New window has both Pale Moon button and menu - solution

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On opening a new window in Pale Moon, you may find a "double layer" taking up extra screen space unnecessarily, with the blue Pale Moon button top left (with text not icon) - even if you've chosen to view the menu bar and the original window displays properly. Here's what my new windows look like:

Something odd's going on because it should display the button or the menu bar, not both! Possibly a bug, only started happening recently for me.

Here's my workaround or fix. To get rid of the top "bar", just hide the menu bar by UNticking it - menu View > Toolbars > Menu Bar, so that there's no tick against "Menu Bar":

Then, show it again by using the arrow against the Pale Moon blue button - choose Options, Menu bar:

Now the new window should be normal again:

But be warned, it's more of a workaround than permanent solution because it doesn't solve the problem going forward, and you may have to go through this process all over again for every new window you open in Pale Moon!

Zotero & Pale Moon - "An error has occurred…"

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This post is on how to solve the problem when you get this message in Zotero using Pale Moon:

"An error has occurred. Please restart Pale Moon.
You can report this error by selecting "Report
Errors..." from the Actions (gear) menu."

This forces you to restart Pale Moon, and unfortunately the error will keep recurring randomly as you keep using Pale Moon, which can be very annoying and time-wasting. It must be to do with Zotero's integration with Pale Moon.

Further issues (if you don't restart Pale Moon immediately) - clicking on folders on the left won't display their items list. However, you can save items to the currently-selected Zotero folder - you just can't see the items list or view existing items, and you can't view your webpages tabs properly as the Zotero pane is in the way, blocking your view!

Also, if you get this error message, and you try to use your keyboard shortcut (usually Ctrl-shift-z) or the X icon to the right of the Zotero toolbar to close the Zotero pane, or you open a new Pale Moon window and try to start Zotero there, you'll just get yet another error message:

"There was an error starting Zotero".

Workaround to keep working in Pale Moon (if not Zotero)

First, here's a temporary workaround, just to let you see and save your current webpages or tabs to Zotero.

Hover the mouse over the top of the Zotero pane so it becomes a double headed arrow:

Then click and drag it down to hide the Zotero pane, so that only the Zotero toolbar is showing:

Obviously this gets most of Zotero out of the way of your webpages and tabs, so you can keep saving your then-open webpages to the currently selected folder.

If you need to change folders just drag Zotero back up, click on the name of the correct folder on the left and save the next webpage item, etc.

What's the longer-term solution?

Full solution to "An error has occurred. Please restart Pale Moon…"

The permanent fix I found after some troubleshooting is to disable automatic syncing in the Zotero settings.

1. In the Zotero toolbar, click the Zotero Settings icon (the cog), then Preferences:
   
   
2. Click the Sync tab, then click by "Sync automatically" to UNtick it, and click OK:
   
   
3. Finally, restart Pale Moon.

Since then, I've had no recurrence of the error message. I tested this solution by re-enabling automatic sync in Zotero and, sure enough, the problem came back.

The only downside is that in some ways this is just a workaround because you then have to remember to sync Zotero manually - click the Sync icon  at the right of the Zotero toolbar:

I now tend to do that every day just before I go and have lunch or dinner!

Zotero & Pale Moon - solve Word communication error

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If you get "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox or Zotero Standalone is running and try again", when trying to use the Pale Moon browser (see Pale Moon review) with Zotero and Word in Windows, here's how to solve the problem.

Don't waste your time trying the usual fixes for that communication error, something more specific is needed for Pale Moon. The following worked for me in Windows 7 Pro and Word 2010.

1. Use the 32-bit version of Pale Moon

The 64-bit version has compatibility issues with Zotero, so even if you have a 64-bit computer, it's best to download install the 32-bit version of Pale Moon.

If you've already installed the 64-bit version of Pale Moon, just uninstall it in the usual way (eg for Windows 7) and then install the 32-bit version.

2. Install the Zotero add-on

Install the Zotero for Firefox add-on in Pale Moon in the usual way.

3. Do NOT try to install the Zotero plugin for Word from within Pale Moon

Where you previously had Firefox and Zotero working with Word integration, you should not try to install the Zotero Word plugin again from within Pale Moon. That will just make even more stuff stop working. Tried that, just made things worse for me, Word integration stopped working altogether even with just Firefox open!

(But if you did that already, you can fix it this way: close Word, close Pale Moon for luck, open Firefox and then reinstall the Word plugin for Firefox direct from the Zotero webpage, open Word, and check that you can add citations normally in Word again.)

