Problems with Firefox 29 (& 30)? - possible fixes

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Fed up with Firefox 29 or 30? You're not the only one. Here are some solutions, fixes or workaround to try - I hope they help some other people.

1. Get the old user interface back

You can install the Classic Theme Restorer add-on, as covered previously. NB: after that you may need to rightclick in an empty area next to a tab, choose Customise, and then drag your status bar text (if you have Status-4-Evar) back down to the bottom left, and also draft your NoScript and other icons from the top right down to the status bar location, then Exit from the Customise view.

Mozilla have since given more guidance on how to restore the old look.

2. More drastic - restore an older version of Firefox

Eg you could download Firefox 28. If you want to make absolutely sure that you don't lose your existing settings, it's safest not to uninstall the existing Firefox 29 first (contrary to Mozilla's instructions) - instead, install the older version of Firefox over it, which has worked for some people.

There's a quick way to downgrade Firefox, instead of running the downloaded setup file for the older version to reinstall it (which worked for me when I tried it):

1. open the setup file using the free 7-Zip, and open the folder named "core"
2. copy its contents (ie all folders etc inside the "core" folder, called "browser", "defaults" etc)
3. paste the copied folders/files to overwrite the existing folders/files that are inside your Mozilla Firefox program folder - ie open your Firefox program folder, then paste the copied folders/files and overwrite existing files, but NB:
   1. you may want to backup the contents of the Firefox program folder first, ie copy and paste them elsewhere, before you try this, so you can copy/paste them back if anything goes wrong
   2. my Firefox program folder is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox, yours may be in different location eg C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox - here's how to find your Firefox program installation folder

Important: ideally you should disable your network connection before downgrading Firefox, and turn off automatic updates (ie switch to "Never check for updates") on Firefox immediately after the downgrade when you re-open Firefox. Otherwise, it will just update itself back to a newer version of Firefox as soon as you launch your downgraded version!

Big red warning: downgrade and disable updates only at your own risk, because you'll lose the security updates rolled out in the later versions! Older versions are less secure. The next option, below, may therefore be a better bet.

Tip: if you don't manage to stop Firefox downloading an update at least partly, you can try this:

1. close Firefox ASAP after you've turned off the automatic updates (disable that quickly!)
2. delete the downloaded update files (here's where they are located). This worked for me and I was able to re-open Firefox without it trying to update itself.

I tried downgrading to 29 (from 29.0.1), but it still kept crashing or freezing and Session Manager wouldn't work properly again even after that, so I downgraded to 28. So far, that's still working, fingers crossed…

3. Download and use Firefox ESR (extended support release)

The ESR is intended for enterprises (there's even a portable version), but be warned that Mozilla try to discourage it for personal use!

The big advantage of ESR is that it gets all of Mozilla's security updates for Firefox: download ESR here. But it's effectively an older version of Firefox.

Now, I didn't test this to see if ESR keeps the existing Firefox settings, so you should take backup copy again just in case, but the trick above about copying over the contents of the "core" folder should work, if you don't want to do the full install procedure.

4. Give up on Firefox and switch to the Pale Moon browser!

I'm now exploring this option as I've had enough of Mozilla messing up the interface and functionality for people like me who have been loyal users of Firefox for years.

Pale Moon is an open source browser based on the same code as Firefox, which provides a tool for moving your settings etc over from Firefox, and so far all all my Firefox add-ons / extensions work! Please see my separate Pale Moon review and tips for more details. You can use both Pale Moon and Firefox at the same time, generally, so you don't lose anything if you try it.

Background

With version 29, Mozilla changed the user interface of Firefox so as to make it near unusable. Also, I found that version 29.0.1 kept crashing and freezing (and not just because of Flash or Realplayer plugins!). Crash recovery (and indeed automatic periodic session saves) stopped working with Session Manager - which is extra bad when it's always crashing! That's why I had to spend hours getting my main browser to work again. And am now testing Pale Moon, which so far has been excellent.

Firefox 29 for security - but fix 29's terrible interface

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Update your Firefox to version 29 to address a lot of security issues. It also seems to be faster and using less memory, at least on my Windows 7 computer.

But, but - v29 has a horrible 'new look' interface which is hard on my ageing eyes, especially with multi-row tabs, and the rounded edges take up more space so I have more rows of tabs than I did, plus they took away the status bar that previous versions removed but which I got back as an add-on bar with Status4Evar.

So thank goodness for the Classic Theme Restorer add-on (via this article)! Install it, that's the best tip you'll get this month.

Steps to make Firefox 29 usable(ish) again:

1. Update Firefox
2. Install Classic Theme Restorer (how to install Firefox extensions) and change its settings as you need (see later)
3. Restart Firefox
4. Rightclick in the empty area beyond the last tab and choose Customise, then
   1. move icons back down to the status bar as necessary eg NoScript, Status Text (which is the status bar text displayed to show progress when visiting a webpage, the URL when you hover over a link etc)
   2. click on Title Bar at the bottom left if you want your title bar back
   3. click Exit Customise.

(Alternatively, use Firefox ESR so that you can get the security updates without the abysmal new interface.)

