Firefox 4 is now available as a beta version and can be downloaded by the users for surfing and browsing the web. This browser from Mozilla needs no special introduction as every regular internet users are already aware of it and is widely acclaimed across the globe. Although very popular, the Firefox browser have some known issues as well as remains quite heavy on resources as opposed to other popular web browsers of its kind like Google Chrome which competes equally to register its presence among the best browsers available for use. Firefox though performs well on most occasions, it sometimes appear to slow things down and hence needs attention to tweak various internal settings for making it faster and thereby improve the overall performance of the browser.



There are a few steps which can answer to your query as how to speed up Firefox 4 web browser and make it work faster under Windows operating system. These steps although very easy to follow, however requires certain level of expertise on part of the user to deal with the various internal settings. But you need not have to worry much regarding this as the various steps involved are carefully and clearly highlighted in the steps below for you to make use of without much effort.


To start with, there are some internal settings or configs which must be manipulated to tweak it for improving the performance of the Firefox 4 browser and is accordingly helpful to speed it up considerably. All you need to do is to simply type the 'about:config' in the address bar and then press Enter key. You will be prompted with a warning message stating that 'This might void your warranty!' with an option to select 'I'll be careful, I promise!'. Click on it to reveal the various settings and preference of the browser along with the status type and value of each of the listed preference. Now, we are not concerned with all of them but needs to work with only nine preference whose value needs to be changed. The following settings are needed to be altered in order to tweak the browser using internal preference config.

Firefox 4 ( about:config )
Preference Name	Values
network.http.pipelining	True
network.http.proxy.pipelining	True
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests	12
content.notify.backoffcount	5
plugin.expose_full_path	True
ui.submenuDelay	0
network.dns.disableIPv6	True
javascript.options.jit.chrome	True
javascript.options.jit.content	True

In order to be comfortable in finding these entries among a long list of such preference, you can use the Filter tab on the top to sort out the required values by entering each preference name into it. For entries with Boolean values like True/False, you can either double-click on it to change the value or otherwise right-click on the same and select New --> Boolean if the various values are not visible.


In addition to the tweaks mentioned above, you may also seek the help of some add-ons available for the web browser. There are many add-ons which may assist with different tasks which all collectively contributes in increasing the performance and speed of the browser and helps you to be more comfortable with the browsing task. There are add-ons like Adblock Plus which helps to get rid of advertisements in the website you are viewing, FastestFox or Vacuum Places which are meant for speeding up the startup and various other tasks. Likewise, you can avail many other such useful add-ons to boost the browsing and downloading experience while using Firefox.


The process of vacuuming to defragment the various components of the SQLite database used by Firefox 4 is also one important step towards speeding it up. This can be done by going through the following few steps:-

• Go to Tools --> Error Console directly or use the key combination of CTRL + SHIFT + J to open the Console.
• In the field corresponding to 'Code', type or paste the syntax as mentioned below:-
  

  FComponents.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection .executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");

• Now click on the Evaluate button to complete the process. The browser may freeze out for some time until the commands are executed after which it will return back to normal.

These are some of the few tweaks to optimize the speed of Firefox 4 web browsers and are found to be effective in boosting the performance to a significant extent. There are also many PC optimization tools and applications which are available for use within the Windows operating system which can also be used to have the best internet settings and other optimizations for extending the browsing speed.