I have noticed that with the upcoming Firefox 32, which is currently in Nightly state, the browser will use Google's safe browsing database to check files you have downloaded from the Internet. For every executable file you download, Firefox will perform a check against the online database which is provided by Google. The current version of Firefox 31 also ships with a similar option, but it uses a local database and does not send any request to Google's sites. Firefox 32 will continue to use the local database, however, if the downloaded file isn't found in the local database, Firefox will send the information to Google. You might be interested in disabling this behavior due to privacy concerns. Here's how you can turn it off.
Tag: Firefox
How to paste as plain text in Firefox without third party plugins
By default, when you copy some text from a web page in Mozilla Firefox and paste it into a text field at some discussion board, forum or a WordPress post, it will be pasted with all the source page markup and formatting intact. Links, headers, bold and italic text - all these elements of text appearance will be preserved in the pasted content. If you wanted to paste what you copied as plain text, this can be annoying. There are several add-ons available for Firefox which implement the 'paste as plain text' feature, but in this article we will look how to paste as plain text using Firefox's built-in options, without using third party plugins.
How to start Firefox in safe mode quickly
The safe mode in Mozilla Firefox is a really useful way to troubleshoot issues related to stability and performance. Safe Mode is a special mode where important browser settings are temporarily reverted back to their defaults and all add-ons are disabled. It is easy to figure out what might be causing problems by comparing Firefox behavior in normal mode to its behavior in Safe Mode.
How to change the main window icon of Firefox 26 and above
Firefox is truly a very customizable browser. It has lots of hidden features and options which are not accessible via the browser's preferences UI. Add-ons enable many of these features to be customized in a user friendly way. Others can be tweaked with the built-in configuration editor (about:config). One such secret feature of Firefox is the ability to change the icon of the main window and bookmarks as well as library windows. You can even set your own icon for the downloads library, the bookmarks window, and the view source tool without using any third party tools. Let's see how it can be done.
How to disable recent thumbnails on the new tab page in Firefox
When you open a new tab in Mozilla Firefox, then by default it shows you thumbnails of websites based on how frequently you have visited them and how recently as well. For most users this feature is really useful since it provides quick access to frequently visited sites and allows pinning and rearranging favorite web pages on the new tab page. But there is a category of users who care about privacy or have to share their browser with other people. In such a case, they may want to disable the new tab page thumbnails. Here is how you can do that.
How to move tabs in Firefox to the bottom of its window
As a former user of Opera 12.x, I am used to having a fully customizable UI in my browser. One change I used to do was to move the tabs to the bottom of the browser's window. After switching to Firefox, I have not found any corresponding option to move the tabs bar to the bottom of the screen. So I would like to share the solution I am using.
Add a Run button in Firefox for downloaded EXE files to open them directly
In Mozilla Firefox, when you click on the hyperlink of a downloadable file, it gives a choice of whether you have to open the file, save the file or cancel the download. However if you try to download EXEs or any other kind of files which Firefox considers as executable files (.MSI) for example, it will only show you a Save button and a Cancel button. There is no option to directly run the executable file. Well, an addon can easily change that. Let us explore it.
How to disable geolocation sharing feature of Mozilla Firefox
By default, Mozilla Firefox comes with a geolocation feature (location-aware browsing). It is enabled by default. This means that websites and web apps will be able to get all the necessary information to track the user's physical location. In some cases it can be useful, i.e. for online maps services, because they can display the appropriate starting point on the map wherever you are located at that moment. But it is also a cause for privacy concerns. There is a certain category of users who always prefer disabling such options completely. Unfortunately, there is no setting in the Firefox GUI options to turn off geolocation. Luckily, there is a way to disable it.
Download the Firefox full offline installer and bypass the web installer
As Google has always been doing with their Chrome web browser, Mozilla has recently switched to a web-based installer for its browser, Firefox. Now, when you click the download link, you will get a small installer stub instead of the full big-sized installer. The web installer downloads the full version of Firefox. This is not an issue for users who want to install Firefox on just one PC, or who have a good Internet connection which is always online. However, there are several cases where you might need the complete, full offline installer for Firefox. For example, if you want to download it once and then install it on multiple PCs, it makes no sense to download it individually on every PC. Also, if you have an expensive and limited mobile internet data plan, then again you wouldn't want to download Firefox multiple times. To get the full offline installer for Firefox, you have at least two options.
5 must-have addons for your Firefox fresh install
For many years I used Opera as my browser. As Opera Software decided to kill their very own desktop browser and replaced it with a featureless Chrome-based clone, I switched to Mozilla Firefox. Out of the box, Firefox is not perfect for me, but installing a few add-ons changes the situation. I have hand-picked 5 must-have add-ons which improve the Firefox experience. Add-ons are the real power of Firefox and have been for a long time. Today, I would like to share with you this list of my favorite add-ons, and who knows, maybe you will find them useful too!
