One of the most under-looked features of Firefox is its ability to run different profiles. This is perfect for various reasons. If more than one person is using the same computer, each person can have a different profile where he can have his own customized Firefox setting - such as extensions or bookmarks.

Another reason to use different profiles is when using FireFox for different purposes. Obviously, most people don’t use every extension every time they use Firefox. However, the fact that the extension is installed makes Firefox startup and run slower than usual. The more extensions you run, the slower Firefox will run.

Use Firefox Profiles for different browsing habits

You can create Firefox profiles for the different browsing habits that you have. For example, if you are a web developer, you can have all extensions for that on one profile, without the unnecessary ones cluttering your Firefox. Likewise, if you want to browse without leaving any trace -”private browsing” - you can have a profile with the extension distrust or stealther and noscript.
For normal browsing, you can have another profile, and so on. This will keep your Firefox neat and fast - leaving only the necessary extensions and bookmarks for their respective purposes.

To use Firefox Profiles, follow these steps:
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1. Go to Start->Run and type:

Firefox -p

ffprofile.gif
2. Click on Create Profile and name it whatever you want (porn mode, work…)
3. Run each profile and set it up exactly how you want it - download the correct extensions and place the bookmarks that you need.

Place desktop shortcuts for each profile:

To create shortcuts for each Firefox profile, put a shortcut for Firefox on your desktop for each profile. So if you have 4 profiles, place 4 shortcuts to Firefox. Right click->Properties on each shortcut and go to the Shortcut tab. In the target field, it will be something like this:

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”

Simply add -p name to the end where name is the name of the profile. So if the profile name is ‘private’ the Target field should look like this:

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -p private

ffprofile21.gif
Do this for every shortcut of Firefox.

Depending on how many extensions you normally use, this can speed up your firefox significantly (especially how long it takes it to start up) because the extensions are spread over more profiles. Also, it’s much less cluttered because you can spread bookmarks also.

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It’s always nice to be able to try numerous different programs that have a similar function, and see which one is the most suitable for you. Opera and Firefox are the perfect example.

It is widely known that Opera is amazing for its out-of-the-box capability: right after the installation, you have a wide variety of tools inside of Opera. On the other hand, Firefox is known to be great for its extensions: people can easily download an addon that is suitable for them (and there is a very long list of addons for Firefox) and use it.

Sometimes, people want to switch from Firefox to Opera, or vice versa to test out some of the features the other has to offer. This list shows some of the most used features that come with Opera, and the extensions for Firefox that offer similar job:

continue reading "Opera’s Built-In Features vs. Firefox’s Equivalent Extensions"

Firefox has been getting a lot of press in the recent years, and for good reasons. The best features of firefox is that it allows its users to increase its functionality with add-ons, like accessing your email faster or auto-filling forms.

Here are LiveSlick’s top 10 Firefox Add-ons:

1. All-in-One Sidebar

Allow’s you to have a sidebar which can open multiple panels. Rather than independently opening your panels like bookmarks, history, and downloads, have them all conveniently stored on your sidebar.

2. Answers

Don’t know what a word means while browsing a website? Want to know more information about a certain topic? The Answers Add-on allows you to alt-click on the word and instantly, you can read more information about that word/topic from answers.com. Very useful, and saves you from opening a new tab and typing the word.

3. Autofill Forms

It gets annoying to having to keep typing the same old information in any sites - name, address, email, zip… Use this Add-on to let firefox automatically input this in for you.

4.Download Statusbar

Don’t like the clutter that the download sidebar brings? Get this Add-on. It conveniently shows any files being dowloaded in firefox above the statusbar.

5. Distrust

Hide any trace of browsing when distrust is enabled. Do you go on a secret website that no one should know about? Enable distrust while you surf it, and it will erase any trace of the website.

6.Greasemonkey

By far, one of the most useful add-ons, if you know how to use it. You can get an infinite amount of greasemonkey scripts which allow you to customize any webpage. Go on user Userscripts.org to search for scripts for your favorite website.

7. IE Tab

Some websites still don’t fully support Firefox. This add-on makes surfing those sites more conveniently by running them in Internet Explorer mode inside Firefox. You never need to run IE again.

8. Scrapbook

Take notes or save tidbits from web pages easily. Highlight a section from a web site, and capture it with scrapbook. It will even save the web page automatically.

Note: You can even add this to the All-in-one sidebar for easy access.

9. Tiny Menu

Replaces the menu bar (file, edit..) with, well… a tiny menu called “Menu”. When clicked, it shows the full menu bar. This declutters the top of your Firefox toolbar so you can add more tools to it.

10.Smart Bookmarks Bar

The perfect addition to tiny menu. This allows you to have bookmarks on the top toolbar. Most importantly, you can set this to only show the web sites icon, without displaying its full name. This gives you room for many bookmarks, and even folders.

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