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Anyone have any tips to speed up Portable Firefox?
I've found 1.5 to be significantly faster (interface-wise as well as internet browsing speed), but does anyone have any notes? I was considering upping the cache, but that might actually make things slowing because you'd be adding all that cache data to the portable drive.
Upping the cache would probably slow things down if you're using a USB thumbdrive or other flash-based device.
I may introduce the ability to keep a temporary cache on the local drive (disabled by default) in the future which may help, but FF uses RAM as cache, so unless you were using Portable FF all day, it probably wouldn't help much.
Hi,
i am using Fx in True Crypt Container. I have activated cache. But Cache is only one thing! Please have a look at http://www.totalidea.com/freestuff4.htm
Firtune is a fantastic tweak tool. But i had some problems to locate portable Fx. It works with Fx 1.0.7 without any problem. So i tweaked the normal version and i copied prefs.js to pFx directory.
Before i deleted profile directory and run portablefirefox.exe. /profile wsa created automaticly!
Firtune changes network setting:
user_pref("network.cookie.prefsMigrated", true);
user_pref("network.http.keep-alive.timeout", 30);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.firstrequest", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.request.max-start-delay", 0);
That speeds up pFx very much!
Carefully: i am using ADSL. For modem or isdn users this might not be correct settings. Just select your connection type and hardware configuration in FireTune! E.g. Fast Computer / Slow Network, ...
greetz Bulldash
There is also the fasterfox extension, that does the same thing. And it's an extension ,so it's better
"And it's an extension ,so it's better."
Hmm, well not for me 
I am using pFx on local hd. Hardware and connection speed don't change. So i have to setup Fx just one time. However, if your running pFx from an usb stick it makes sense. Because, in this case hardware and connetion are changing! An extension allows you to act more flexible.
greetz Bulldash
FasterFox's default settings are very unfriendly to websites. Especially dynamic, database-driven sites like this one. I know of several sites that now block FasterFox users (if you request X pages in Y seconds, you're auto-blocked or banned... or they have a link hidden within the page that if you visit it, you're blocked).
With database sites, the whole site is speed-limited by the database. So, when you have users abusing the site by requesting dozens and dozens of pages - most of which they aren't actually visiting - it slows the whole site down for everyone.
You can also speed up PFf by eliminating the splash screen and not having it check chrome settings.
Look for PortableFirefox.ini in PortableFfirefoxCode folder.
Right click and click on 'Open'change to the following:
SkipChromeFix=True
SkipCompregFix=True
DisableSplashScreen=True
Click on File and Save. Copy or move this file:
This .ini file needs to be in the same folder where you click on the Ff icon to start Fx. PortableFirefox Folder
Cuts start up time in half.
I tried your suggestion while browsing on a thumb drive connected via a 1.1 USB connector and found the launch speed dramatically quicker.
Thanks for the tip.
OD
A new feature in Firefox 1.5 is the ability to delete the cache on exit using the "Clear Private Data" feature. Would this help out Portable Firefox? Or does the Cache save directly onto the original profile location.
Firefox 1.5 also has the ability to load profiles in temporary local directories. This might be of interest for using caches with PF.
I'd say that eliminating the cache would be better than increasing it, especially if you run it on USB 1.1 (like I do). I also try to disable everything that doesn't affect my browsing, e.g. popups and the password manager. Don't install Shockwave and other similar plug-ins, since they'll usually slow you down with ads. I also try to limit the number of extensions (currently, I use ones that speed up FireFox by blocking ads and the like). If I'm not mistaken, accessing the drive itself (e.g. password management) slows it down more than anything.
This may sound a bit extreme, but also disable as many pre-installed plug-ins that you can, e.g. Quicktime ones, and see if you can handle surfing without any graphics.
If you go to Hack-a-Day.com and search for "fast firefox" you get a link to 1) John's Website and 2) List of things you can change to speed up firefox's browsing speed.
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