There seem to be more tweaking tips but I didn't need them. Installing Classic Theme Restorer gave me back clean sharp edges and my status bar! The Class Theme Restorer options I used (accessible from the Tools menu or the Add-ons page in the usual way - Ctrl shift a is how I usually get to it):

1. Classic Toolbar Buttons, bottom left
2. under Tabs I picked 'Squared tabs (classic)' - just tinker with the options… 

I didn't need to do anything else except check and change the width of tabs in TMP, and move icons or boxes back to the status bar at the bottom. Do donate to the developer, who very well deserves it.

Rant time. I still prefer Firefox to Chrome because of the lack of MRU tab switching in Chrome (TabMixPlus is THE best Firefox extension ever ever, I donate regularly). But in recent years Mozilla have been making the Firefox interface more and more unusable, it seems without thinking or caring about accessibility or usability or indeed bothering to listen to users. Prettifying it with rounded edges is not always best, particularly at the expense of accessibility. I like minimal but I like clean sharp edges more, and hiding too many things is a pain as users need information beyond the minimal (so a status bar is indispensable for a start). Someone on Slashdot put it well, it's just UX as 'an excuse for taking control from the user'.

There's also a cognitive and informational cost, beyond the learning curve associated with a changed interface - the new rounded tabs take up more rows as well as horizontal space tan the old interface (ugh smudgy kiddie look), and overlap so that I can't see what pages some tabs represent. (With version 28 I used TMP with short tab widths so I could cram more tabs onto one line but see what they are from the favicons.) It's ridiculous that, to get back workable interfaces, long-term Firefox users have to resort to third party add ons (which may break with new versions, like Status4Evar did before installing Restorer). What *&!@#£ came up with putting 'the icons/buttons you want to see all the time on the top toolbar'? Most of us have stuff we want all the time, AND separately stuff we need to see only occasionally. There's just no space on the top toolbar to put both, and I refuse to scroll horizontally, so I have to have a status bar! (That's why I still use a Quick Launch bar, in Windows 7 and Windows 8 - all my most used programs are there at glance, and the start menu, which takes one more step to access, is for the second-most used set.)

Changing aesthetics for the sake of it is fine, but not when it affects usability and productivity and takes away user choice. And why make users choose between security and usability? I resent having  an abominable unworkable accessibility-unfriendly interface forced upon me just in order to keep my browser secure. If Chrome had MRU switching and all the extensions I need (particularly Zotero and security ones like NoScript), I would seriously consider switching despite the privacy concerns and some security issues.

Mozilla, please get your act together and give users back their control. Though I doubt they'd listen to me when they don't listen to countless other users rather than 'UX designers' who may not use Firefox as much as us real users who need Firefox to do real work.

Firefox loads blank pages in tabs on startup? Solution

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This post is on how to make Firefox load and display all webpages in all tabs automatically when you first open Firefox. Lately it just loads pages in a few tabs (3 max), but pages in all other tabs are blank with no content visible, and the status bar (visible if you use the indispensable Status4Evar add-on) shows "Stopped" at the bottom left.

Other tabs won't display anything but blank until you actually click on the tab for the page. It's very tedious to have to click for each page individually. I save webpages in tabs because I want to use them, and I can't use them if they're invisible!

The quick answer: try Firefox options, then Tab Mix Plus Options, then Session Manager options (if you use either of those extensions), and if all else fails, install the Load Tabs Progressively add-on and change its options, which is what finally worked for me.

Scroll down for full explanations and screenshots.

Background

Many people only want saved startup tabs in Firefox to load when you click on tab, so that Firefox starts up faster. But, like this blogger and others, I want the opposite.

I have a reasonably fast computer with decent amounts of memory. As I use zillions of tabs, it's too time-consuming to have to click on one tab, wait, click on the next tab, etc. I always set my Windows computer to start all my main applications and documents automatically, so I can switch on my computer, go have breakfast or at least coffee, and when I get back to my computer it's all up and ready for me. I want browsers to do this too: I want all tabs to load and display on launching Firefox while I go do something else, and I agree that not allowing this is plain bad usability (though taking away individual users' choice of which option they want is worse).

I wasted too much time trying to troubleshoot and fiddling round with about:config till I found this page explaining that this annoyance is in fact a 'feature' which was introduced in recent versions of Firefox (13 onwards I think).

The current default setting is a pain when you have lots of tabs and have to click each one separately. The point of setting Firefox to launch with a set of tabs is because you want to use them all.

As a workaround, I'd been using 'Reload all tabs' to make all the webpages visible (rightclick on a tab heading for the menu that allows that, if you have TabMixPlus).

General setting

The suggested solution, to force all pages in all tabs load and display when Firefox opens, was to UNtick the 'Don't load tabs until selected' box and OK.

In my version of Firefox (Firefox 15) it's in the Tabs tab of Options (menu Tools, then Options, then Tabs), in others it might be in the General tab.

Like so:

However, that didn't work for me even after restarting Firefox. There are other options which may need to be set, so try those too.

If you use TabMixPlus

The same link suggested that if you use Tab Mix Plus (TMP) (also an essential extension, in my view), you need to go to TMP Options > Session > Restore and check the "Reload all tabs" checkbox.

If you use Session Manager

As I use Session Manager (which manages loads of sessions with finer control than TMP's session manager), I had no such option, so I went to Session Manager options.

Under General > Saving & Restoring, I UNticked "Restore tabs on demand" (and OK or Apply), to try to get tabs to load automatically without having to "demand" each one individually.

