Firefox Refresh: Better, Faster, Stronger
Just like any regular operating system installation, after time Firefox will start to slow down. All of those extensions you tried and haven’t bothered to remove, weird hacks and whatever other miscellaneous junk you may have in your profile are just slowing things down. Try “reformatting” your Firefox profile, you might be pleasantly surprised at how a clean profile will speed things up. Plus, isn’t it fun to tweak around with a clean installation (blank slate) and get it just the way you like it?
Note: I’ve been fiddling with Firefox 3, but doing this is pretty much the same in Firefox 2
- In your current profile, backup your bookmarks (In Firefox 3, Go to Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks, then click on Import and Backup-> Backup)
- Close all Firefox windows
- Run the Profile Manager - Go to the Start Menu in Windows and hit Run, then browse to the folder that will look something like this and select firefox.exe:
- c:\program files\Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 2\firefox.exe
- c:\program files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
- Add –profilemanager after firefox.exe and then hit OK
- Create a new profile and run it
- The same way you backed up your bookmarks, you can restore them to the new profile, and you’re all set
If you want to restore your saved usernames/passwords:
- Close all Firefox windows and browse to:
- Vista: C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
- XP: C:\documents and settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
- See this page for more information on locating your profile folder
- Then find the folder that has your old profile name (you would have seen it in the Profile Manager)
- Copy these three files to your new profile folder:
- cert8.db
- key3.db
- signons3.txt
- Restart Firefox and all of your passwords are there.
Try operating without extensions as you get a feel for which ones are really essential to your browsing experience, then start adding them on, you might just be surprised at what you find out.
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