I like Firefox but it’s not as fast as it used to be. This is a comprehensive, safe guide to optimizing Firefox 3.5 for speedy browsing. For each suggestion, your mileage may vary. Before you proceed, create a new profile.

Quit Firefox, run “firefox.exe –profilemanager”, and create a new profile to experiment on. Use the new profile as your default only if your performance improves. Only those changes needed from a default installation are mentioned in this guide.

1. Use an Optimized Build of Firefox

If you’re using Windows, use an optimized build of Firefox 3.5.1 for your processor. Use Swiftfox for Linux.

2. Use Blank Homepage, Default Theme, Minimal Extensions

Set your homepage to about:blank. Use only must-have extensions with the default theme. Use Adblock Plus and Flashblock to block unwanted ads and Flash.

3. Optimize Download Options

In Options->Main, choose a folder for your downloads and save all downloads to it automatically. Close the download window automatically when all downloads are finished. Turn off download history in Options->Privacy, Custom settings for history.

4. Customize Content Type Handling

In Options->Applications, modify the following Content Types:

• Set archive files like .zip, .rar, etc. to Save File. Use your favorite archive program separately to open them.
• Set PDF files to Save File. Use your favorite PDF reader to separately open them.
• Set mailto to use your favorite desktop email client or Gmail/Yahoo webmail account. Sorry, Windows Live/AOL Mail users!
• Change Web Feed from Preview in Firefox to your favorite RSS reader.

In general, open files separately, rather than from within the browser wherever possible.

5. Increase Cache, Reduce History Size

In Options->Advanced->Network, increase Offline Storage (size of the disk cache) to 150 MB.

In Options->Privacy, use Custom settings for history, and reduce length of remembered history to 15 days.

6. Customize General Advanced Options

In Options->Advanced->General->Accessibility:

• Check Search for text when I start typing
• Uncheck Use smooth scrolling
• Turn off spell checker if you ROTFLMAO on forums and don’t aspire to be a writer. Keep it on if you’re looking for a job.
• Uncheck Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup. On Windows, set Firefox as your default browser using Program Access and Defaults.

7. Remove Unused Search Engines

Drop-down In the search box, select Manage Search Engines…, and remove any search engines that you will never use.

8. Clean up bookmarks, avoid Live Bookmarks

If you have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox, you might have dead links, or even duplicate bookmarks. Clean them up using the CheckPlaces Firefox extension, and uninstall after you’re done.

Firefox checks Live Bookmarks every hour for updates. Use a dedicated RSS Reader like Google Reader instead. Delete the preset Latest Headlines Live Bookmark.

9. Performance Enhancing Extensions

If you prefer a nice GUI to tweak advanced settings, use these performance enhancing Firefox extensions. If you are the DIY type, these optimizations (and many more) are covered in the next sections.

• FasterFox 3.8.1 Lite is an (experimental) add-on that lets you choose from four presets (or use a custom profile) to optimize Firefox.
• Tweak Network 1.3 allows you to choose from Default and Power profiles for tweaking network settings in Firefox.

Advanced About:Config Tweaks

The following two sections are advanced Firefox configuration changes that are simple to make. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar in an empty tab. Click ‘I’ll be careful, I promise!’. You can use Firefox’s Safe Mode and select ‘Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults’ to undo any changes you make. Also, entries you change are displayed in bold, and can be reset using the right-click context-menu.

If an entry does not exist, create it by right-clicking on an empty space, selecting New, and choosing the type of entry as listed.

10. Advanced Browser Settings

You can use these recommended values or tweak them as per your system, preference, and browsing habits.

• accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound [Boolean]: Change to False to avoid a sound alert if no match is found when you search for text.
• alerts.totalOpenTime [Integer]: Reduce time to show Download Complete alerts to 2000 (2 seconds).
• browser.bookmarks.max_backups [Integer]: Reduce number of bookmark backups to speed up shutdown from 5 to 2.
• browser.cache.disk.parent_directory [String]: Move your Firefox cache to a disk or partition different from your Windows drive by specifying the folder path here.
• browser.download.manager.openDelay [Integer]: Don’t open Downloads window for very short downloads. Set to 2000 (2 second delay).
• browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo [Integer]: Reduce number of closed tabs you can undo from 10 to 4.
• browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo [Integer]: Reduce number of closed windows you can undo from 3 to 1.
• browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab [Boolean]: Change to False, so that Firefox doesn’t accidentally shut down when you close the last tab.
• browser.urlbar.maxRichResults [Integer]: Reduce maximum number of results in Awesome Bar from 12 to 6.
• dom.popup_maximum [Integer]: Reduce maximum number of simultaneous popups from 20 to 3 or 5.
• security.dialog_enable_delay [Integer]: Reduce delay to wait before installing a new extension to 1000 (1 second). Setting to zero is not recommended because of security risks.

11. Advanced Network Settings

These changes are recommended for broadband users with at least a 2 Mbps (256 kB/s) connection.

• network.dnsCacheEntries [Integer]: Increase number of DNS entries cached from default 20 to 512.
• network.dnsCacheExpiration [Integer]: Increase number of seconds DNS entries are cached from default 60 to 3600.
• network.dns.disableIPv6 [Boolean]: Disable IPv6 if your ISP doesn’t support it (most don’t).
• network.http.max-connections [Integer]: Increase maximum number of simultaneous connections to 48 or 96.
• network.http.max-connections-per-server [Integer]: Increase maximum connections per server from default 15 to 24.
• network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server [Integer]: Increase maximum persistent connections per server from default 6 to 12.
• network.http.pipelining [Boolean]: Change to True to enable HTTP Pipelining.
• network.http.pipelining.maxrequests [Integer]: Increase from default 4 to 8.
• network.prefetch-next [Boolean]: This specifies whether Firefox pre-fetches web pages (and associated cookies) even before you visit them. It is most frequently used to pre-load the first result of a Google search. If you want to improve security and don’t want Firefox to load pages you never actually visit, change this to False. See the FAQ for more information.

(Some of these tips are via Tweakguides Firefox Tweak Guide)

(By) Mahendra is an Editor at Techmeme, tweets as @ScepticGeek and blogs at Skeptic Geek.

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I am a download junkie. I have to schedule downloads to start late at night (because of the Internet Plan). So, naturally I am a huge fan of any auto shutdown software that has the ability to shutdown the computer once the downloads are complete.

Most download managers have it, µtorrent has it and they are perfect for my need. There has always been a great void in this setup due to Firefox. Many a time, I have files downloading in Firefox but no way to auto-shutdown the computer. Some time back, I hacked together an auto script that would sit there and wait for the Firefox’s ‘Downloads finished’ notification to appear, it would then close Firefox and shutdown the computer. Lame I know, but it did the trick.

Recently, however, I found an excellent addon that lets you do schedule auto shutdowns in Firefox and a whole lot more, its (aptly) called Auto-Shutdown. The addon is auto shutdown software that provides you with a number of options to perform precisely the action you want once the downloads have completed. You can play sounds, clear downloads, shutdown, logoff, restart your computer or run any command or multiple commands through a script.

Auto Shutdown is available at AMO, it works with Firefox version 3 and upwards. Once installed, the auto shutdown software will add a power icon to the status bar. You can remove the icon if you desire, however it provides quick access to its options and can be used to enable auto-shutdown in a flash.

You can use the built-in commands for basic needs like shutdown, hibernate, stand by, etc. There are different versions of these commands for different version of Windows and Linux and Mac.

Apart from the built-in commands you can do almost anything with Auto Shutdown. You can run any JavaScript code or any external application when the downloads finish or when the computer is idle while Firefox is downloading the files. To run custom commands or JavaScript code:

• Go to the Customize tab within Auto Shutdown settings.
• Type in your code in the lower text area surrounded by <javaScript> </javaScript> tags or <shell> </shell> tags depending on what you are planning to achieve.

• Click Save As and assign the script to User Command 1 or User Command 2

• Choose User Command 1 or User Command 2 from Adjust shutdown Command drop down list towards the top.