If all else fails

Unfortunately, none of the above worked for me - UNticking "Don't load tabs until selected" and the like did not change anything. Only 3 tabs ever loaded automatically when I started Firefox.

Therefore, I had to install an extra extension - Load Tabs Progressively. This works, but I'd recommend some tweaks.

Once you've installed it and restarted Firefox, go to Tools > Add-ons and find Load Tabs Progressively. Click its Options. Change "Maximum number of concurrent loading tabs" to 0 and "Maximum number of loaded tabs" to -1. Then OK.

Otherwise, it will load only up to a maximum number of tabs, and only a certain number at a time. If like me you have tons of tabs and just want them all to load while you do something else, you'd want it to load however many tabs you have, ideally all in one go (in my case!).

This excellent extension, as the name suggests, opens each of your saved session tabs progressively, one by one, and the settings I've recommended will get it to open all your saved session tabs no matter how many, and whether using TabMixPlus or SessionManager.

Gmail: "Loading", can't reply or compose email, chat not working in Firefox? - possible solution

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Is your Gmail stuck or hanging on "Loading…" in Firefox? Gmail chat not working either? The issue of Gmail freezing in Firefox seems fairly easy to find the solution to online, but given its huge annoyance factor here's step by step answers to help non-technical users to fix the problem.

The Firefox browser and Gmail don't always work well together. I've had previous experiences of Gmail being unusable for a while on Firefox after an upgrade to either, until the other caught up.

This particular problem seemed to persist however. (I used Internet Explorer or other browsers for Gmail, in the meantime.)

If you started getting this problem after upgrading Firefox recently (probably to version 3.6.12), one possible tip to solve the issue is this (it certainly worked for me!):

1. In Firefox, go to the address bar and type "about:config" without the quote marks and hit Enter.
   
   
2. You'll get the warning below, just click "I'll be careful.."
   
   
3. Now you'll get a window that looks something like this:
   
   
   
4. In the Filter box, type (again without the quotes) "dom.storage" and you'll see something like this; note the dom.storage enabled line which I've outlined in red:
   
   
   
5. Now doubleclick on the "dom.storage.enabled" line, outlined in red above, so that under the "Value" column it now reads "true", like so:
   
   
   
6. You can now close out of that tab, and try Gmail again.

If it still doesn't work I'm afraid the problem is something else and you'll have to try more troubleshooting. But it might well work - it has for lots of people.

Clearly Google are now using DOM storage for Gmail in Firefox - and you have no choice but to enable it if you want your Gmail to work properly. A stage on the way to full HTML 5, I suspect.

Tags: tip, trick, annoyance, problem, problems, troubleshooting, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox / Thunderbird: forced to enter master password multiple times?

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If "Please enter the master password for the Software Security Device" is driving you mad because you have to enter your master password several times whenever you launch Mozilla's free Firefox browser or Thunderbird email software, the easiest solution to the "too many master password boxes" problem (or annoyance!) is the following tip.

Simply install the StartupMaster add-on / extension for Firefox and, separately (if you use Thunderbird) also the StartupMaster extension for Thunderbird (if necessary see how to install a Thunderbird extension - you don't just click on the link unlike in Firefox).

Restart Firefox or Thunderbird (whichever you need to sort out), and thereafter you shouldn't have to enter your master password more than once for Firefox and once for Thunderbird.

Background - you may have to type the master password several times in Firefox or Thunderbird if you've set a master password (which is a good idea for security reasons) and you've also set Firefox's home page to open in tabs more than one web page with login for which you've stored passwords - or if you've set up Thunderbird for more than one email account.

You'll get one password box, which you have to fill in and OK, for each Firefox tab with saved password or each email account you've set up in Thunderbird.

You may also have to keep clicking Retry (after entering the password in every single popup box) if you didn't enter the master password very shortly after Thunderbird opened, eg you left the computer for a few minutes then came back to it.

In some earlier versions of Firefox you didn't have to tediously enter the same master password many times in this situation, but sadly you do now. Unless you get the add-on I suggested.

Firefox fun: about:kittens !

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Olive's about:kittens has got to be close to the top, if not at the top, of the list of useless but fun & fabulous extensions for the free Firefox browser (faster and a more secure browser than Internet Explorer).

What this excellent free add-on does is to change the standard Firefox graphic that you get when you go to the Help > About Mozilla Firefox menu:

- to a random kitten picture from the Kittenwar site, see the top of this blog post! And here's another one:

Get about:kittens from the Mozilla Add-Ons site (for beginners - click the Add to Firefox button, then click Install Now, and restart Firefox when prompted).

Talk about an excellent time waster, hours of mindless fun!

If you find yourself going to the About menu constantly now, here's a shortcut to really speed things up - hold down the Alt key and tap the h key, release both, and tap the a key for a quick fix of kitten. Then hit OK or Esc (or click OK or Cancel) to make room for the next Alt h etc if you want another pic.

Obviously, because it goes out and gets pics over the internet, it will only work if you have an internet connection and are online at the time you do it.

Kudos to Olive, brilliant. Have fun - and here's another one, just because:

All together now - awwwwwwwww.

Again: the about:kittens add-on download link.

Tags: kitten, kittens, cat, cats, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox: rightclick menu too slow? how to fix

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If the Firefox right click menu (the menu that you get when you right click with the mouse on a web page in a Firefox window or tab) is very slow, taking a long time to appear, the most likely reason for the delay is an add-on or extension.

Try starting Firefox in safe mode. If the problem goes away in safe mode, it was probably an extension causing the issue.

Here's some tips on how to fix that problem, or at least troubleshoot if not solve it.

How to troubleshoot slow rightclick menu in Firefox

First, is the slow down recent? Think back on when it first started happening, say within the last week.

If you can’t remember when, or it was too long ago, then skip to the next section on how to check your Firefox extensions quickly.

If you can remember the date, then identify all Firefox extensions which have been installed or updated since that date. (Go back a few days further than that for luck if you wish.)

If you can't remember which addons are new since that date, how do you work that out? You can check the date from the Addon itself – menu Tools > Add-ons, and on each extension in the popup window it says what the “Install date” is, see this example below (just to show where you can find the Install Date – CLEO wasn’t guilty in my case!). I’ve also highlighted the Disable button:

Go through every one of those extensions that have been added or updated since that date, click Disable for each of them. Restart Firefox. Is the rightclick problem still happening or does the menu come up in a flash now? (Wait a few minutes or an hour just to see, then try the rightlick again).

If the problem’s gone away, then one of those add ons was the culprit. To find which one, enable them one by one – i.e. click on the disabled extension to select it, then click the Enable button, then restart Firefox and check again. Still OK? Enable another one, then restart etc. When it stops working right after you’ve enabled a particular addon, then you’ll know that’s the bad guy, so go and Disable it again. (If you really need it, try checking for an update, or live with the slowness.)

When I had this problem recently, I just disabled all the addon that had been updated or installed in the last few days (like Vanish), and hey presto the problem vanished. I haven’t reenabled them one by one yet, but then I don’t use those particular extensions much, so I’m leaving that job for another time.

How to check your Firefox add-ons / extensions quickly

Here’s a great tip. This trick isn’t original to me, I can’t remember who suggested it to me. But here’s how it works.

1. Disable all the first half of your extensions – say if you have 20 extensions, disable the first 10. Then restart and check the rightclick menu (or whatever other Firefox problem you may be having).
2. If it’s all fine, then the guilty party is one of those 10; if not, it must be one of the second 10.
3. Say it’s one of the first 10. Make sure the first 5 of those are disabled (and re-enable the second 5), then restart and test again. And so on.

This way you can narrow it down to find the problem addon pretty quickly, which will save you having to try each add-on out one by one.

What if it doesn't work?

There may be other reasons why the rightclick menu is too slow - what I've suggested is the most likely, but if that doesn't work try this link.

Tags: add-ons, extensions, tips, tricks, rightclick menu, right-click menu, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox search box too slow (Vista)?

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In Windows Vista, if Firefox 3 is too slow, freezes or hangs when you're trying to search by typing a search term in its search bar or search box (outlined in red on the right in the pic below), or in its address bar (on the left) when using a custom Firefox keyword search, you could try the following possible fix for the problem. For me it started when I was searching, rather than typing the web address directly in the browser address bar.

I found the solution outlined in this helpful post so, for non-techies, here's a step by step pictorial guide on how to do it:

1. In the Firefox address bar, type:
   about:config
   (as shown on the left in the pic above).
   
2. If you get the following warning, click "I'll be careful, I promise!"
   
   
   
3. In the resulting Filter box, type:
   v6
   - and you should get this coming up:
   
   
4. If under the "Value" column for network.dns.disableIPv6 it already says "true", then sorry, your problem must be caused by something else and you'll have to try some other method of troubleshooting.
   
5. But if the value of network.dns.disableIPv6 is currently "false", just change it to "true" by doubleclicking on the "network.dns.disableIPv6" line, and you'll get this:
   
   
   

You could then close and restart Firefox first just in case, though I found I didn’t had to.

That solved it for me - searching via the Firefox address bar or search box had suddenly inexplicably started becoming agonisingly slow, hourglassing, not responding or not working at all, but after doing that fix the searching instantly started working properly again. Hope the same trick will work for you if your Firefox search grinds to a halt too!

Tags: speed, slow, productivity, troubleshooting, problems, Firefox, browser, tricks, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Make add-ons work after updating Firefox

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Did a fave Firefox extension stop working after you upgraded to a newer version of Firefox (which I've just done to Firefox 3.0.1, because of the security issues with 3.0)?

For those who don't know it yet, here's a tip: you can often make Firefox add-ons compatible with upgraded versions of Firefox just by using the fab free MR Tech Toolkit extension from MR Tech (formerly known as MR Tech Local Install) - even if the writer of the extension hasn't provided an update for it yet.

How to make a Firefox extension compatible with a later version of Firefox

Be warned that this doesn't necessarily work, and if it doesn't you may need to uninstall the add-on in question or wait for the author to produce an update. Still, it's worth trying, and it's worked for almost every extension I've tried it with. Here's how:

1. Install the MR Tech Toolkit addon (for beginners: how to install a Firefox add-on).
2. Restart Firefox.
3. Go to the menu Tools > Add-ons.
4. Rightclick on the desired extension (which will have a big exclamation mark against it if it's not compatible with the updated Firefox), then choose "Make compatible"
   
   
   
5. OK the next box (having first ticked "Don't ask me again" if you don't want the box to pop up again for other extensions):
   
   
   
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each add-on you want to try to make compatible.
   
7. That's it! Handy trick, eh?
   
8. (If when you right click an addon you don't see a "Make compatible" menu option, then sorry, even MR Tech can't fix it and you'll have to wait for the author of the add on to update it.)
   

I've used the MRTech Toolkit to make the following addons work in Firefox 3.0.1, for instance:

1. my fave extension TabMixPlus
2. the Mippin sidebar
3. CLEO and FEBE (to backup my Firefox settings and extensions)
4. Spiderzilla (to backup my blog).
   

There are lots of other uses for the Toolkit, but this feature alone makes it worth the download.

Tags: Firefox extensions, Firefox add-ons, Firefox addons, MRTech Toolkit, MR Tech Toolkit, MR Tech Local Install, MRTech Local Install, Tab Mix Plus, Mippin, CLEO, FEBE, Spiderzilla, tip, tricks, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox quick tabs list in Tab Mix Plus

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I've just discovered how to get a "tab list" in Tab Mix Plus for Firefox! Maybe I missed it before, maybe it's a new(ish) update, but it's the one feature I've longed for most in Firefox, which Opera had but Firefox lacked (apart from Opera's lightning speed - though recently the speed differential between the two browsers has reduced, Firefox 3 is much faster and Opera 9.5 opens more slowly than their previous versions, though I think Opera still has the edge on speed).

Turn on the tabs list option and you'll find that, just like with Opera, you can view a list of all your current tabs easily just by holding down the Ctrl key and tapping the Tab key - keep tapping and releasing Tab to cycle through the tabs, and release both keys when you get to the one you want. For a keyboard fan like me it's much, much faster and easier than any other way to view all my open tabs at once and then get to the one I want quickly. So much better for productivity.

To enable the option, just tick "Ctrl-Tab displays a tab list popup menu" in the Tab Features tab of Tab Mix Plus's options (get to the options either through the Firefox Tools, Add-ons menu - click on the extension in the list and click Options - or direct in Tools, Tab Mix Plus Options).


I'd add that, for me, the single most essential Firefox add-on or extension is Tab Mix Plus. If you don't have it already, it's free and you can install it easily (how to install a Firefox extension - for another add-on called Greasemonkey, but the steps are the same): install Tab Mix Plus.

I just thought I'd blog this productivity tip as I might not be the only person who's missed this fab feature.

Tags: Tab Mix Plus, productivity, speed, tip, tips, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

How to make BBC News site easier to read

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I'm a big fan of the BBC, but recently they revamped their site so that the text on the BBC News pages is now grey instead of black:


I find that very hard to read, in fact after a few paragraphs I feel like my eyesight is going. (Other pages on their site, e.g. the BBC blogs, are I find easier to read, maybe because of the dark sidebars, or the spacing between lines - whatever the reason, it feels like there's greater contrast between the text and its background). I find this particular change a bit surprising because normally the BBC are very good on accessibility.

So I was going to whip up a Greasemonkey script for the Firefox browser to address this. But I see that Joe Walp has beaten me to it with his BBC News Black Text script, so obviously I wasn't the only BBC user suffering from the change. Thanks, Joe! And here's what the page above looks like with the script installed - much more readable and legible, as you can see:


So if your eyes are bad like mine, do yourself a favour and install the script!

(For those new to this: Firefox is a free browser which is very powerful and customisable. You can get add-ons or extensions to Firefox to boost its features. The free Greasemonkey extension lets you change how particular websites look when you view them in Firefox (plus a whole lot more), e.g. if the text of a favourite site seems a bit too small to you, you can make it bigger, darker etc in your browser, with the aid of "user scripts" which you install once you've installed Greasemonkey. Here's how to install Greasemonkey and userscripts.)

Tags: Greasemonkey, userscript, user script, browser, browsers, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Make links in Word, Excel etc open in Firefox (Windows XP)

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Links which appear in Office documents, like http://www.consumingexperience.com/ in the screenshot of Word above, normally open in Internet Explorer when you click them - even after you've set Outlook email links to open in Firefox. But you can force links in Microsoft Office (i.e. Word, Excel and Powerpoint) documents to open in the fab free browser Firefox instead when you click (or Ctrl-click) on a hyperlink that's shown in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet etc.

Here's a tip for how you can make links in a Word etc document open in Firefox when you click the link - in Windows XP at least:

1. Change your file associations so that hyperlinks generally open in Firefox.
   
   
2. (Non-geeks, skip to item 3 for the easy way!) Make this registry edit having closed all Office apps first (NB, usual warnings: backup your registry first, and you edit or change your registry at your own risk! also don't know if it'll work in Vista):
   
   
1. in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\ create a subkey called Internet if it's not already there
   
   
2. in that subkey create a new DWORD value named ForceShellExecute with a value of 1 (or change its value from 0 to 1 if that value already exists)
   
   
   
3. If step 2 was gobbledygook to you, not to worry. You can instead - after you backup your registry first, and this is definitely at your own risk! - close all Office programs, then try this .reg file I uploaded earlier (how to use online .reg files - just click the link and run it or save then run it, saying Yes to let to change your registry).
   
   
4. If links still don't open in Firefox after you've re-opened Word etc, try rebooting. And of course you'll need to allow Word, Excel etc to access the internet through your firewall if you haven't already.
   

