According to a data from Netmarketshare, Firefox is the third most-used web browser worldwide. Right behind Google Chrome and Internet Explorer (discontinued, replaced with Microsoft Edge).

Whether you use Firefox as your primary web browser or just as a replacement when you are getting bored with your Google Chrome (or Microsoft Edge, I don’t know), you will need these tips to speed up your Firefox performance.

1. Change the default values of some essentials Config

Firefox has a Config menu that you can access by typing “about:config” (without quotes) on the address bar. The Config menu at Firefox is similar to Windows’s Registry. You need to have a basic knowledge before changing any value.

Below are some values that you can change to make your Firefox runs faster.

Set browser.tabs.animate to False
Set browser.download.animateNotifications to False
Set browser.preferences.animateFadeIn to False
Set browser.fullscreen.animate to 0
Set security.dialog_enable_delay to 0
Set network.prefetch-next to False (Only on slow Internet connections)
Set network.http.pipelining to True

Note: Double click to change each value

2. Change the default value of Shockwave Flash plugin to Ask to Activate

There are some sites that keep using Adobe Flash to deliver multimedia contents. By default, Firefox comes with an activated plugin called Shockwave Flash to allow accessing flash multimedia files. Loading every flash content leads your Firefox to slowing down. To avoid this, you can change the default value of Shockwave Flash from “Always Activate” to “Ask to Active”. This option requires flash content to be clicked before it’s loaded.

• Go to Tools –> Add-ons and choose Plugin on the sidebar.
• Click the drop down button and change the value to “Ask to Active”.

3. Never install add-ons that drain your memory

Yes, there are countless add-ons of Firefox that you can use to maximize your Firefox since not all Firefox default features can meet your need. However, you have to choose those add-ons wisely in order to keep your Firefox away from getting lag. But, how to see if an add-on consume more memory?

Unlike Google Chrome, Firefox has no built-in Task manager to enable you monitoring the memory usage of each add-on. Thankfully, there are some light add-ons to accomplish this. Task Manager for instance. This add-on is similar to Google Chrome’s that enable you monitoring CPU and memory usage of each add on. Additionally, you can also use “about:addons-memory 2016” add-on to check the active plugin memory usage.

4. Disable Firefox animations

Back to Config menu. You can disable the Firefox animations to lighten its load. To do this, you can type “about:config” (without quotes) in the address bar for accessing Config menu. Search for “animate” in the search bar and change their values to false like shown at the screen shoot below. Double click on each Value to change the value.

5. Unload the unused tabs

Every Firefox user is never enough working with single tab. Keep in mind that opening a new tab means that you give a new task to Firefox. Every tab you are open has various of memory consumption, depending on what kind of site. Managing those tabs can keep and control the memory consumption of Firefox. But how to manage them?.

You can trust a useful add-on called Auto Unload Tab. While those tabs keep opened, they will not be loaded unless you switch to one of them.

6. Free up memory

Continuously using Firefox means that there will be so much files stored in your cache memory. This is one of the causes that make your Firefox running slowly. Cleaing it up will make your Firefox fresh again. To do this, type “about:memory” in the address bar and hit enter. On the opening page, click on the “Minimize memory usage” button under the “Free memory”.

7. Install add-ons to speed up Firefox

Not every add-on will drain your memory and make your Firefox being exhausted. Instead, there are some that will maximize every aspect of Firefox to make it running faster. Here are some useful add-ons you can consider.

• Image Block: As its name, this add-onds will not allow any images be loaded on your Firefox. If you don’t mind browing without images, then for this one.
• Speed Tweaks: This extension can make all the tweaks we have done above in the about:config page and some additional ones as well to increase speed. You can also do all this manually, but this extension makes it a one-click process.

8. Refresh Firefox

Lust but not least. The last thing that you can try to speed up your Firefox performance is by refreshing your Firefox. Type “about:support” on the address bar and you will see some information related to your Firefox on a new page. On the top right side of this page you will see a Refresh Firefox button. Pressing this button means that you will restore your Firefox to its default settings. All your data (including add-ons) will also be removed.