You can easily pass arguments to external applications and Auto Shutdown also provides you with certain reserved words that can be used in your scripts to refer to special locations and files. %sysRoot%, for example, refers to the Windows/system32 directory and %WinD refers to the Windows directory. The complete list is available here.

You can also choose the amount of time Auto Shutdown waits before executing the commands after the downloads have finished. Auto Shutdown will display a countdown for that specified time, allowing you to save any work if you have been working along or cancel the download altogether. You can force Firefox to exit when the command is eventually triggered and choose to restore the session, the next time Firefox is started. If you use DownThemAll, Auto Shutdown has you covered and can monitor DownThemAll as well.

Auto Shutdown is a dream come true if you ever leave the computer running only to let the downloads complete. With Auto Shutdown, you can now automatically close the browser or shutdown the system when downloads complete. Give it a spin and let us know what you like or dislike.

Do you have some clever ways of your own to automatically shutdown the computer after downloads complete? Let us know in the comments.

(By) Varun Kashyap – Programmer, Blogger and Tech Enthusiast, who tweets @VarunKashyap and blogs about tips, tricks and latest on the web at TechCrazy Blog

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With all the fanfare surrounding the release of Firefox 3 and the setting of a new world record for downloads, the fact that many people are having problems with Firefox instability seemed to get lost in the shuffle… so I decided to write up a list of troubleshooting methods that might help solve your problems.

There’s a number of reasons for Firefox 3 crashing, which could include any of these, or be something else:

• Incompatible or Buggy Extensions
• Buggy Plugins
• Upgrading an Old 2.x Profile to 3.0 (using a fresh profile works best)
• Spyware/Viruses
• Compatibility Problems with XP
• Video Card Drivers (Make sure you are not using old drivers)
• Tablet PC Incompatibility
• Sneezing loudly

You’ll have to read through the article and go through the steps that might apply to you… the last, and potentially best, option is to completely uninstall Firefox and remove all your profile folders, and then install it again, which we’ve covered below.

Run in Safe Mode

One of the first troubleshooting steps you can do is to run Firefox in Safe Mode, which will run without add-ons or extensions. Just look in your start menu, and you’ll see an item for it:

or alternatively, from the command line:

firefox.exe -safe-mode

If Firefox no longer crashes while running in Safe Mode, then you know you have an issue with one of the following:

• Plugins
• Extensions
• Settings
• Profile

If safe mode does not solve your issue, then you should try to use compatibility mode (mentioned below), and do the uninstall completely and reinstall method. You should also check the “Other Known Issues” section below.

Create a New Profile (if Safe Mode Fixes Your Issue)

Open up a command prompt, or simply type in the full path to firefox.exe, and add on the -profilemanager switch at the end to launch the Firefox “Choose User Profile” screen, where you can create a new profile or switch to a different one.

firefox.exe -profilemanager

Creating a new profile will give you a “blank slate”, where you might have less issues. You can export your bookmarks from the current profile and then import them into the new profile (covered below).

Note: This method usually solves any problems caused by upgrading an old profile to a new one.

Disable Unnecessary Plugins

One of the quickest ways to crash Firefox (or any browser) is to run with a plugin that is causing problems. Open up Tools \ Add-ons, and then go to the Plugins tab, and disable anything you don’t actually use.

For troubleshooting purposes, you could just disable all of them… this is especially helpful when Safe Mode fixes the issue. If Firefox works fine after disabling all the Plugins, then you can enable them one by one until you figure out which one caused the errors.

Note: For me, disabling Silverlight fixed a lot of the crashing issues.

Disable Unnecessary Extensions

In the same screen as above, you can also disable extensions. If running in Safe mode keeps you from crashing, you should go through and disable all your extensions, and then enable them one at a time until you find the one causing the problem.

Clear Out the Caches

There’s a known problem with the download history becoming corrupted and causing crashes when trying to download files. You can just open up the Clear Private Data from the tools menu, and clear out all of the junk at once.

This is a good idea to do every so often anyway, and it can’t hurt.

XP Users: Run Firefox in Compatibility Mode

Some Windows XP users might experience crashing issues that can be solved by using Compatibility Mode. Just right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties, then the Compatibility tab.

Set the compatibility back to Windows 2000, and it might solve the crashing issues for you. Note that setting compatibility in Vista doesn’t seem to help as much in my testing… but your mileage may vary.

Do NOT Use the Tablet PC Input Panel (or OnScreen Keyboard)

I’ve had crashing problems for the last few months, starting from beta 2 and continuing all the way through the release. The infuriating thing was that I could copy the profile to another machine, and it would work fine. I’d create a blank profile, run in safe mode… and Firefox would crash on me every 2 minutes.

I finally figured out the problem… I’ve got a Wacom Intuos3 tablet hooked up to my computer, which enables the Tablet PC Input Panel in Vista, which caused the problem even if it was docked in the background.

The second I disabled that panel, Firefox stopped crashing. If you have the same issue, you can test by opening up Services and setting that service to disabled:

You can also remove Tablet PC components from the Add / Remove Windows Components in Control Panel. I’ve also heard of problems with the standard on-screen keyboard, but I haven’t confirmed those.

Note: I tested this out on two machines… same exact issue. It’s very frustrating, because I really liked having the tablet components.

Other Known Issues

There are some known issues that have already been solved by the good folks over at Mozilla, including these:

• System Clock is Off
• Particular Plugins or Extensions that are known to be incompatible.
• Old versions of Google Desktop
• Corrupted Downloads cache (solved above)
• Crashes viewing Yahoo! Mail (solution)

For more information, you can always check the mozillaZine page and the Firefox support page covering crashing issues.

Completely Uninstall, then Reinstall Firefox

This is the last, but best option. What we’ll do is completely uninstall Firefox, and then even clear out the profile folders to make sure there are no traces of any old or broken installations, and then we’ll reinstall.

The first thing you want to do, of course, is make sure that you have backups of everything… so keep reading.

Manually Backup Your Bookmarks and Saved Passwords

I always like to manually backup the two things I’m worried about: my saved passwords and my bookmarks. We can easily backup the bookmarks from Firefox directly, but to backup the passwords we’ll need to first install the Password Exporter extension (provided that Firefox doesn’t crash too soon)

Once you’ve installed it, open the Add-ons window and click the Options button on the extension.

Now you can simply export the passwords using the button (and encrypt if you so choose).

To backup the bookmarks, open up the Organized Bookmarks item on the menu, and choose Backup from the “Import and Backup” button/menu.

Make sure to save both of the files out to a safe place before continuing.

Backing Up with MozBackup

You can also backup your entire profile using the MozBackup utility, which I highly recommend, since you can make sure that you have a total backup of everything in your profile. It’s a simple matter of choosing Firefox in the first screen…

Then choose which profile to backup, if you have more than one… note that the default save location appears to be under “Documents”

Then choose what you actually want to backup… I’d recommend just backing everything up.

Note that if you use this to restore later, there’s some chance that the problem would re-appear because the issue is in a setting. Thankfully we can choose exactly which settings to restore from the file, so there’s no harm in backing everything up.

Uninstall Firefox

Depending on your operating system, you’ll either have to go into Add/Remove programs or “Uninstall Programs”, then find Mozilla Firefox in the list, and choose Uninstall.

Now you’ll want to get rid of any saved profiles, since the problem could likely be there. In XP or Vista, you can find your Profile folder by typing the following into the location bar (other operating systems can check here)

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\

Now what you’ll want to do is either just move that folder somewhere else, or you could outright delete it if you were so bold. I prefer to move it somewhere else in case I need the files again.

Install Firefox Again

Now you can simply install Firefox again, and start over with a completely clean slate. To import your passwords or bookmarks, just use the same menus that you used above to backup, but choose the restore options instead.

Hopefully one of these solves your problem… if you have another solution, be sure to leave it in the comments to help others that might be experiencing something you’ve solved.

