Firefox Addons
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One of the main attractions of Firefox is seemingly endless, where you can customize its functionality and appearance. There are a number of add-on – mostly extensions and themes – which you can download to allow you to customize and improve Firefox to a large extent. This section describes some of them and is a good introduction to the testing of add-ons for Firefox. Advanced users of Firefox would probably be pretty familiar with this topic and have their favorite add-ons, so this section can not be useful to them.
Installing Add-Ons
There are a huge range of add-ons available for Firefox, and you can search for and download these either directly through the ‘Get Add-ons’ tab in the Add-ons Manager (found under Tools>Add-ons), or you can search and browse for add-ons at the Official Firefox Add-ons Site. With every new version of Firedox, some older extensions and themes may not be completely compatible, so you will not be able to install certain add-ons for that reason.
When installing an add-on, you may receive a prompt. Please pay particular attention to the type of add-on to install, and details provided as to its origins. If in doubt, click Cancel and do more research on the add-on to Google to see that does not cause unexpected problems or safety issues. Add-on Mozilla’s official website linked above should always be safe in terms of security concerns, however, that does not guarantee their stability or functionality, so a little ‘research always helps. However, if you continue with the installation of add-on, the Add-ons Manager opens (if not already open) – its features are covered in more detail below the area ‘Manage add-ons’ of features, Tips and Tricks section.
Every time you install an add-on, once downloaded and installed, will require a restart of Firefox to take effect. Note that this excludes Personas, which do not require a reboot. If a restart is required, this will be clearly indicated in the Add-ons Manager, if you change your mind, before you restart go to the Extensions and Themes, highlight the new add-ons and select Cancel to prevent the installation itself, otherwise restart Firefox and restart the Add-ons Manager will open again to confirm whether the add-on was installed properly, or if there was some problem with the installation.
Following a look at some recommended add-ons you might want to consider.
Extensions
Extensions provide additional functionality in Firefox. Once an extension is installed and Firefox is restarted, you can experience the additional functionality straight away. For troubleshooting purposes I don’t recommend installing too many extensions at once, as this might cause strange behavior in Firefox or affect performance, so gradually install the extensions you need and experiment to determine if they affect performance and/or stability, and only keep the extensions you genuinely need.
Note: If an extension doesn’t work with your current Firefox version, you can still force it to be used by changing both the extensions.checkCompatibility and extensions.checkUpdateSecurity preferences to False – see the Advanced Tweaking section. This is generally not recommended as it may cause problems with some add-ons; it’s best to wait for updated versions of the relevant extensions. To see at a glance how many of the top 95% add-ons for Firefox are currently compatible with the latest version, check this Official Add-On Compatibility Report.
Some of the more useful Firefox extensions which are currently compatible with the latest version of Firefox that you might like to try are listed below, along with brief descriptions:
IE Tab – A few web pages still don’t display correctly on Firefox, or only allow the use of Internet Explorer to view them correctly (e.g. Windows Update in XP). This extension allows you to quickly view a page using the IE rendering engine, in a new tab within Firefox.
NoScript – This extension gives you far greater control over the way Javascript, Java and other executable content is run on various websites. Scripts are notorious for being abused by malicious or annoying websites, and once you’ve added your trusted websites to the list, Noscript will protect you from most malicious or annoying content, also allowing you to toggle script on or off as needed.
Adblock Plus – This extension allows you to block specific ad elements on any web page, preventing them from loading in the future. Remember however that if you block all ads you will eventually contribute to the demise of your favorite sites. Ads are essentially what makes the Internet free to browse, so be cautious with what you block, or alternatively consider donating to sites which you like but for which you block all ads.
DownThemAll – Firefox’s default Download Manager has quite a few features, however you may still have need of a more advanced download utility. DownThemAll makes downloading from multiple links much easier, can improve download speeds, and allows better management of downloaded files such as auto-renaming.
FlashGot – This extension requires one of the supported external download managers, but in turn incorporates the external download manager into Firefox, adding a wide range of functionality not possible with the default Firefox Download Manager.
GreaseMonkey – This extension allows you to completely customize the way any web page looks or behaves. This is done through the use of user-made scripts – you can search and browse through existing scripts here, and find out more about how to create scripts here.
Gmail Notifier – If you use the free Gmail webmail service, this extension allows you to monitor your Gmail account(s) from within Firefox, getting notification of new messages while browsing other sites for example.
Forecastfox – Allows you to display local and international weather forecasts unobtrusively within Firefox. You can also determine how far ahead the forecasts run.
FoxyTunes – This extension lets you control any media player through Firefox, while also giving you access to a wide range of information about the music you are listening to, such as lyrics and videos.
FireGestures – This extension allows you to use mouse gestures – movements of your mouse in particular ways – to activate common browser commands in Firefox, like back, forward and close tab.
This list is in no way comprehensive or representative of all you can do with extensions, it is simply some of the more popular extensions which you may find useful. Each person will have his or her own personal favorites, so I encourage you to start searching through the add-ons to see what you can find.
Themes
Themes change the appearance of Firefox without affecting its functionality. Installation of themes is similar to extensions. As with extensions, many themes may not be designed for use with the latest version of Firefox.
Some of the Themes I personally like which are compatible with Firefox 3.6 include:
Of course themes are highly subjective, so I recommend you spend some time browsing the available themes for yourself to see what else you can find that may be more to your taste.
Personas
New to Firefox 3.6, Personas are a type of theme which are limited to changing only the most basic aspects of Firefox’s appearance without altering the icons or layout of the browser. Since Personas do not involve significant change to the browser, they can be previewed and implemented almost instantly without the need to restart the browser. The best way to get an indication of what Personas can do is to visit the Personas Gallery and hover your mouse over one of the Personas – within seconds your browser will change to preview the Persona, and return to normal the moment you move your mouse away from it. To permanently implement a Persona, click the ‘Wear This’ button which appears when you hover over it, or double-click on it and then click the ‘Wear this’ button.
To remove or manage Personas, look under the Themes tab of the Add-ons manager, and the currently implemented Persona will be listed as a Theme. Click the Uninstall button to remove it, or select another theme to switch. Once again, no restart is required to successfully uninstall a Persona.
To create your own custom Persona, you will need a graphics editing program, and the free Persona Plus Add-on. More details can be found in this Persona FAQ.
Plugins
Plugins provide Firefox with the ability to play or view a range of web-based media, such as PDF documents, animated content, videos or music. If you find that Firefox doesn’t have the plugin required for particular content on the page you are viewing, you will usually be prompted to install the relevant plugin to continue. You can download the most common plugins directly from this section of the Official Mozilla Add-ons Site. Note that if a site prompts you to install a plugin and it is not a 100% trusted and reputable site, I strongly recommend cancelling such attempts until you can find out more about the plugin that is going to be installed. Do a search on Google for example to see what the plugin does, as even if it is not malicious, it may conflict with or slow down your normal browser functionality, or introduce behavior that you don’t like – don’t just assume that having dozens of plugins installed on Firefox is a good thing.
New to Firefox 3.6, because outdated versions of plugins are a known security risk, and are often open to various vulnerabilities, Firefox may warn you if a particular plugin is out of date. Click the ‘Update plugins’ button to obtain the latest version of the outdated plugins. Alternatively, you can manually check and update all your plugins at any time by visiting the official Plugin Check page, or by clicking the ‘Find Updates’ button at the bottom of the Plugin section of the Add-ons Manager.
New to Firefox 3.6.4: A Crash Protection feature has been introduced which prevents Firefox from crashing when a plugin-related problem occurs. Instead the elements of a web page related to the problematic plugin will be disabled. Refreshing the page may resolve the issue, but if the problem continues then you will need to either update the plugin or uninstall it. Note that you can adjust the amount of time a plugin has to be unresponsive before Crash Protection kicks in with the dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs About:Config preference – see the Advanced Tweaking section.
Dictionary & Language Packs
As noted on page 3 of this guide, it is recommended that you install the correct language edition of Firefox for your region. However if you want to install additional dictionary or language pack for Firefox, see this section of the Official Mozilla Add-ons Site.
There are literally thousands of other Firefox add-ons you can download and try for yourself. This is one of Firefox’s strengths – its open source code and large community mean that virtually any kind of feature, function or appearance you desire in a browser is likely to be available somewhere, or is being made as we speak. Of course I must stress once again that if you are experiencing any odd behavior or issues in Firefox, one of the first things you should do is try uninstalling any recent extensions or themes in case they are the cause of the problem.