It seems that what registry change does is to force hyperlinks in various Office documents to open according to what's been set for their file associations (in Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, File Types). So now you can click links embedded in Word, Excel etc files and they'll in Firefox instead of IE. Good trick, eh?

I've tested it in XP Service Pack 2 and Word, Excel and Powerpoint 2003, but it also seems to work in Word, Excel and Powerpoint 2000 and 2002 versions too.

Warning: note that this doing tweak may muck up any links in Office document to a bookmark location in another locally-saved (i.e. on your computer) document - see this article.

Tags: links, link, hyperlink, hyperlinks, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, help, tricks, tweaks, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Blogger: Technorati tagger for multiple word tags fixed

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On Friday various changes to the Blogger post editor broke the Magical Sheep tagger userscript (which helps you add Technorati tags easily to your Blogger posts via the Firefox browser, using the free Greasemonkey extension). MC spotted the problem first. Or at least, was the first to point it out to me.

Fortunately that Javascript Jenius Kirk has fixed the user script so that it's all working again. Install the updated script and as long as your Post Options are visible, you'll see the tagger box as before. UPDATE: the script has further been tweaked to make sure the Post Options section stays open permanently even when you switch between Compose and Edit HTML modes. Links below are to the updated version.

If you've already installed the script, you can just install the tweaked script over your existing one and your MeTags etc will be preserved, no need to uninstall anything first.

I've uploaded the updated script to various places (same as before) so that the old links remain usable, but just point to the updated script (too small a fix to call it an "upgrade"!):

• Userscripts.org
• Improbulus Google Pages
• Improbulus Ripway pages
• Kirk's Google Pages
  

- and I've also updated my main post about that tagging tool to note the fix and to update the links there.

If you're a Blogger / Blogspot.com user who hasn't yet installed the script and you'd like to try it, or indeed find out more on what this is all about, see my intro on what are Technorati tags and my Technorati tag creator overview, step by step installation instructions and links.

Maybe those behind the Greasemonkey Gmail API could start turning their thoughts towards a Greasemonkey Blogger API soon? Pretty please?

Tags: Blog, blogs, blogging, tag, tags, tagging, tag tools, tagging tools, Blogger, Blogger.com, addons, blog addons, blogging addons, blog add-ons, blogging add-ons, Technorati, Technoratitags, Technorati tags, Greasemonkey scripts, Magical Sheep, phydeaux3, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

QuickTime security hole - update your QuickTime

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Apple have now released a QuickTime 7.2 security upgrade for Windows Vista and XP SP2 which fixes a QuickTime security vulnerability that could allow attackers to take over your computer via Javascript run over the internet e.g. if you tried to go to a supposed Quicktime link or certain other media links on a dodgy website in the Firefox browser - a security hole which Firefox developers previously plugged in version 2.0.0.7.

If you have Quicktime in Windows Vista or Windows XP Service Pack 2, you should install the update ASAP to protect your online security. (Mac OS X users weren't affected.)

Via Heise Security.

Tags: QuickTime, Apple QuickTime, iTunes, Javascript, internet security, online security, computer security, fix, fixes, update, updates, upgrade, upgrades, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox: view history "by sites", grouped!

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I love Firefox, but there's one thing I'd change about it: the history. It's too hard to find a page again which I know I viewed recently, where I know the site it's from but I just can't remember exactly when I last viewed it.

In the history sidebar, viewing the history by site doesn't list all pages in your history properly. It lists all the web pages in your history, in alphabetical order by the page title - not even the visible title shown on the page, but its title as given by the page author in the head section of the page's HTML metadata, i.e. it's a "behind the scenes" title.

That means it doesn't even group webpages from the same site together alphabetically - it only does that if all pages from the same site start with the same words in their title (like "phydeaux3: GData Javascript Library", and "phydeaux3: YouTube Goes GData"), which relies entirely on the website owner having consistently entitled all their pages in that way. A long list of titles, not even ordered properly by site, is not exactly easy to navigate round, never mind find the page that you're looking for (and I don't think the history searching in Firefox is easy either, by the way).

Here's what my history "View By Site" looks like in version 2.0.07:


Surprisingly, someone reported this as a bug only relatively recently, in April 2007. I should have got off my butt and reported it myself much earlier, as it's been bugging me ever since I got Fox, but I didn't want to moan publicly too much. So all I did was forlornly do a search once in a while to see if anyone had fixed the problem, then moan quietly to myself and grumble a bit when I still couldn't find anything.

Well, I can now say - Huzzah! I've just noticed that the official Win32 20070823 [Trunk] build fixes this issue. (If you want to download it use the "All.. hourly builds for the last 14 days" link, if the others are broken.) I've now downloaded version 3.0a9pre (Minefield). See this screenshot:


All organised into nice neat folders, grouped by main domain URL of the site. Look at the difference, and drool! (OK, I'm sad like that.) It's so much more usable from a consumer and personal information management point of view.

I'm not going to use Minefield as standard because it's still experimental and I'm a scaredycat, plus more to the point my essential extensions like Greasemonkey don't seem to work with it yet.

But by downloading Minefield, I can now just use it whenever I need to view my Fox history by site in a grouped folder way. (Note: you need to close all existing open versions of Firefox before you try to launch Minefield's Firefox.exe from your unzipped download folder, or it'll just open your existing version of Fox.)