4. Edit the Zotero Word plugin

After some searching and tinkering (here's where I got the clue about the Startup folder!), I worked out how to implement the required edits.

Do not try to edit Word's normal.dotm file in the Word templates - you can't edit the Zotero macros from there. Instead:

1. Open Word
2. Menu File > Open
3. In the File Open dialog box, click in the top address bar (or press Alt-d), then type or paste in the following:
   %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
   
   
4. Then hit the Enter or Return key, or click the right arrow button outlined in red in the pic above. The correct sub-folder will open.
5. Open the Zotero.dot file in that sub-folder. You'll just get a blank Word document.
6. Now in that Word document, press Alt-F11 (ie hold down the left Alt key and tap the F11 key). A new window will open, with the title "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications - Zotero". Click on "Project (Zotero) on the left to highlight it:
   
7. Next go to menu Tools, choose Macros, and you'll see this pop up:
   
   
8. Click on "ZoteroInsertCitation" to highlight it, as shown above, then click the Edit button, and a sub-window should open up.
9. Now find the section that reads:
   ' Try various names for Firefox
       Dim appNames(5)
       appNames(1) = "Zotero"
       appNames(2) = "Firefox"
       appNames(3) = "Browser"
       appNames(4) = "Minefield"
       For i = 1 To 4
   (you can search for 'various names' to get there - menu Edit Find or Ctrl-f)
10. You need to make two changes
    1. insert the line:
           appNames(5) = "Pale Moon"
       after the appNames(4) line.
    2. change the 4 to read 5 in the "For" line
       
    so  it now looks like this:
    
11. Now go to the menu, File Save Zotero, and close that window, then close Zotero.dot.

5. Further tips on using Zotero with Pale Moon

Don't have both Firefox and Pale Moon open! Just have Pale Moon open to insert citations etc from your Pale Moon Zotero library.

Syncing. You can transfer your Zotero library to Pale Moon by syncing it from Firefox to the Zotero Sync Server, then (using the same username and password) syncing it again in Pale Moon - it may take some time each way. If you don't already have a free Zotero account to enable syncing, it's worth creating an account, if only for the peace of mind with backups!

PDFs. Yes you can view PDFs in Pale Moon and add PDFs to Zotero using Pale Moon. You just need PDF plug-ins for Pale Moon. (Added 17 June)

Credits: this forum and patch. I just added some shortcuts and screenshots!

Fix Pale Moon migration tool problem

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There's a migration tool to move all your Firefox settings, bookmarks, add-ons etc to the Pale Moon browser (see Pale Moon review and tips). This post is on how to sort out one problem you may get with the too.

Before you start

Before you consider using the migration tool, you need to note a couple of things (and see the limitations listed on the migration tool page):

1. It may be best to set up everything clean, from scratch, in Pale Moon - download your fave extensions, tweak their settings as you like them, etc. This would avoid carrying over any possible problems with corrupt or odd settings etc from Firefox. It's more time-consuming to do, but I think it's well worth it (as do others), and this is what I did personally.
2. If you have multiple Firefox profiles, the tool only moves the default profile - if you don't know what multiple profiles are, you're probably not using them! (I only have multiple profiles myself because problems with previous Firefox profiles caused me to create new ones and I haven't deleted the old profiles yet just in case).

Using the migration tool

If you've opened Pale Moon at least once before trying the migration tool, you should do this first before launching the tool (you'll see why later):

1. Go to your existing Pale Moon profile folder (how to find your Pale Moon profile)
2. Make a note of the full name of the profile folder, eg 12a34b78.username. Better still, copy/paste the name somewhere.

Make sure you close both Firefox and Pale Moon before running the tool, and say Yes to overwrite the current minimal profile data, if you're trying this tool this right after installation.

How to fix the Pale Moon migration problem - possible solution

This suggestion seemed to involve a lot of steps so I tried something else, and it worked! Below is solution I came up with (which hopefully will help some people, but if it doesn't you could try the more drastic one - at your own risk!).

If you've had problems with the migration tool, where it looks like no settings have transferred over from Firefox (see next section):

1. Make sure you've closed Pale Moon and it's not running.
2. Go to your Pale Moon profiles folder (here's how).
3. If you see not one, but two, sub-folders inside the profiles folder (each named with a mix of characters and numbers), you're in luck!
   