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Apple today released the first public beta of Safari 4, which sports a redesigned interface that resembles Google’s Chrome, as well as support for all of the major Internet standards, and a large range of new and enhanced features. Among these new features are a reimagined start page with a speed-dial interface similar to what Opera and Chrome are currently offering, a Cover Flow-like interface for browsing your bookmarks and history, and the ability to perform a full-text history search of your bookmarks.

Overall, Safari 4 feels a lot like the love child of iTunes and Google Chrome. It takes some of the best UI elements of both and mashes them up in a browser that can now easily compete with Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – though, of course, it does lack the third-party developer ecosystem that has sprung up around Firefox.

Granted, most of the new features in Safari 4 are not exactly new, but, as Apple does so often, it exceeds at putting all of these features together in a very attractive package.

New Features

Just like Chrome, Safari 4 has moved its tabs all the way to the top of the browser window. Apple, however, did not copy Google’s unified search and address bar but stuck with the more traditional separation of the two.

Cover Flow

The new Cover Flow interface for bookmarks and your browser history is partly just eye-candy, but it also does work surprisingly well and can come in handy when you just remember the layout of a page, but not the exact name. The interface displays a screenshot of the bookmarked pages. Secure pages are blacked out.

Top Sites

The speed-dial startup page, named ‘Top Sites’ by Apple, is quite similar to what we have seen from Google and Opera. The page is generated automatically, based on the sites you visit most often, but Safari 4 also allows you to rearrange items on the page and pin certain sites to the page, so that they won’t disappear even if you don’t visit them as frequently. You can set Top Sites to display 6, 12, or 24 pages. Top Sites will also notify you when a page has been updated.

Full History Search

Safari now also features a ‘full history search,’ which not only remembers the page titles and URLs you went to, but also indexes the text from every page you visit. It should be noted that Opera also offers full history search.

Performance

In our informal tests, running the Sunspider JavaScript benchmarks, Safari beat out Firefox 3.0.6 by a wide margin (800ms vs. 2280ms), though the latest developer version of Chrome came out on top (617ms). While using the browser, however, it didn’t feel like there was a significant difference between Chrome and Safari 4. Emails in Gmail opened almost instantly, and even complex pages rendered very quickly.

Safari on Windows

On Windows machines, Safari finally feels like a native application that mostly blends into the environment – though the plain gray background still makes it stand out a bit.

Developer Tools

Safari 4 now includes a wide range of developer tools. Among those are a new resources pane, a tools for managing databases, and a JavaScript debugger and profiler.

Verdict

Safari 4 is a significant update to Apple’s browser. In terms of features and usability, it might actually now be ahead of most of its competition, and Safari’s performance is on par or better than its competition as well. Where it lacks, however, is in its support for third-party plugins (though the existing plugins do tend to be of a rather high quality). For mainstream users, this is often not an issue, and these users will be more than happy with Safari. As you would expect from Apple, Safari’s user interface is extremely well thought out, and features like Top Sites or the full history search make it a browser that is both functional and fun to use.

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Soon after our first impression on the Internet Explorer 8 RC1, we decided to do the inevitable, a browser comparison with long time rivals Firefox, Opera, and the latest kid on the block, Chrome.

Note that this is not a review to find out which amongst these is the best browser around. It would be unwise to do such a comparison because, eventually, it boils down to personal choices, and for the same reason, there will always be controversy and related chest thumping about how “my” browser betters “yours.” Therefore, this is just a rehash of the features and drawbacks of these four mainstream browsers available as of today.

Internet Explorer 8

Let us talk about the latest release initially, the Internet Explorer 8 RC 1.  While it would be difficult for power users to switch back to something as mundane as IE8, folks over at Microsoft seem to have worked hard to make the browser appealing to users who have long ago ditched it and had switched to the likes of Firefox and Opera. As to how far it has succeeded in bringing back the deserters is anybody’s guess. Features like web slices, accelerators, and visual search have been added, making the browser an attractive option for the average user. IE8 with its beta version was also one of the first to debut the Private Browsing mode, which back then was unavailable on the Firefox and still not available on Opera. Safari was the first to introduce Private Browsing.

