Firefox takes ages to start.

Dreamnine

It's probably my internet connection.. Firefox seems fine.

aliEnRIK

Dreamnine wrote: »

It's probably my internet connection.. Firefox seems fine.

No ~ either your net connection will work or it wont

IE not working suggests its infected (Or has 'plug ins' that are preventing it from working properly)

Dreamnine

This scan is taking a long time...

aliEnRIK

I expect it to (And its for the best)

modeca

3 words. Get a Mac!

I've not had a single virus in 9 years. Life is too short to be fiddling around in the registry.

I used to be an avid PC junkie and have spent hundreds of hours trying to fix problems caused by malware, viruses and driver issues.

I use Parallels Desktop to run XP on my Macbook if I need to run any Windows applications.

Sorry if I sound like a smug Apple user but I guess I am!

Anyway, on the subject of Firefox, it can use up loads of resources if left unchecked. My tips, reduce the size of the History, clear the Downloads window, remove any unused plugins and update the ones that you can't do without.

boffy31

Don't bother with a mac! PCs can run without viruses if you use firefox, have a firewall in your router (most have) and don't install programs from questionable sources.

To get firefox starting quicker try what's been mentioned above, but also:

• Disable update checker for Add-ons. Basically it means that firefox won't waste time checking every plugin for an update every boot. To do this Tool->Options->Advanced->Update and untick the boxes.
• Remove/Disable add-ons you don't use often
• Reduce history memory (10 days is plenty)

If all else fails, back up your bookmarks and delete the contents of C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles thereby having the speed of a fresh install.

arowen

i googled your question several weeks ago and found the web site 'askdavetaylor.com'

apparantly i am not allowed to post a direct link so if you google the above then put
'are there some tricks to speed up firefox' into the search he will sort you out too!

i am also told firefox starts from scratch, not a programme like IE, so it will always be a touch slower.

LeBossu

I think the FF problem has now been sorted, but FYI:-

I used to encounter a slow FF load time when I had a slow pc (~ 2004 vintage) and what always worked for me was disabling or uninstalling add-ons. You could temporarily disable all addons and see if it makes a difference.

More generally if you can afford a dual or quad core pc I would really recommend it.

Dreamnine

Thanks everyone - problem seems to be resolved for now.

dsp_3

just incase anyone else has issues with firefox

One major slowdown is the rss news feeds or live bookmarks as they are called on FF. I have about 50 on mine and they all want to load on first startup, take them out and it opens straight away. Use something like google reader instead if you do need news feeds.

I have also switched to chrome and love it so far, I do use both now but never Internet explorer (funny considering im a microsoft certified engineer)