So now you too know how to view your Firefox history by site, organised properly by site into folder groups, pending the release of 3.0, and if you need that feature you could try doing the same.

Huzzah, I say again! I can't wait for 3.0!

Tags: bugs, bugfixes, bugfixes, history, sites, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox 2.0.0.7: QuickTime security issue fixed

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Firefox users should upgrade to the latest version 2.0.0.7 if they haven't already, as it fixes the QuickTime security vulnerability I previously described.

Good on the Fox developer team for coming up with the security update fast - thank you!

Tags: fix, fixes, update, updates, upgrade, upgrades, Firefox 2.0.07, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox, iTunes, QuickTime: security risk

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UPDATE: fixed in Firefox 2.0.07, do upgrade if you haven't already.

If you use Firefox as your default browser and have Apple's QuickTime plug-in (you probably do if you have QuickTime - see the mozdev site - or iTunes), note that there's a security risk with QuickTime link files in Firefox [UPDATE: should have added the default browser bit earlier, sorry].

That's not just .qtl links but it seems even .mp3, .wav, .3gp, .png and .mov links - for a longer list of possibly risky file extensions and details of the problem, as well as demo links you can click on to see what an attacker could do, see 0DAY: QuickTime pwns Firefox.

A bad hacker could set up a dodgy website so that when you click one of those types of links on that site, they could get into your system by secretly running Javascript in Fox - e.g. install a backdoor in your computer.

Heise Security, where I first read about this, were able to reproduce the problem with Firefox 2.0.0.6 and QuickTime 7.2.0.240 under Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

How do you protect yourself? Until there's an update with a fix, Heise suggest that you should:

• uninstall QuickTime, or else
  
• use the NoScript extension for Firefox (see my NoScript review).

You can guess which course I've taken (or rather, had already taken)!

UPDATE: fixed in Firefox 2.0.07, do upgrade if you haven't already.

Tags: QuickTime, iTunes, Javascript, internet security, online security, computer security, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox security: NoScript review

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If you use Firefox, for your own online safety you should install NoScript. This review of the free NoScript extension for Fox (NoScript homepage) explains why I think that.

NoScript is an extension or add-on for Fox which automatically blocks Javascript and Java from running in Fox. As bad guys could use hidden Javascript or Java on web sites that you visit to infect your computer with all sorts of nasties, NoScript is A Very Good Thing. I've been using it for a month or two now, myself.

I should have installed it much earlier, but foolishly I'd mistakenly got the impression that it killed all Javascript indiscriminately, and because many of the sites I visit won't work without Javascript I just didn't look into NoScript properly until relatively recently. As I mentioned, I was wrong.

As it turns out, NoScript does stop good as well as bad Javascript dead in its tracks - but, you can still access the sites you know are "good" or "safe" yet require Javascript to work, like Gmail, because you get a warning line popping up above your status bar when you visit any site that has Javascript or Java, and then via the NoScript options you can positively choose to Allow (or Temporarily allow) script originating from a particular site to run in Fox:


If you trust the site and click the option to allow scripts from it, you won't see the warning again on future visits to the site. So, you only have to allow a trusted site once - it's really not much hassle for the much better security and protection you'll enjoy.

Why do I think installing NoScript is a no-brainer if you're a Firefox user?

It's not just because I'm the ultra-cautious "safe computing safe sex safe everything!" type who runs anti-virus checker, anti-adware (like Ad-Aware which you can get in Google Pack - ) and anti-spyware software (like Spybot) at least once a week, and an online virus scanner like NOD32's Eset at least once a month. I really think there's no excuse not to be safe when there are so many excellent free computer security tools out there.

The bad guys have moved on: viruses were initially spread by opening infected files on floppy disk or in email attachments, then your PC could be attacked if you were simply online, connected to the internet, without a firewall. Now, your system can become compromised even if you have a firewall and anti-virus, anti-spyware etc software on your computer, just by your going to some dodgy website or clicking on certain suspect links.

You need protection for your browser. And, as is usually the case with computer security and internet security generally, you have to look after yourself - you can't just rely on software or hardware suppliers or ISPs etc to do it for you (though some of them may have to at some point, if the UK government takes up the House of Lords' recommendations in their interesting August 2007 report on Personal Internet Security following their investigation).

Generally, Firefox is thought to be safer than Internet Explorer (), but even Firefox has its vulnerabilities.

There are various potential Firefox security holes or risks which NoScript, and in some cases only NoScript, can stop - e.g. cross site scripting or XSS dangers, or the QuickTime security hole in Firefox.

NoScript provides the necessary defence for many potential Firefox exploits, in my view striking the perfect balance between security and usability / functionality - and it's free.

So if you have Fox and you don't already have it, go ahead and try NoScript, you've nothing to lose (how to install Firefox extensions).

However, I'm still waiting for a workable solution for Internet Explorer. It's certainly not Haute Secure toolbar, in my opinion!

Tags: NoScript, Firefox add-ons, Firefox extensions, internet security, computer security, online security, personal internet security, review, Internet Explorer, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Firefox freezes or hangs computer: fixed! & backing up Firefox

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I thought I'd found the solution to the problem of my Firefox 2.0.0.4 browser freezing or hanging my Windows XP PC every few seconds (not just that browser and its tabs, but my entire computer - other programs and apps too). I reverted to an older version of Fox, and I found that a pre-release version of the next upgrade also worked fine. No more Firefox, or indeed my other software, not responding!