   
4. One of those profile folders will be the same as the original profile folder whose name you noted in the previous section (before you ran the migration tool). The other profile folder will be completely new.
5. Note down the full filename of the new profile folder (you'd have noted the name of the other profile folder earlier, but if not, note it now, so that you know which name is for the original folder and which is for the new one).
6. Now, rename the original profile folder - anything different, eg old.blah.
7. Next, rename the new profile folder so that its name is exactly the same as that of the original folder (whose name you noted at the start before you ran the migration tool).
8. (If you've already run the migration tool without noting down the name of the original profile folder, don't despair - look at the modified dates of the two folders. The older one is likely to be the original folder. Also, look inside the profile folder, at the "extension" sub-folder. The profile folder that contains your Firefox extensions, that you tried to migrate over, will be the new profile folder.)
9. When you start Pale Moon again, the settings etc should have transferred over this time.
10. If you made a mistake and renamed the wrong folders, and Pale Moon won't work or still doesn't show the transferred settings, just close it, get the filenames from your notes and try the above again the other way round!

Further action. When you start Pale Moon after all that:

1. it may say that the Classic Theme Restorer isn't compatible etc. That's fine, you don't need it with Pale Moon
2. the Status Bar may not be visible - you may have to rightclick the empty space to the right of the tabs and:
   1. tick the Status Bar (and also Menu, etc as you wish) to display it, then
   2. rightclick the same place again, choose Customize, then drag the Status text, Progress etc, and other icons down to the status bar as you wish.

Explanation? What seems to have happened in this particular case (though there might well be other problems with the migration tool) is that, although I'd asked for the old basic profile to be overwritten, the tool had failed to do that, but had created a brand new profile instead, in a separate profile folder, containing all the transferred settings. However, Pale Moon wouldn't recognise the new profile folder (even using Profile Manager, it claimed there was only one profile there - the original one that should have been overwritten). By renaming the original folder to something else, and giving the new profile folder the same name as the original profile folder, Pale Moon was made to recognise the new profile. Sorted!

(To save you trying this: what didn't work was deleting the original profile folder. Pale Moon wouldn't start at all when I tried that. Hence the rename trick.)

Background - problems with the migration tool

In case you got similar error messages, here are the background details.

I tested the tool on a friend's Windows Vista PC who had only one Firefox profile. It started out fine, it seemed to find the right folders so I clicked "Copy profile":

It seemed to progress OK, eg saying that Status-4-Evar wasn't needed in Pale Moon (which it isn't):

But the migration tool didn't seem to work! A message kept popping up, where I had to keep clicking "Continue" multiple times:
Script Control
The script you are executing is taking longer than expected to run. Click End to abort the script or Continue to continue script execution.

And then I got a message:
Copyfolder - Error Number: 76
Error Source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error
Desc: Path not found

It listed the paths just to the Firefox and Pale Moon folders in AppData (but not the specific profile sub-folders).

And inexplicably it ended with "Status: Completed", suggesting the transfer had worked, and that you could just click "Exit":

However, when I reopened Pale Moon it seemed that nothing had been migrated! No extra add-ons were visible, no bookmarks were moved, etc.

The rename trick explained in the previous section solved the problem.

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.

Windows 7 "audio service is not running" - solved

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If you get no sound, and there's a white cross on red background against the speaker icon in your Windows 7 system tray (bottom right hand side), with the message "The Audio Service is not running" when you hover your mouse over the speaker icon, there is often a simple solution to this problem.

Restarting the audio service usually works to fix the lack of audio sounds in Win 7 (follow this link for instructions on how), just like it usually does in Vista.

A simpler solution may be to just move your volume slider (click the speaker icon then move the slider).

Powerpoint 2010 too slow to update slides? Fix

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Here's how to fix very slow display of text and pics on Powerpoint 2010 / 2007 slides on the screen, whenever you change or even edit slides? A big annoyance - it affects productivity, as sometimes Powerpoint becomes unresponsive and won't refresh, redraw or update the screen at all unless you change slides away and back (only a workaround, and slows things down).

Below is a step by step 'howto' solution to solve this problem of the slow graphics rendering in Powerpoint (others have solved it by changing to the Windows 7 Basic theme, this suggestion has the same effect, on my system at least, and changes the theme for you when you use the shortcut icon concerned to launch Powerpoint):

1. Rightclick the shortcut icon that you use to start Powerpoint
2. Choose "Properties" from the menu
3. Now click the "Compatibility" tab (outlined in red below)
   
   
4. Make sure "Disable desktop composition" is ticked as shown (also outlined in red, above).
5. Then click "OK".

That's it. Worked for me on a Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit desktop, Powerpoint is a zillion times faster now. I hope it works for you too.

Thanks qwerty15!

Background - after a recent Windows update I started getting this problem of Powerpoint is displaying slides too slowly (and it seems a common problem) when moving between or editing slides.

Stop spam event invites displaying in Google Calendar

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Have you had events appear in your Google Calendar from people that you don't know? Anything from fraudulent requests for money to other stuff like pron. They appear without your accepting the invite, taking up space in your calendar, and you can't delete them without hitting "Decline". A real annoyance.

I recently helped a friend troubleshoot to prevent such spam event invitations showing up in her Google Calendar.

Others have already produced howtos, so I'm posting links to some pages providing the solution to stopping spam invites from appearing in your Google Calendar - the main fix being to set "Automatically add invitations to my calendar" to "No":

• with screenshot - the best one, as it has a screenshot that also mentions disabling "Show events you have declined" (ie set that to "No"), which may help
• similar advice

This way you'll still get emails of invitations, which you can choose to accept or decline (or 'maybe'), but the events won't automatically get added to your diary even before you'd chosen to take any of those actions.

But I'd add one more comment. Some people have suggested hitting "Decline" on the invites in question, to stop them from displaying in your Google Calendar, ie get rid of the spam events completely from your calendar.

My reservation about that is that it may send an email back to the spammer, so that they know that your Gmail address is active, and can keep on sending you spam calendar invitations or spam email!

When I set "Automatically add invitations…" to "No" for my friend, doing that immediately stopped the spam event from showing in her Google Calendar. And it didn't send the spammer anything to prompt them to keep pushing spam calendar invites to her!

So I'd recommend trying to disable "Automatically add.." first, before you start hitting "Decline" or "Reject" or the like on the spam event. And only if it doesn't work, consider doing that.

Error 0x80070052 The directory or file cannot be created - can't delete files - solution

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Can't delete folders or files? I kept getting error code 0x80070052 in Windows when trying to delete files, and they just wouldn't delete. Bit of a problem.

However I found that I could permanently delete files (hold down Shift when selecting Delete or pressing the Del key). Ie bypassing the Recycle Bin.

I kicked myself when I realised the answer was simple. Just empty the recycle bin first! (Just rightclick it and choose Empty, for those unfamiliar with the process. It make take a while.) Then you can delete documents, pictures and other files again.

Nothing to do with file or folder rights or permissions, just as well as I couldn't take ownership of files where I was already the owner!

I just wish the error code was "Recycle Bin too full, please empty it!". That would have been rather more helpful.

Hope my posting this tip saves others some searching.

(If you get error 0x80070052 with USB flash drives apparently the solution there is to move files at the root into an existing folder, or new folder if you can create it.)

Canon MF4100 series - scanner problem? Solved!

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If your Canon multi-function scanner has suddenly stopped working and won't scan, and you're troubleshooting error messages like "Unable to open TWAIN source", "Cannot open TWAIN source", "Source initialization failed" on trying to scan, here's an easy solution to the problem that's worth trying.

I've not tried it on other i-Sensys MF4100 imageClass series devices, like MF4120 or MF4140, but it worked like a charm on my MF4150. In my case the scanner function on my Canon i-Sensys MF4150 LaserBase laser multifunction printer, copier, scanner and fax suddenly started playing up and it wouldn't scan anything, whatever application I tried to use, even though the printer and copier worked fine.

The MF Toolbox app appeared but, although previously it would automatically scan to PDF, nothing happened after that, no matter what buttons I clicked. Similarly with other scanning apps I tried, like Abbyy Finereader - I just got error messages.

I thought I'd have to reinstall the drivers, but on searching I found a great solution from Jeff Widmer which worked instantly - no rebooting, no unplugging etc! I'm posting it here, with slightly quicker steps.

So here's the step by step on how to get the scanner on your Canon MF4100 series multi-function device working again, for Windows 7 but you could try it for Vista and see (for techies: you just need to add a TWAIN folder's path to PATH):

1. Open Windows Explorer or Computer, and navigate to
   C:\Windows\twain_32.
2. Inside the twain_32 there should be another folder, open that folder too (in my case it's named "MF4100", yours may have a different name eg MF4120).
3. Now hold down the Alt key and tap d. This changes and highlights what's in the Windows Explorer address bar.
   
   
4. Just press Ctrl-c (hold down Ctrl, tap c) to copy that highlighted address line to your clipboard (or if you prefer the mouse, rightclick on that address and copy it in the usual way).
5. Now go to your System Properties:
1. The fastest way is to click the Windows Start icon bottom left, type in the search box (without the quotes) "sysdm.cpl" and hit Enter or click the Search icon.
2. The slower way is to rightclick the Computer icon on your desktop, choose Properties, then on the left click Advanced System Settings.
6. Make sure you're in the Advanced tab by clicking on "Advanced" at the top if necessary.
7. At the bottom of the Advanced tab, click the "Environment Variables" button.
   
   
8. In the box that pops up, in the top half (under "User variables"), check under the first column, Variable, and find the variable named "PATH".
   
   
9. Either doubleclick on the PATH line, or single click on it then click Edit. You should get something like this:
   
   
   
10. You'll see the "Variable value" box usually has a long line of text already in there, highlighted. Be careful NOT to delete anything in that line (click Cancel and try again, if you delete anything by accident). Instead, go to the very end of that line (you can click into the box, then use the arrow keys to go right to the end, or just hit the right arrow key once without clicking anything and you'll be there).
11. Now at the end of that box, type in a semicolon ie ;
    Then paste in (Ctrl v) what you copied in step 4 above. No need to add any spaces anywhere, just the semicolon and the copied stuff. Here's what mine looked like after that:
    
    
12. Then OK everything. In my case, my scanner immediately started working again, even without a reboot!

If that didn't work, you may need to try reinstalling the drivers. In the case of my MF4150 you have to install the drivers while the device is NOT plugged in to the computer via USB (or dire things may happen and the whole device may not work), but in other cases you can just plug it in, so you have been warned! For the MF4150 you'd unplug the USB cable from the printer/scanner, uninstall the device in Device Manager, reinstall the drivers from the CD (trying to download the latest ones from Canon's site first) and then plug in the USB cable again. Here are Microsoft's instructions on installing/uninstalling drivers for scanners.

I also found a very long thread on (different) fixes for the Canon MP Navigator, which you could try if you've no luck with any of the above - but with Jeff Widmer's fix I didn't need to!

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.

Nexus 7 - how to install Flash to view BBC iPlayer & other sites

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Some websites, like BBC iPlayer, won't work on your Google / Asus Nexus 7. This post gives step by step instructions for beginners on how to get Flash on your Nexus 7 so you can watch or listen to BBC iPlayer TV or radio, and play videos or music on other websites that require Flash like Demand Five or 4od (the ITV Player app does work on the Nexus 7 but the iPlayer app isn't compatible yet).

The tips below represent the easiest solution I've found to add or enable Flash quickly on your Nexus 7, without having to "root" your device (as eg this post suggests) or take any other more complicated steps, thanks to this helpful post and others I found. (There's a risk that rooting may void your warranty.) I didn't need to install an older file Flash apk then update it to a newer one as mentioned here, it just worked with one file, the latest one.

You'll also then need to install and use a compatible browser, as the Google Chrome browser that's provided as standard with the Nexus 7 won't play Flash movies or music etc, even after you've installed Flash. I also explain how to install and use some alternative browsers, below. The problem and background are at the very end, I imagine readers will want the howto first!

How to install Flash on the Nexus 7 - the best way!

So here's the best workaround to solve the problem of Flash not working on the Nexus 7. (It's not really troubleshooting or fixing a bug, it's a workaround - for a situation that was deliberately intended by product suppliers.)

The Nexus 7 is set up as standard to let users install apps only via the Google Play Store. If you want to install an app like the Flash Player using an app installation file that you've dwnloaded, it won't let you do that - unless you change a default setting.

So we'll change that setting first, then download the Flash installation file, then install it on the device direct from the file- aka "sideloading". (In Windows, files to install programs / applications usually end with .exe or .msi - in Android, the operating system used by the Nexus 7, they end with .apk).

1. (Optional, but may make life easier)  On your Nexus s7, tap the Google Play store icon (the shopping bag icon in your Favorites tray):
   
   Search (magnifying glass icon) to find and install a file manager app like ES File Explorer File Manager, Astro File Manager or File Manager HD.
   
   (For beginners - if you view this blog post in the standard Chrome browser on your Nexus 7, tapping the links above will take you straight there, and you can then tap the Install button to install the app.)
2. Go to the Settings on your Nexus 7 - ie swipe down the notification shade from the top of the screen, and tap the Settings icon, outlined in red blow.
   
   
3. In the PERSONAL section, tap the word "Security":
   
   
4. In the Security settings screen, under the DEVICE ADMINISTRATION SECTION tick "Unknown Sources" (this is to let you install an app from a file on your Nexus 7 - otherwise, it just won't let you). Tap OK to confirm you really want to change this setting:
   
   
5. Now tap open a browser on your Nexus 7, it's easiest to use the Chrome browser that's provided as standard:
   
   
6. In your Nexus 7 browser, download the Adobe Flash Player app installation file by tapping this link (the link just given is the direct link to the file that's attached to the bottom of this helpful forum post - if tapping the direct installation file link in your browser doesn't work, you could try going to that forum post and then tapping on the com.adobe.flashplayer-2.apk link from there). A message should flash up very briefly on screen about the download.
   
   Note: here are some other links from which you may be able to download that apk file, though I've not tried them myself.
7. Now, find the downloaded apk file on your Nexus 7 and tap it to install Flash. There are two ways:
   1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to open your notification shade, then tap on the com.adobe.flashplayer-2.apk  "Download complete" notification, and tap to confirm the installation:
      
      
      OR
   2. Open the file manager you installed in step 1, browse to the Download folder (a sub-folder of the "sdcard" folder), then tap on the com.adobe.flashplayer-2.apk file and confirm the installation. Here's some screenshots using ES File Explorer:
      
      
8. Now go back to the Security settings to UNtick the "Unknown sources" setting again, see steps 2 to 2, for security. Whenever you want to install an app from an apk file in future, you can just enable that setting again, install the app, then disable it after installation.)
9. Note: if tapping the downloaded apk file in step 7 didn't work, try installing an app installer like Fast Installer, then tapping the apk file again. But it should work.

How to play media from Flash sites on the Nexus 7 - use browsers that support Flash!

To actually view Flash sites after you've installed Flash on your Nexus 7, the supplied Chrome browser won't work. That's the way it is, and Google won't be supporting Flash in its Android Chrome browser.

So you have to install a third party browser, and use that in order to view iPlayer or other sites that require Flash.

2 browsers I've tried so far work: Firefox Alpha (Mozilla Aurora) and xScope (free and paid) - hat tip. (Again, those links should take you direct to the installation pages where you can tap to install them.)

But be warned - these are all workarounds, Flash is not officially supported on Android Jelly Bean (the Nexus 7's operating system), so you need to be prepared for random crashes when browsing Flash sites, having to close and restart your browser etc - especially if you try to go to full screen mode (just resizing the page is safest), or leave the page after you've started playing the media, or even just try to pause a video.

Also, different browsers seem to play differently on different sites. So if your favourite Flash site doesn't work well with eg Firefox Beta, try Aurora or XScope etc instead. So far, iPlayer generally works well on Aurora. But different sites eg Demand Five  or 4od may be better in another browser - you just need to try them out (bearing in mind that going full screen may crash the browser, although again iPlayer in Aurora seems relatively OK).

How to use Mozilla Firefox Beta to view Flash sites

Firefox "proper" won't install from the Play Store on the Nexus 7 just yet.

But Firefox Beta, which you can install from the Play Store using that link, does work. Don't worry if you installed Firefox Beta before trying to install Flash Player - all this should still work.

I should note first though that Firefox Alpha, Aurora, seems more stable with Flash, so it may be best to use that for viewing Flash sites - I cover Aurora later, it's very similar.

To use Firefox with Flash sites, first you have to check its Settings to make sure Flash is always enabled, then you need to ensure that iPlayer and other sites won't divert you to the mobile "no Flash" version when you try to browse there.

Here are step by step instructions on how to do that:

1. Open Firefox, go to the Menu (3 vertical squares, top right) and choose Settings - outlined in blue below:
   
   
    
2. In the Settings, under the CONTENT section, tap Plugins:
   
   
    
3. Then make sure Enabled OR "Tap to play" is selected (ie NOT "Disabled"), and you can use the Back navigation button to return to the browser.
   
   What's the difference? "Tap to play" is more secure; if you pick "Enabled" and visit a malicious website it could automatically run Flash and install malware on your device. This may be more likely with desktop computers than portable devices and apparently it has never happened with Android, although malware has been disguised as an Android Flash Player. But still, if you want to play it safe, use "Tap to play" - then, you need to positively tap on the video or audio to play it, but you'd only do that on sites you trust, right..? Personally I went for "Enabled", but it's at your own risk and all that.
   
   
   
4. Highly recommended: in Firefox, browse to the Phony extension's webpage by tapping that link I gave, then tap "Add to Firefox" to install that add-on.
   1. Now, open the Firefox Menu (the 3 vertical squares), and there will be a new Phony item in the list. Tap on the Phony menu item, then under "Select User Agent" tap the word "Default":
      
      
   2. A list will open up - find "Desktop Firefox", tap on that, then tap "OK".
      
      
   3. Now go back to the Menu and choose Quit at the end to close Firefox. (That's because I found I had to restart Firefox before Phony would work.) Then re-open Firefox, and browse away on Flash sites!
5. Alternative: if you use Flash sites only occasionally and don't want to install Phony, before visiting the site you must first go to the Menu and make sure "Request Desktop Site" is ticked (outlined in red below). Then in the same tab of the browser (do NOT open a new tab), browse to BBC iPlayer or another Flash site, and Flash movies or audio should then hopefully play.
   The downside of this is that, without Phony, you must remember to tick "Request Desktop Site") every single time in a tab, before you visit a Flash site in that tab, as it won't automatically "save" that preference.
   Also, on Firefox Beta, before installing Phony and setting it to "Desktop Firefox" I couldn't get BBC iPlayer radio shows (listen again) to play at all, although it would play iPlayer television programmes.
   Finally, with BBC iPlayer at least, even after ticking "Request Desktop Site" you may have to keep trying to reload the page or going to it again via a link on a search engine results page, as sometimes it still diverts you to the annoying "not supported" page shown towards the end of this post. This doesn't happen with Phony. Which is why I highly recommend using it!
   
    
6. Note: sometimes, on some sites, you will still have to tap on the video or audio in order to kickstart Flash, even if you've selected "Enabled" instead of "Tap to play".
7. With iPlayer TV: don't use the "popup" icon (the two overlapping rectangles) as that won't work - instead, use the Full screen icon, outlined in red below:
   
   
8. Feature request: if only Mozilla would provide a setting for Firefox mobile to permanently request desktop sites so a third party add-on wasn't needed! (and in portrait view moved the Menu button to the navigation bar at the bottom - I keep hitting tabs inadvertently when trying to get to the Menu in portrait orientation!)
9. Full screen, and avoiding crashes:  updated: be patient and don't tap on the video before it has finished loading and shows the play arrow on the video itself, otherwise it may crash. Also remember, it's best generally to avoid full screen mode. Full screen may work sometimes with iPlayer, but with other UK TV sites like 4od etc, it may crash the browser, and you'll have to close it and restart it again! Workaround - the best fix to get close to full screen, from combining tips and tricks from a couple of forum postings, is this:
1. on your Nexus 7, download and install the free Full Screen add-on
2. when you need full screen, activate the add-on through the Firefox menu (you may need to scroll down the menu items list to find "Full screen")
3. start playing the video, and then double tap on the video to enlarge it almost to full screen
4. to come out of full screen, press and hold (aka "long press") on the webpage and choose "Exit" out of full screen.

How to use xScope for Flash sites

xScope (free and paid versions) is another browser option which needs fewer steps than Firefox to set up and use.

Once you've installed and opened xScope, you just need to check its Settings to make sure Flash is enabled. Here's how:

1. Go to xScope's Settings by tapping the menu icon (3 vertical squares, top right) then tap Settings:
   
   

2. On the xScope Settings page, in the "WEB PAGE" section, I chose to tick "Auto load flash" (but bear in mind the note under the Firefox Beta section above about the risks of auto-loading flash if you visit a malicious website - you have been warned!):

   
3. You  can now visit BBC iPlayer and other Flash-using sites via xScope, and Flash should just work. But note that, sometimes, as with Firefox, you do still have to tap on the video or audio in order to kickstart Flash. Or, of course, if you haven't set Flash to auto-load. And remember to avoid full screen mode. 
4. One more precaution: it might be best to stop auto-update for xScope, in case a future version of the browser comes out that disables Flash. (This is a real risk - the Dolphin browser for example no longer supports Flash, whereas an earlier version of it does, though on some pages it may crash on switching to full screen). So here's how to disable the auto-update:

   1. Open the Google Play store on your Nexus 7 (shopping bag icon, see step 1), then get to your lists of installed apps by tapping the down arrow icon at the top:

      

   2. Now in the apps list, tap on the name of the app you need to change auto-update for, in this case xScope:

      
   3. Finally, on the xScope screen in the Play store, UNtick "Allow Automatic Updating". (You can retick it again if you're absolutely sure the developer won't disable Flash support in a future release!):
      
      

 

What about other browsers, do they support Flash?

You can also use Firefox Alpha (Aurora) - just download its apk file from this page (the one that worked for me was called fennec-16.0a2.en-US.android-arm.apk - version 14 didn't work, for instance). Then install it in the same way as you installed Adobe Flash Player above, making sure you tick the "Unknown sources" security setting first, check the Flash setting, and install and set the Phony add-on as with Firefox Beta (or check "Request Desktop Site" is ticked every time before you visit a Flash site).

Here are screenshots for Firefox Aurora, it's much the same as with Beta, but it's your choice as to "Tap to play" or "Enabled", and don't forget you need to tick Request Desktop Site every single time:

An earlier version of the Dolphin browser has been mentioned above as working, and I've checked it works with iPlayer radio  - but it crashes if you try to go to full screen with iPlayer video or YouTube, and presumably other sites too. (If you already have Dolphin you should uninstall it first before installing that earlier version - go to the same screen for Dolphin as for automatic updating, above, and tap Uninstall.)

Maxthon was reported to work but for me unfortunately the HD tablet version kept crashing on trying to pause a video, or just trying to access the menu or settings. The mobile (non-HD) version of Maxthon did work, and you can also in Maxthon enable Flash automatically (via its menu - bottom right navigation bar, choose Options, Browser settings, change "Flash on demand" to "Always on") - similar to what I've shown for the browsers above. Otherwise, you'd have to tap on a Flash video or audio in order to play it.

Tip: with Maxthon mobile in landscape view, you can't see the address bar in which to type a URL - you have to swipe down the grey horizontal lines in the curve, kinda like a tab, outlined in red below:Then voila you can see the address bar!:

Unfortunately I couldn't get Flash to work in either Opera Mini or Opera Mobile.

While Puffin has been said to work, I personally wouldn't use it as (1) they've enabled Flash on the free version only for the London Olympics period, so Flash may stop working in it after that, and (2) BBC iPlayer radio works in Puffin, but if I try iPlayer TV, it won't work as the site then seems to think I'm not in the UK (whereas I am):

The Boat browser also reportedly works (in the Settings check under Page content settings, Enable flash/plug-ins first) - but for me it always crashed after starting to play iPlayer video.

Sleipnir wouldn't work for me at all, even with all plug-ins enabled.

If anyone knows of other browsers that reliably support Flash on the Nexus 7, please let me know.

The problem - BBC iPlayer and other Flash sites don't work on Nexus 7 out of the box!

Your shiny new Google / Asus Nexus 7 unfortunately won't play BBC iPlayer video or audio, or indeed media on other websites that use Adobe Flash. You may get screens like these:

"Your phone does not support BBC iPlayer":

Or you may get, "You need to install Flash":

But… if you then try to install Flash Player from the Play Store, you may get… "Your device isn't compatible with this version"!:

Background to the Nexus 7 Flash issue

A big disappointment with Google's Nexus 7 Android tablet is this lack of support for Flash, which is used by BBC iPlayer and many other websites for displaying videos or playing music or other audio.

Adobe recently withdrew support for Flash on Android devices and other mobile browsers, although this move was presaged in late 2011. If you try to install Adobe's Flash Player browser plugin from the Google Play Store to your Nexus 7, it won't let you.

While that's really down to Adobe, not Google, it's still a pity that Google didn't provide at least some support for Flash in its Chrome browser in the Nexus 7, given that the tablet is being heavily publicised as a media player - that omission is in my view a Google Gaffe. Indeed, a friend told me that being able to watch or listen to BBC iPlayer TV or radio ("listen again") in bed was a major reason why he'd ordered a Nexus 7, and I suspect the same goes for many other Nexus 7 buyers.

Adobe envisaged that the ultimate solution to this issue would be for websites to eventually move to providing their media using the open HTML5 standard, instead of using Flash.

Unfortunately, that's going to take some time - there are real problems today because many, if not most, websites on which people generally want to view videos or audio don't use HTML 5, but still rely on Flash. So users have been left in the lurch, until sites update their content to migrate to using HTML 5.