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The Firefox browser is a fast, secure and flexible alternative to Internet Explorer
Surf the internet quickly and safely with Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a very impressive web browser that has several advantages over Internet Explorer. It is open source and so free to download and use.
Firefox 15 is more efficient with system memory when browsing with addons, offers better performance in browser based games
Read more: Web browser reviews
Firefox 9 added the ability to disable third party addons by default. This gives you more control over what the browser is doing.
The installation wizard can import settings from Internet Explorer including the home page. The welcome to Firefox page has some example Personas, links to Firefox on Facebook and Twitter, and a link to the Add-ons site.
Tabs are above the address bar and there is a single button to access the different menu options. The tabs can be moved back beneath the address bar if you want.
Tabs can also be arranged in groups. There is an icon for this on the right hand side of the Firefox Window. This shows a preview of all the open tabs that can be dragged into different groups. Groups can be named and when you click on them they open with those tabs. This makes it ideal for situations when you want several tabs open for a particular job. It's similar to the tab grouping in Opera but makes better use of the tab bar so long as you can remember which tabs go in which groups.
There is even a search feature for the groups. Click on the magnifying glass icon and a bar will appear. Tabs that match the search term will be highlighted.
Tabs can be added to groups via the right-click menu.
Another useful option in this menu is to add tabs as an App tab. These tabs just show the site favicon and are pinned to the left hand side of the tab bar. This is another clever way that Firefox keeps tabs manageable.
Personas are themes for Firefox that change the background behind the toolbars at the top and bottom of the Firefox window. There are over 180,000 to choose from and they are arranged by categories.
One very clever feature is that the Personas are previewed when the cursor hovers over the Persona pictures. There are also instructions on how to make your own Personas.
A more powerful part of Firefox is the ability to install add-ons to add extra features to Firefox. Some of these are quite simple and others are very powerful web design tools such as Firebug and Web Developer toolbar.
Downloads are saved into a separate folder in My Documents and the Downloads tool is a handy reference. It can be used to copy the download link and to open the folder the file was saved into. The latter is very useful if you can't remember where a file is.
The history tool records all of the websites that have been viewed and can browse pages by date or by searching by keywords.
If you don't want your browsing history recorded, Firefox also comes with a Private Browsing mode, which is useful if you want to look at webmail or other personal webpages on a shared computer. Unlike Opera, which opens a private tab, Firefox starts a whole new window, which does at least make it harder to accidently enter passwords into a normal tab.
Firefox can save web links as bookmarks and there is a bookmark toolbar. It can also subscribe to RSS news feeds using bookmarks and they appear in a bookmark folder.
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Firefox 4
Have downloaded Firefox 4 after trying IE9 and it's much better than is rival. Well done to the developers.
Posted by A Stocks, 26 Mar 2011
firefox 4
its the worst browser ive used,it disables everything that u have,ie safe log-ins etc
Posted by Edgar Mills, 28 Mar 2011
Updates
Where is the Firefox Update that used to be under the Help menu?
Posted by Diane Bhattacharjee, 31 Mar 2011
Firefox 4
For some reason, web searches via the toolbars freeze everything and I have to end the prog via Task Mgr. Not a happy bunny!
Posted by A. Read, 01 Apr 2011
Updates
Good point about updates. I checked whether my install is up to date by clicking on the Firefox button, Help, About Firefox. Don't click on Help just hover the mouse over it to show the next menu level. The small window that appears checks whether Firefox is up to date. It may well be that Firefox is going to start installing updates automatically, or at least warn of updates without making you do so by hand. Kind regards Tim
Posted by Tim Smith, 04 Apr 2011
firefox 4
hello have found out why all the old toolbars and add -ons froom the firefox 3.6.6 version goes missing,firefox disables them and there is no i repeat no updates to get them back firefox is not compatable with any of them inc the norton toolbar and norton safe-logins/trusteer/and a few others,and its up to the software companys themselves to up-date their icons and toolbars and software,so b warned firefox 4 is not compatable,with these in windows xp sp3
Posted by Edgar Mills, 05 Apr 2011
firefox 4,5 and supposedly 6
Its not compatible with norton 2011 but lets be honest norton isnt compatible with a lot of things! including google chrome , youre safe with internet explorer , regarding firefox 4 its still to be made compatible with norton or vice versa, I read that they already have plans for firefox 5 and then 6 withing months of each other , now i loved firefox but was fed up of norton not working with each and every new version, so i got rid abeit reluctantly i wont re install until my norton subs ends where i will ditch norton never buy it again and have firefox so norton symantec take note dont be smug and think people will put up with this situ it happens each and every darn year! comments ?? anyone suggest everyone email them perhaps they will listen if they get enough email!
Posted by neil2047, 10 Apr 2011
firefox
Hello me again,norton listen,u must be joking,everyone there are deaf,but for all that will stay with them,as they have so many good parts,anyway who listens when u contact them,goes in one ear and out the other,nothing in between to stop it
Posted by Edgar Mills, 11 Apr 2011
Anyone listen
Hi morning all,who reads this,does anybody ever listen,?????? well I had a problem with my built in norton recovery disc(ie back to factory settings)would load but couldnt do anything else,so went to the local computer shop just down the road,and asked in there,well they would have a look at my pc but to put it right its a paid for job,couldnt tell me how to do it,oh no,thats paid for informination,so typed various things into dear old google and actually found what I wanted,but according to my dell desktop pc manual they said press ctrl and F11 together,but found out that was wrong,as it stated in google press and hold ctrl then press F11,then press the tabs key,and there it was just press enter and it works,not a paid for job is it,and have done what I wanted and re-installed windows,and was quite surprised and got all my windows up-dates back inc the ones they dont support anymore,so if they wont listen or tell u go to GOOGLE they will
Posted by Edgar Mills, 13 Apr 2011
Free advice
hello & good day,having read this weeks issue and saw the build ur own pc,thought this was excellent,have watched the videos,and am considering doing it although im a cool 74,its not that I need a new pc its the achievment of doing it,after all if I made one and it works ok why now sell it,but one thing I think we should be all proud of,is that the experts at computeractive and doing this for free,i know we have to purchase the mag ,but look at all the free advice,and we should take our hats of to these guys or girls and say a very big thankyou for all their advice,I am anyway so thanks to all at computeractive and keep up the great work
Posted by Edgar Mills, 15 Apr 2011
Apps
The Apps may be fun, however once added there appears to be no way to remove them!
Posted by Chris Benner, 17 Apr 2011
apps
Hello if ur talking about firefox 4 u can remove this exactly the same way as any other from add or remove programmes,but saying that im only using windows xp sp3,and while im here,in build ur own pc if u get the memory direct from crucial instead of dabs its £5 cheaper,or get 2 and fill up both slots,I put more memory on my windows xp sp3 using crucial scanner,f of 1gb x 2 and it cost me£38 inc frist class post,so before I ordered spoke to a dell agent they wanted £250 plus service charge by e.mail quote.gave me a no to ring so done that and spoke to dell uk they wanted £66,so considered i got a great deal from crucial direct,have a great easter
Posted by Edgar Mills, 18 Apr 2011
problem with cpu usage
hello anyone,sinci ive re-stored my windows xp sp3 back to factory settings,when im using certain programmes i have the pop-up come up saying high CPU usage,i have an 80gb hard drive and have 59% free space,have un-installed all programmes i never use,but it still comes up with say spybot search and destroy when it has nearly finished,anyone have any answers please,and am using IE8
Posted by Edgar Mills, 25 Apr 2011
Firefox 4
Why o why are people calling it Firefox 4, its version 8 that is on general release and Aurora is at version 10.02a. Come on, at least get the version number right so that we know what you are talking about.
Posted by Derek K Johnson, 24 Nov 2011
Firefox 4 Groups Tab thing
I have never seen the groups tab that you show in the video on the tab bar next to the + tab, I can only assume you have some toolbar fitted to put this there as in every version of Firefox that I use, it can only be accessed via a drop down button on the far right of the tab bar. I dont use any toolbars btw, and never will.
Posted by Derek K Johnson, 24 Nov 2011
firefox
hello ive now moved on to firefox 7.1,but to make sure u keep otr ur old enabled tool bars wiat till the have up-dated to about 2 further thsan what u have and it should b ok,if u take out the auto up-date in tools this becomes easy,as u can check and see when the up grades r out,and always keep an older version in case things dont work,then u can go back,and happy xmas to everyone reading this
Posted by Edgar Mills, 30 Nov 2011
Latest Version of Firefox
This article is well out of date and should have been totally re-written! The latest version of Firefox is 9.01 with version 10 in Beta. I must admit I am surprised at "Computeractive" staff issuing this article. Very sloppy!
Posted by wyndham, 07 Jan 2012