number of options one can choose from the Options menu and Compatibility tab under Properties. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks! - Bob

 

I have also noted the same issues...
not really that much of an inconvenience, small price to pay for added security..

 

This is supposed to make a difference:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4801

FF has a history of memory issues; I uninstalled it and switched to Flock.

 

I would recommend FireTune over Fasterfox (linked to by star17), sometimes Fasterfox actually slows browsing. If you'd rather try applying tweaks manually, one at a time, instead of in a package, see tweakguides.com/Firefox

Firefox does take several seconds to start, for most users, but if it's an excessively long time there might be a problem with your installation. Was your HDD defragmented before you installed Firefox? If not, Firefox may have been installed in a fragmented manner. The Firefox installer is notorious for this, and it can slow loading of the browser. If you think this could be a problem, uninstall Firefox, defrag, then re-install. Your bookmarks and settings won't be affected, they're located in your Firefox profile folder, which is not touched by uninstalling.

30+ MB of RAM usage is quite normal, though.

 

I also noticed you're only running 256mb RAM. I highly suggest looking into adding at least another 256mb, as everything on your computer will run faster. XP really needs at least 512mb.

 

I noticed a few Firefox threads here have people complaining about how much memory Firefox takes up. This is a known memory leak, and the Mozilla guys haven't gotten around to fixing it for whatever reason. But there's no reason your Firefox should take up 70,000K in memory, so here's how to fix that memory leak and keep Firefox from bloating up.

1. Open a new tab. Type "about:config" without quotes into the address bar and hit enter/click Go.

2. Right-click anywhere, select New, then Integer. In the dialog prompt that appears, type:

browser.cache.memory.capacity

3. Click OK. Another dialog prompt will appear. This is where you decide how much memory to allocate to Firefox. This depends on how much RAM your computer has, but generally you don't want to allocate too little (under 8MB), but if you allocate too much, you might as well not do this. A good recommended setting is 16MB. If you want 16MB, enter this value into the dialog prompt:

16384

(Why 16384 instead of 16000? Because computers use base-12 counting. Thus 16 megabytes = 16384 bytes. Likewise, if you want to double that and allocate 32MB, you'd enter 32768.)

4. Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart. If your Firefox still uses the same amount of memory, give it a few minutes and it should slowly clear up. If that fails, try a system reboot.