However, IE8 still suffers from inherent faults that come to the fore the moment you click download. The installation exe is a mammoth 16MB file – second only to Chrome probably, which incidentally uses an online installer. The installation procedure also involves a couple of instances of restarting the computer making the process look regressive as compared to the faster approach the others have. The installation takes a good part of 10 minutes if your system happens to be up-to-date with all available Windows Updates – you better have a uber fast PC! If you do not frequently update your PC, you might as well end up with irritating messages.

C’mon Microsoft, all I want to do is to just browse the Internet!

Did Microsoft say that they did some tweaking to the rendering engine? Maybe, but most pages are a whole lot slower to load as compared to Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. As mentioned in our first look article, an ACID test performed on the browser gave a dismal score of 20 – the lowest amongst all the others tested here. While these standards may not represent anything, it does show the browser underpinnings. And no, there is still no sign of a download manager anywhere.

So, should or rather will the power users make the switch? No way, until Microsoft rehashes the product ground up! The browser is moving in the right direction and will definitely appeal to average users who still prefer the charm of the good ol’ Internet Explorer. Those used to the likes of Firefox, Chrome, or Opera will be happy to stick to their choices now.

Firefox 3

The world’s second most popular browser is continuing its march to topple the gentle giant from Microsoft and has been successfully eating into IE’s market share for the past few years. Major pluses for Firefox users are the variety of add-ons that make it more of an application, rather than just a browser. The version in question here is the latest stable release – version 3.0.5. The quickness of the installation procedure is evident from the moment you update it. The installation file is just over 7MB in size, making it less than half IE8’s size. An ACID3 test on the browser revealed a decent score of 71/100. Note that the latest beta version, 3.1 Beta2, has added Private Browsing and some other features as well, but we’re not considering it until the final version is out.

Apart from appealing to the advanced user thanks to its customization and add-ons, what makes it the choice for average users is the fast rendering and ease of use. While it might be difficult for many to be weaned away from the default Internet Explorer, most people are hooked once they start using this browser. A vast majority of tech users are Firefox users and we did see a lot of responses praising Firefox for its simplicity, security, ease of use, and not to mention, the add ons. However, Private Browsing has still not found its way in,

Opera 9.63

Another contender for the best browser around is none other than Opera. Although the market share might tell a different story, Opera is still considered by many to be the best browser around. While Mozilla users may swear about the add-ons, Opera users counter the claim by saying that Opera manages to do what most Firefox add-ons can, out of the box. Additionally, if Firefox has add-ons, Opera does come with its widgets and, not to mention, the mouse gestures. The latest stable version managed an Acid 3 score of 85/100. Opera was also touted to be the fastest browser around for the past few years and dedicated Opera fans still swear by the browser. Opera also has features like the speed dial, skins, and an entirely new browser engine.

Google Chrome

Google created a flutter in the browser circles back in September when it announced the release of the Chrome, the company’s first open source browser. Months after its launch, Chrome too has managed to garner a dedicated set of users. Chrome seems to thrive on Google’s concept of simplicity, and the best thing about the browser is its rather large viewing area. It does away with unwanted toolbars taking away the screen real estate. Chrome also managed to graduate to a stable version back in December, barely three months after its beta release. One thing you might not like is the installation procedure

The browser had the Incognito mode (Private mode) right from the beta stage, and has integrated the function quite neatly. The startup and load times are also fast. While Chrome is still very crude for advanced users, its open source pedigree works in its favor. Once the browser starts supporting add-ons, there are a sizable number of people ready to make the switch. There are also some users who use Chrome for its simplicity, as a barebones browser.

What browser do you use? Have you tried the IE8 RC 1 yet? Chrome users: How long have you been using it and is the wait for the first add-on making you impatient? Firefox users might be glad to find the private browsing mode in the latest beta – but couldn’t the feature have arrived a tad earlier? As for the Opera, will it ever be able to shrug off its niche tag -  do you prefer to remain with a niche browser?

Source: TechTree

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Microsoft made available to the public the results of a “browser measuring contest” involving Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.05 and Google Chrome 1.0. What the Redmond company did was to measure the browser load times for the top 25 websites worldwide. In the software company’s own comparison, IE8 managed to come out on top of its rivals, besting the open source Firefox and Chrome which were released in 2008, and not the current 3.1/3.5 version of Firefox or the 2.0 flavor of Chrome. But the real question is does it matter?

Obviously, Microsoft is rather a new comer to the browser measuring game. Simply because Internet Explorer, while considered by rival browser makers a reference point, never actually needed to compare itself to competitive products, especially from the perspective of the dominant browser on the market. IE continues to account for the lion’s share when it comes down to browser usage share worldwide, but Firefox has made a dent in its dominance that is harder and harder to ignore. And fact is that for the first time in the long life of Internet Explorer, Microsoft has a release that it’s worth comparing, as it is bound to score at least on par with rivals, if not even best them in certain scenarios.

“Did you know that IE 8 Loads faster than Firefox 3.05 and Chrome 1.0 on the top 25 popular web sites? Is the faster on 5 out of the top 10 sites; 12 of the top 25; 3 times as many as Firefox; and 1/3 more than Chrome,” revealed Microsoft’s Rob Margel. The table included on the left, from the “Measuring Browser Performance: Understanding issues in benchmarking and performance analysis” study, contains all the results published by Microsoft.

“In line with the testing guidelines outlined in this paper we have used the browser “Done” indicator for timing when the page is completely loaded at that point. For pages which continue to load and change after the “Done” indication we have used common visual cues to generate the timings. Timing is started when the Go button is pressed. These timings were captured in January 2009; because Internet content is always changing you may get different timings when you run these tests,” Microsoft revealed.

The question remains. Does it matter that Google.com is loaded in 0.28 seconds by Chrome, 0.22 seconds by Firefox and 0.20 seconds by IE8? What does a mere 0.02-second difference in browser load times represent to the end user? Well, absolutely nothing. You would need a high speed camera just to notice the difference. And at the same time, differences such as 5.48 seconds for Chrome, 6.37 seconds for Firefox and 8.03 seconds for IE8 when loading Sina.com.cn are more than visible, and irking to the end users. Still, what Microsoft does is establishing that benchmarking is in no way representative of real-life.

“Many benchmarking tests cite results from tools such as SunSpider, Celtic Kane, V8 and iBench. Each is designed, at least in some way, to test only a portion of the end-user scenario. SunSpider primarily tests JavaScript performance and also some other popular functions used on websites today. Other popular benchmarks, Celtic Kane and V8, are also geared at testing only the JavaScript engine. Meanwhile, the iBench suite relies on a browser reporting when it’s finished loading a page. Since browsers differ on when they define a page is done loading, this test also yields unreliable results,” the company stated.

Fact is that any measurement performed involving browsers has to take into account a multitude of variables from caching behavior, to overhead and resource competition, but also connectivity and network device latency, Internet-based data, browser-targeted content, machine configurations, inconsistent definitions, and even extensibility. In this context, benchmarks and benchmark results remain largely a marketing tool more than anything else. Due to the sometimes minute differences between the browser load times in the tests performed by Microsoft, with some minor tweaks, rival browser makers Mozilla and Google could turn the same set of tests to their advantage easily. Such a situation certainly diminishes the relevance of browser measuring contests.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is available for download list:

External Mirror 1 – For Vista/2008 x86 [EXE]

External Mirror 2 – For Vista/2008 x64 [EXE]

External Mirror 3 – For Windows XP x86 [EXE]

External Mirror 4 – For Windows XP/2003 x64 [EXE]

External Mirror 3 – For Windows 2003 x86 [EXE]

GERMAN Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

GERMAN Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

SPANISH Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

SPANISH Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

ITALIAN Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

ITALIAN Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

TURKISH Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

TURKISH Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

DUTCH Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

DUTCH Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

DANISH Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

DANISH Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

POLISH Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

POLISH Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

PORTUGUESE Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

PORTUGUESE Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

JAPONESE Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

JAPONESE Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

KOREAN Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

KOREAN Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

FRENCH Installer For Windows XP [EXE]

FRENCH Installer For Windows Vista & Server 2008 [EXE]

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• How to Double Firefox Speed

Firefox is in my opinion the best browser ever made until now. It includes:
-improved tabbed browsing
-pop up blocking
-integrated Goggle search
-enhanced privacy controls
-built-in phishing protection
-online spell checking
-lots of themes, interfaces, and extensions/addons

Mozilla Firefox officially supports:
-Microsoft Windows
-Linux
-Mac OS X

Unofficial Support:
-Free BSD
-OS/2
-Solaris
-SkyOS
-BeOS
-XP Professional x64 Edition

Now here are some Tips&Tricks that can help you double the speed of Firefox.

1. Type about:config in the address bar and then press Enter.

2. In the filter search bar type network.http.pipelining. Be sure the value field is set true,if not double-click to set true.

HTTP is the application-layer protocol that most web pages are transferred with. In HTTP 1.1, multiple requests can be sent before any responses are received. This is known as pipelining. Pipelining reduces page loading times, but not all servers support it.

3. Go back to the filter search bar and type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests. Double-click this option and set its value to 8.

4. In the filter search bar and type network.http.proxy.pipelining. Once opened double-click on it and set it to true.

5. In IPv6-capable DNS servers, an IPv4 address may be returned when an IPv6 address is requested. It is possible for Mozilla to recover from this misinformation, but a significant delay is introduced.
Type network.dns.disableIPv6 in the filter search bar and set this option to true by double clicking on it.

6. CONTENT INTERRUPT PARSING
This preference controls if the application will interrupt parsing a page to respond to UI events. It does not exist by default.
Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu. Then:

A. Enter content.interrupt.parsing in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK

B. When prompted to choose the value for the new boolean, select true and click OK.

7. Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will regularly render what has been received to that point. This option controls the maximum amount of time the application will be unresponsive while rendering pages.

Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.

A. Enter content.max.tokenizing.time in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK

B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 2250000 and click OK.

8. CONTENT NOTIFY INTERVAL

This option sets the minimum amount of time to wait between reflows. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.

A. Type content.notify.interval in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.

B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 750000 and click OK.

9. CONTENT NOTIFY ONTIMER

A. This option sets if to reflow pages at an interval any higher than that specified by content.notify.interval. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu.

B. Type content.notify.ontimer in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK.

9. CONTENT NOTIFY ONTIMER

A. This option sets if to reflow pages at an interval any higher than that specified by content.notify.interval. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu.

B. Type content.notify.ontimer in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK.

C. You will be prompted to choose the value for the new boolean. Select true and click OK.

10. Notify Backoffcount
This option controls the maximum number of times the content will do timer-based reflows. After this number has been reached, the page will only reflow once it is finished downloading. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.

A. Enter content.notify.backoffcount in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.

B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 5 and click OK.

11. CONTENT SWITCH THRESHOLD
You can interact with a loading page when content.interrupt.parsing is set to true. When a page is loading, the application has two modes: a high frequency interrupt mode and a low frequency interrupt mode. The first one interrupts the parser more frequently to allow for greater UI responsiveness during page load.

The low frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser less frequently to allow for quicker page load. The application enters high frequency interrupt mode when you move the mouse or type on the keyboard and switch back to low frequency mode when you had no activity for a certain amount of time. This preference controls that amount of time. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.

A. Enter content.switch.threshold in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.

B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 750000 and click OK.

12. NGLAYOUT INITIALPAINT DELAY
Mozilla applications render web pages incrementally, they display what’s been received of a page before the entire page has been downloaded. Since the start of a web page normally doesn’t have much useful information to display, Mozilla applications will wait a short interval before first rendering a page. This preference controls that interval. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.

A. Enter nglayout.initialpaint.delay in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.

B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 0 and click OK.

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• IE8 Faster than Firefox 3.05 and Chrome 1.0