MakeUseOf Directory » Browsers (Firefox

Waterfox: Faster 64-bit Firefox Variant [Windows]

Israel Nicolas — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:01:26 +0000

Firefox is a browser known for its breadth of plugins and add-ons, as well as a strong open-source community behind it. However, one aspect where Firefox lags compared to the competition is browsing speed out of the box. I find myself using Chrome as my default browser over Firefox since Chrome just feels so much snappier. But if you want the speed that equals Chrome while keeping the functionality of Firefox, you can try out Waterfox, a 64-bit variant for Firefox that is built for speed.

Waterfox is pretty much vanilla once installed. But you can add your Firefox extensions to Waterfox and still maintain its speedy performance. This browser is also optimized for Windows – providing a snappier performance for your 64-bit system.

Browser plugins such as Flash and Silverlight are also coded to work speedily with Waterfox. So if you are still going through hoops to speed up your Firefox, you can either do that or just start from scratch with Waterfox.

Features:

64-bit variant of Firefox.
Optimized for speed.
Plugins available from Waterfox website.
Most Firefox extensions work.
Works in Windows only.

Check out Waterfox @ http://waterfoxproj.sourceforge.net

Visual Hashing: Color Cues To Prevent Misspelled Passwords

Israel Nicolas — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:01:14 +0000

Having to type out your password is a typical roadblock when browsing the web, and it becomes doubly annoying when we end up mistyping our passwords. If you have a long password, then the chances are you will get your passwords wrong a lot. Visual Hashing is a free extension for Firefox/Chrome that provides visual cues to let you know whether you are typing your password correctly or not.

Visual Hashing works by displaying colored boxes as you type on the password field. Different passwords will also have unique color combinations. If you type the password long enough, you should be able to remember the color combination and later notice if the colors are off if you misspelled your password.

Visual Hashing is very useful if you have a long password with different character sets, making sure that you always have the correct password typed-in before you click “log-in”.

Features:

Extension for Chrome and Firefox.
Prevent misspelled password with color cues.
Remember color cues before clicking log-in.
Needs to be used a lot to be very useful.

Check out Visual Hashing @ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lkoelcpcjjehbjcchcbddggjmphfaiie?hl=en-US for Chrome or https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/visual-hashing for Firefox

Theme Font & Size Changer: Easily Customize Fonts Of Firefox’s User Interface

MOin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:09:27 +0000

While many of us like Firefox’s default font selection for its interface, people with impaired eyesight might want to customize the fonts according to their own preferences. This is something that a tool called “Theme Font & Size Changer” lets you do.

“Theme Font & Size Changer” is a browser add-on for Mozilla Firefox. The add-on lets you customize the fonts of Firefox’s user interface. These fonts include the tab title, menu entries, and the fonts in Firefox’s Options window. After installation of the add-on, you will find a new icon in the bottom right corner of the browser. Clicking on it will open up a dialog box where you can change the font type, font size, style, and weight. The changes are applied as soon as you select them; they can be reverted anytime by selecting the “Normal” option for every field.

Features:

A user-friendly browser add-on.
Compatible with Mozilla Firefox.
Lets you customize fonts of Firefox’s user interface.
Lets you control font type, size, style, and weight.
Applies font changes to tab title, menu, and Options window.

Check out “Theme Font & Size Changer” @ barisderin.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)

Memory Restart: Quickly Restart Firefox When It Starts Consuming A Lot Of Memory

Umar — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:01:45 +0000

Web browsers often slow down after being left open for a long time. Mozilla Firefox is no different. Fortunately for Firefox users however, there is an add-on called Memory Restart that provides an effective solution to the problem.

Memory Restart is a free tool coming in the form of a Firefox extension. The add-on lets you set a memory threshold. The add-on also places an icon in Firefox’s address bar. You can set the icon colors for the browser being under and over your set memory threshold which, by default, is 500MB. You can click on the icon to quickly restart Firefox; alternatively you can set the add-on to automatically restart Firefox once the memory threshold is reached.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Lets you set a memory threshold for Firefox.
Lets you quickly restart Firefox.
Can automatically restart Firefox once memory threshold is reached.

Check out Memory Restart @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-restart (By Umar from TechCityInc)