However, I was premature in my rejoicings - after a week or two, sadly those versions started making my computer hang too. So it was back to the drawing board on the troubleshooting front: and here are my steps and tips and the final answer, in case they may help anyone solve a similar problem.

The short answer: for me, I fixed the Firefox problem by creating a new profile and transferring selected settings across. Details below.

Firefox hangs

I started with the Mozillazine "Firefox hangs" page.

Now I knew it my case it wasn't Hang after prolonged or extensive use. I've been using Firefox for a couple of years or so, but they didn't mean "extensive" in that way; they meant, after opening Firefox and surfing for a while. Well, my problem was happening immediately on opening Firefox and viewing any webpage that wasn't blank - instant, not after lots of use. So that was out.

I also dismissed the topics about loading windows or certain sites, because it happened with Firefox viewing any site, plain Webpage, no need for any Java, Flash or PDF etc.

And I knew it wasn't down to anti-spyware or the like. In fact I'd recently got rid of anti-spyware installed by Google Pack which had been killing my computer (Norton Security Scan and Spyware Doctor, grrr. And a few months before that, WinPatrol). The problem only happened when Firefox was open on a webpage. Close it down, or leave it on a blank page, and everything else was fine again.

It wasn't my extensions. I didn't have any problematic extensions. I'd disabled, then in desperation uninstalled, every single one of my add ons - and still my PC was hanging. It certainly wasn't the addons.

So, it was on to the standard diagnostic.

Firefox diagnostics

I'd cleared my cache recently, but for good measure cleared it again. No go.

I was reluctant to try safe mode as I didn't want to lose my toolbar customisations and user preferences without trying other things first.

Now Susan had mentioned someone fixing their similar problem by cleaning their Firefox user profile (which stores your personalised bookmarks, passwords, extensions etc). So I thought I'd try that - creating a new profile while preserving the old one.

New profile - it worked!

There are very clear instructions on using the profile manager (with specific Windows instructions). The main thing is, after creating and naming a new profile, to make sure "Don't ask at startup" is NOT ticked. Then, just select or highlight the new profile and click Start Firefox to open Firefox using the new profile.

I found that with the new profile, everything worked brilliantly. So I had got to the bottom of my own particular problem. I carried on surfing for a couple of weeks in this way, selecting the new profile and making sure the freezes and hangs didn't recur. Once I was happy, I ticked "Don't ask at startup", selected the new profile and Start Firefox, and from then on whenever I launched Firefox it would automatically use my new profile.

Migrating profile settings

The final step was to transfer my settings from the old profile to the new one. Now you have to be careful with this because if the problem was with something that went wrong or corrupt in your old profile, then you could end up just transferring the problem across too.

Those with more courage than me and a lot more time on their hands may want to try figuring out and fixing the problem in the original profile. As I'd torn out enough hair on this, I was content just to transfer selected info across from old to new profile. Again the instructions were very clear. I followed their advice and did not copy across:

• the extensions folder, or
• prefs.js,

but instead I reinstalled my key extensions from scratch and set up my preferences from scratch too. Luckily I was able to copy across my bookmarks, history, cookies and saved passwords, which saved a lot of time.

I haven't yet deleted the old profile, but I could now.

I also had to re-set a few extension preferences, the most important (for me personally) being:

• HTML validator opens up with Ctrl-Shift-a, but I use the same hotkeys for adding links in the Blogger post editor. I'd forgotten how to get rid of that - well it was in the Web Developer add-on options, Keys section - I just had to change Ctrl-Shift-a for Validate to something else, and my Blogger hotkeys were working again.
  
• Tab Mix Plus options - in the Display options, Tab bar, I have to tick to display the Close tab button or else I don't know where I am, I really rely on that button! I'd also lost my rightclick context menu "Open links in background tab" option and it took me a while to figure out again that it's only visible in Tab Mix Plus's Menu option (Main Context Menu tab) if in Firefox's main Tools, Options, under Tabs, the box for "When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately" is ticked.
  

Noting your extensions / add-ons

One thing I've learned from this is to make sure I have a list of my key extensions (I had to go into my old profile and painfully endure the hangs again to extract that info).

Easiest lazy way: in Firefox go to the Tools menu, Add-Ons, press the Print Screen key on the keyboard, paste (Ctrl-v) that into Word or a draft Outlook email etc, back to the extensions list, scroll down if necessary, do another screen print and paste again etc, save that document or note - and there's my list! Quick & dirty but it worked for me.

Less primitively, you could backup your fave extensions together with the rest of your profile, or even package up your fave extensions into a single xpi file to reinstall them all at once using CLEO, see below.

Backing up Firefox preferences, profile etc

All this has made me realise I ought to backup my Firefox settings regularly, in case of future disasters.

There are various options:

• manually copy your profile folder somewhere else, or
  
• use a dedicated backup tool like the free FEBE (which can even do scheduled backups, and selective restores). Use it with CLEO if you wish (see the CLEO FAQ - it's easiest to download and save the relevant .xpi files into the same folder on your computer first rather than fish around in your Extensions folder!).
  

Tags: browsers, hangs, freezes, problems, solutions, tips, backups, backing up, Firefox profiles, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience