background preloader

8 hacks to make Firefox ridiculously fast

8 hacks to make Firefox ridiculously fast
Firefox has been outperforming IE in every department for years, and version 3 is speedier than ever. But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations, all for about five minutes work and for the cost of precisely nothing at all. Here's what you need to do. 1. Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Keep in mind that some servers don't support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. 2. Large, complex web pages can take a while to download. Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) somewhere in the window and select New > Integer. Right-click again in the window and select New > Boolean. 3. Type about:config and press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Integer. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

firewall Belkin Tech Support | Belkin Help | Belkin Wireless Router Support - Belkin Router Support 247 Free Computer Security - Personal Software Inspector (PSI) Stay secure by updating insecure programs onyour computer with the Secunia PSI The Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) is a free computer security solution that identifies vulnerabilities in non-Microsoft (third-party) programs which can leave your PC open to attacks. Simply put, it scans software on your system and identifies programs in need of security updates to safeguard your PC against cybercriminals. It then supplies your computer with the necessary software security updates to keep it safe. The Secunia PSI even automates the updates for your insecure programs, making it a lot easier for you to maintain a secure PC. Using a scanner like Secunia PSI 3.0 is complementary to antivirus software, and as a free computer security program, is essential for every home computer. Learn more about PSI in these short videos PSI 3.0 WalkthroughSo simple that anyone can be secure! Tim and DaveShort animated story about security and why Tim is happier than Dave.Watch now (YouTube) Reviews

Quest Timing This page is only for named quests: it should not include Miscellaneous Quests like delivering items unless there is an exceptional unique reward for doing so. [edit] Quests to Start Immediately This section should only include quests with no hard level requirements, and no consequences that impact future events or other possible quests unless the impact is trivial or undesirable anyway, in which case it should be noted regardless. If a quest is only well suited to certain builds, that too should be noted. If a quest has prerequisites, those must also qualify under these rules. [edit] Usable Weapons Greatsword for a Great ManSkill Use: NonePros: Balgruuf's Greatsword (temporarily)Cons: NoneNotes: The delivery quest reward is only 20 gold. PilgrimageSkill Use: NonePros: Alessandra's Dagger (temporarily)Cons: NoneNotes: Begins in Riften. [edit] Useful Items Gather Wheat at Katla's FarmSkill Use: NonePros: A borrowed horse, several minor benefits.Cons: None [edit] Other/Multiple

How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates Do you want to save time when installing Windows 7? You can create a customized installation disc and have it perform an installation without asking you questions, integrate updates and drivers, tweak Windows, and remove Windows components. We’ll be using RT Se7en Lite for this – if you’ve used nLite with Windows XP or vLite with Windows Vista in the past, it works similarly. RT Se7en Lite is a sort of vLite or nLite for Windows 7. Image Credit: bfishadow on Flickr What You’ll Need To do this, you’ll need Windows 7 installed on your computer. WAIK is 1.7 GB, so the download may take a while if you have a slow Internet connection. Run the StartCD.exe file, select Windows AIK Setup, and follow the instructions on your screen to install Windows AIK. You’ll also need a Windows 7 installation source – either a physical disc or ISO file. Next, download and install RT Se7en Lite from here – it’s free and donation-supported. Using RT Se7en Lite

How to Automatically Run Programs and Set Reminders With the Windows Task Scheduler Do you want your computer to automatically run a program, remind you about something, or even automatically send emails? Use the Task Scheduler included with Windows – its interface can be a bit intimidating, but it’s easy to use. The Task Scheduler has a wide variety of uses – anything you want your computer to do automatically, you can configure here. For example, you could use the task scheduler to automatically wake your computer at a specific time. Creating a Basic Task To launch the Task Scheduler, click Start, type Task Scheduler, and click the Task Scheduler shortcut (or press Enter). Click the Create Basic Task link at the right side of the Task Scheduler window. Provide a name and description for the task. Select when you want the task to “trigger,” or start. If you selected daily, weekly, monthly, or one time, you’ll be prompted to specify a specific time for the event to occur. You’re now almost done – Windows will display the details of the task you created.

How to Use An Antivirus Boot Disc or USB Drive to Ensure Your Computer is Clean If your computer is infected with malware, running an antivirus within Windows may not be enough to remove it. If your computer has a rootkit, the malware may be able to hide itself from your antivirus software. This is where bootable antivirus solutions come in. They can clean malware from outside the infected Windows system, so the malware won’t be running and interfering with the clean-up process. The Problem With Cleaning Up Malware From Within Windows Standard antivirus software runs within Windows. Rootkits, a type of malware that hides itself, can be even trickier. The problem here is that the malware and antivirus are both running on the computer at the same time. Why You Should Use an Antivirus Boot Disc Antivirus boot discs deal with this by approaching the malware from outside Windows. This means the antivirus program can work on the Windows installation from outside. These tools are often referred to as “rescue disks.” Bootable Antivirus Options avast!

Secure Yourself by Using Two-Step Verification on These 16 Web Services Two-factor authentication, also known as 2-step verification, provides additional security for your online accounts. Even if someone discovers your password, they’ll need a special one-time code to log in after you enable two-factor authentication on these services. Notably absent from this list are banks and other financial institutions. Google / Gmail Google offers two-factor authentication that secures your Google account, including your Gmail, files in your Google Drive, and everything else. You can even use Google Authenticator apps on your computer without a smartphone, although it’s more secure to do so on a separate device. Facebook Facebook’s “Login Approvals” feature requires you to enter a code whenever you login from an unrecognized computer. LastPass LastPass offers a number of different two-factor authentication options to secure your account. For more information, read our guide to setting up two-factor authentication in LastPass. Dropbox & SpiderOak Microsoft Yahoo! Yahoo!

What Lossless File Formats Are & Why You Shouldn’t Convert Lossy to Lossless Whether you’re dealing with images, music, or video files, it’s important to understand the difference between different types of formats and when to use them. Using the wrong format could ruin a file’s quality or make its file size unnecessarily large. Some types of media file formats are “lossy” and some types are “lossless.” We’ll explain what these terms mean, the advantages of each type of file format, and why you should never convert lossy formats to lossless ones. Compression Explained We use compression to make files smaller, allowing them to download faster and take up less storage space. If we’re just uploading these files to a social network or placing them on a website, we don’t want these image files to take up so much space. Instead, our camera or smartphone converts the image to a JPEG file. Note that lossy formats generally have a setting that controls how lossy they are. Lossless vs. Images: RAW, BMP, and PNG are all lossless image formats. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Which Windows Services Can You Safely Disable? If you want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC, you might consider disabling some of the built-in Windows services. But which ones should you disable? And which ones can you safely disable? Important: Disabling Services is Not a Silver Bullet Here at How-To Geek we’re not big fans of disabling Windows Services – at least, we don’t think that disabling Microsoft services that are built into Windows is a terribly great idea most of the time. Most of them are highly optimized and actually take up almost zero CPU time, and they end up being paged out of active memory to the pagefile, so they aren’t really wasting your system memory anyway. Lest you think we’re crazy, we do recommend disabling services – just not built-in services. If you’re using Windows 8, you’ll find that system services have been even more highly optimized, use less memory, and many of them have been combined to use less running processes at the same time. Just Give Me a List Already

How to Protect Yourself From Java Security Problems if You Can?t Uninstall It For years, Java has been the top source of browser exploits. Even after a recent emergency patch, Java is still vulnerable. To protect ourselves, we should assume that Java is always going to be vulnerable. We’ve already recommended disabling Java completely. However, some people still need Java installed, whether for playing Minecraft or using an old Java applet on their company’s intranet. Remove Java Entirely If You Can! If you don’t use Java for anything, you should uninstall it right now. if it’s installed, you’ll find it in the list of installed programs in your Control Panel. If you can’t uninstall Java yet and still need it, we’ll give you some strategies for mitigating the security problems you face with Java installed. If You Only Use Java Desktop Programs If you need Java installed, there’s a good chance you only use it for desktop programs like Minecraft or the Android SDK. First, open the Java Control Panel by pressing the Windows key, typing Java, and pressing Enter.

Find a Faster DNS Server with Namebench One way to speed up your Internet browsing experience is using a faster DNS server. Today we take a look at Namebench, which will compare your current DNS server against others out there, and help you find a faster one. Namebench Download the file and run the executable (link below). Namebench starts up and will include the current DNS server you have configured on your system. The test starts to run and you’ll see the queries it’s running through. After it’s complete you’ll get a report of the results. It also displays different types of graphs so you can get a better feel for the different results. You can export the results to a .csv file as well so you can present the results in Excel. Conclusion This is a free project that is in continuing development, so results might not be perfect, and there may be more features added in the future. Links Download NameBench for Windows, Mac, and Linux from Google Code Learn More About the Project on the Namebench Wiki Page

How do I create a secure Guest Account in Windows 7? In certain situations, you may want to allow guest users access to a PC. Take the proper steps to ensure that the guest access you grant is secure. In certain environments and situations, you may want to grant guest-user access to a workstation running Microsoft Windows 7. This blog post is also available as a TechRepublic download and a TechRepublic Photo Gallery. Note: This tip applies to Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate only. Secure Guest Account The first step is to enable guest accounts, which is disabled by default. Figure A Find the guest account setting. Navigate the left tree hierarchy to the Users Folder under Local Users and Groups (Figure B). Figure B Enable guest accounts. On the next configuration screen (Figure C), uncheck the Account Is Disabled box to enable guest accounts. Figure C Uncheck to enable. Set password By default, the guest account password is blank, but that is an unnecessary security risk, so you should establish a password. Figure D No network access Figure E

PC Cleaning Apps are a Scam: Here’s Why (and How to Speed Up Your PC) PC cleaning apps are digital snake oil. The web is full of ads for applications that want to “clean your PC” and “make it feel like new.” Don’t pull out your credit card — these apps are terrible and you don’t need them. If you do want to “clean your PC,” you can do it for free. Windows includes built-in PC cleaning tools that can do almost all of what the average PC cleaning app will do for you. Let’s Investigate a PC Cleaning App So what do these apps do, anyway? First, let’s look at its Frequently Asked Questions to see what it promises: “The full, paid version of the MyCleanPC software will attempt to remove issues found with your PC’s registry and hard drive, including removal of junk files, unneeded registry entries, Internet browsing traces, and fragmented portions of your hard drive.” We’re already on thin ice here — Windows can remove junk files, clear Internet browsing traces, and defragment your hard drive without installing additional software. Don’t Believe the Hype

Related: