Internet Browsers: What are YOU using? (And why?)

Now that you mention it...it *is* quite ridiculous, I never thought of it before...to be fair though, it obviously doesn't "bother" me, but it isn't in keeping with the tabbed file-folder design concept.

For myself, I am tired of the FF people "fixing" stuff I never use that breaks all the stuff I *do* use. This happens regularly. I have an assortment of older FF versions handy for various OSes, versions I know work for me. Rev. 51 on this extremely current high-powered PC with Win10 is the "latest" version that does what I want bug-free. So I can always go back to it if Quantum/57 fails for me.

I use Chrome on machines that "deserve" Chrome (typically smart "appliances"). I jest, it's OK, and if FF worked properly on those machines, that's what I'd use.

 

Been using FF Q since it was released as a beta, mostly good but still run into site it has problems with and then I open Chrome and it works. Just today I was trying to adjust something on my Vzw wireless account, on of the account pages errors in FF 57, in Chrome I move around fine. I just always end back up with Chrome.

 

It turns out that the wife's issues might have more to do with her existing Facebook account than any specific browser, as the crashes only occur when she uses FB or when playing FB games. She's thinking that her FB account could be corrupted. I suggested that she open another FB account, and use it only for gaming, which she does by herself, anyway. Hopefully, this will solve the repeated crashes!

CHEERS!

 

Internet Explorer at the moment because I happened to screw up Google Chrome just a few days ago by overloading the browser with apps and extensions.

 

I "installed" Firefox 57 (actually the portable apps version). I've made changes for security and UI adjustments and pretty much have it back like it should be. Tabs on bottom, tabs load without having to select them (I start daily with 20 tabs and absolutely do not want them to wait for me to select them to load - load them when the browser loads, thank you very much [more stupid designer issues]), and more.

Here are some of the settings I've made. All are done by going to about:config and adjusting the setting mentioned. If you copy/paste the setting in the about:config search bar (different than the URL bar) that setting will come up. Double-clicking the setting toggles the state - unless it's looking for a value in which case you get an edit box to change the value.

Location Bar: search engines at popups bottom - set to false to disable (this disables those little search icons at the bottom of results when you start to type in the url bar - I don't need or want that junk)
browser.urlbar.oneOffSearches

Pocket (suggestion: disable / set to 'false')
extensions.pocket.enabled

Telemetry / data collection (suggestion: disable / set to 'false')
browser.ping-centre.telemetry
toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.bhrPing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.firstShutdownPing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.newProfilePing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.reportingpolicy.firstRun
toolkit.telemetry.shutdownPingSender.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.unified
toolkit.telemetry.updatePing.enabled
experiments.enabled
experiments.activeExperiment
experiments.supported
datareporting.healthreport.uploadEnabled
nsITelemetry.canRecordBase
nsITelemetry.canRecordExtended

Turn off the web search in the address bar.
Note: This preference does not affect smart keyword searches from the Location Bar.

keyword.enabled

set its value to false.

Enable loading of tabs in background (selection option now missing in settings!):

When you restart Firefox and restore your previous session, Firefox will wait until you select a tab before loading it. This keeps Firefox running quickly and smoothly. (actually slows it down for me as I now have to select each tab to get things running)

Change the behavior so all tabs load when FF starts.

browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand.

Change the value to false.

Speculative pre-connections

To improve the loading speed, Firefox will open predictive connections to sites when the user hovers their mouse over thumbnails on the New Tab Page or the user starts to search in the Search Bar, or in the search field on the Home or the New Tab Page. In case the user follows through with the action, the page can begin loading faster since some of the work was already started in advance. To disable this feature:

network.http.speculative-parallel-limit.

Observe the Value column of the network.http.speculative-parallel-limit row.

If it is set to 0 then do nothing.
If it is set to a different value, double-click on it to set it to 0.


Other settings require creating or editing a userChrome.css file in a specific folder in your profile. To easily get to the correct location type about:support in the URL bar. On the screen that appears, click "Open Folder" in the "Profile Folder" section.

If there's not a folder called "Chrome" in the folder that opens, create it. Inside the folder create a userchrome.css file with notepad (you'll have to enable showing file extensions before you can accurately create this file. If that is disabled the fill will be called userchrome.css.txt - thanks MS for making things less secure and harder to fix).

This code moves URL information to the *front* of search/results when you type. The "normal" way for FF is to show the site name first and then the actual URL. This puts things back like they should be. Copy/paste everything in the spoiler to your userchrome.css file and save it.

There's a line at the head of the file:
@namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);
There should be only *one* of these lines in your file. If there's already one there, do not add an extra one. If it's a new file you don't have to worry as there's only one in the code here.

Spoiler

@namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);

@-moz-document url(chrome://browser/content/browser.xul)
{
richlistbox.autocomplete-richlistbox
{
max-height: 310px !important;
}

.ac-type-icon, .ac-site-icon:not([type="insecureWarning"])
{
/* for all awesomebar suggestions icons (except those for contextual feedback on insecure passwords) */
margin-top: 6px;
}

.ac-site-icon[type="insecureWarning"], .ac-site-icon[type="login"]
{
/* for the icons in contextual feedback on insecure passwords */
margin-top: 0;
}

/*.ac-title,*/ .ac-separator, .ac-url, .ac-action
{
font-size: 14px !important;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[collapsed="true"]
{
height: 0 !important;
min-height: 0 !important;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-title,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-separator,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-url,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-title,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-separator,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-url
{
height: 16px;
margin-top: 6px;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"],
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"]
{
display: flex;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"],
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"]
{
display: flex;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-title,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-title
{
order: 3;
}

.ac-title-text
{
}

.ac-tags
{
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-separator,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-separator
{
order: 2;
-moz-margin-start: 6px;
-moz-margin-end: 6px;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-url,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-url
{
order: 1;
}

.ac-url-text
{
}

.ac-action
{
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="switchtab"] .ac-type-icon,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="switchtab"] .ac-site-icon,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="searchengine"] .ac-type-icon,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="searchengine"] .ac-site-icon,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[actiontype="visiturl"] .ac-type-icon,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[actiontype="visiturl"] .ac-site-icon
{
margin-top: 0;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="switchtab"] .ac-separator,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="switchtab"] .ac-action,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="switchtab"] .ac-url,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="searchengine"] .ac-separator,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="searchengine"] .ac-action,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="searchengine"] .ac-url,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[actiontype="visiturl"] .ac-separator,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[actiontype="visiturl"] .ac-action,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[actiontype="visiturl"] .ac-url
{
margin-bottom: 0;
}

.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="favicon"] .ac-url-text,
.autocomplete-richlistitem[type="bookmark"] .ac-url-text
{
max-width: none !important;
/* or initial*/;
}
}

And now the biggie. Tabs on BOTTOM where they should be!!! I take no credit for this. It's from the guy who wrote Classic Shell for FF. It's from this page: https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx/blob/master/classic/css/tabs/tabs_below_navigation_toolbar.css

Simply copy/paste the data in the spoiler (or from the source page above) into your userchrome.css file. If you used the prior stuff to "fix" autocomplete entries, simply put this below it in the file. It can work by itself if you don't want the other changes.

Spoiler

/*AGENT_SHEET*/

/* Firefox 57+ userChrome.css tweaks ****************************************************/
/* code mostly taken from 'Classic Theme Restorer' & 'Classic Toolbar Buttons' add-ons **/
/* by Aris ([email protected])*********************************************************/
/* Github: https://github.com/aris-t2/customcssforfx ************************************/
/****************************************************************************************/


/* tabs toolbar adjustment */
#main-window[tabsintitlebar] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"] ~ #TabsToolbar,
#main-window[tabsintitlebar][sizemode="maximized"] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"] ~ #TabsToolbar,
#main-window[uidensity=compact][tabsintitlebar] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"] ~ #TabsToolbar,
#main-window[uidensity=compact][tabsintitlebar][sizemode="maximized"] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"] ~ #TabsToolbar,
#TabsToolbar{
-moz-padding-start: 2px !important;
}
#main-window[tabsintitlebar][sizemode="normal"]:not([inFullscreen]) #TabsToolbar {
margin-top: 0px !important;
}

/* fix for application/hamburger button in titlebar */
#main-window[tabsintitlebar][inFullscreen] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"] ~ #nav-bar #PanelUI-button {
visibility: collapse !important;
}

/* tab height */
#tabbrowser-tabs,
#tabbrowser-tabs > .tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox,
.tabbrowser-tabs[positionpinnedtabs] > .tabbrowser-tab[pinned] {
min-height: 25px !important;
}

/* toolbar order (start) ************************************/
#print-preview-toolbar,
#printedit-toolbar,
#titlebar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 0 !important;
}
#navigator-toolbox #toolbar-menubar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 1 !important;
}
/* navigation toolbar */
#navigator-toolbox #nav-bar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 2 !important;
}
/* bookmarks toolbar */
#navigator-toolbox #PersonalToolbar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 3 !important;
}
/* 3rd party toolbars */
#navigator-toolbox toolbar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 10 !important;
}
/* tabs toolbar */
#navigator-toolbox #TabsToolbar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 100 !important;
}
/* toolbar order (end) **************************************/

/* toolbar colors */
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme){
-moz-appearance: none !important;
background-image: linear-gradient(#f9f9fa,#f9f9fa) !important;
}
#TabsToolbar:-moz-lwtheme{
background: rgba(255,255,255,0.4) !important;
}

/* toolbar borders */
#main-window #navigator-toolbox::after {
/*border-bottom: unset !important;*/
opacity: 0 !important;
}
#TabsToolbar{
margin-bottom: 0px !important;
border-bottom: 1px solid #5f7181 !important;
}
#main-window[sizemode="normal"] #TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme){
border-left: 1px solid #5f7181 !important;
border-right: 1px solid #5f7181 !important;
}

#main-window:not([inFullscreen="true"])[tabsintitlebar] #TabsToolbar{
-moz-margin-end: 0px !important;
}

#main-window[tabsintitlebar] #TabsToolbar .titlebar-placeholder{
visibility: collapse !important;
}

#main-window[tabsintitlebar][sizemode="normal"] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"],
#main-window[tabsintitlebar][sizemode="maximized"] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"][inactive="true"] {
margin-top: 21px !important;
}

#tabbrowser-tabs .tab-drop-indicator {
margin-bottom: 0px !important;
}

#PersonalToolbar:-moz-lwtheme,
#nav-bar:-moz-lwtheme {
background-image: none !important;
box-shadow: none !important;
border-top: none !important;
border-bottom: none !important;
}

/* remove tab fog */
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme),
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme)::before,
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme)::after {
box-shadow: unset !important;
}

/* remove 'dragging tab' margin/padding nonsense */
#TabsToolbar[movingtab] {
padding-bottom: unset !important;
}

#TabsToolbar[movingtab] > .tabbrowser-tabs {
padding-bottom: unset !important;
margin-bottom: unset !important;
}

#TabsToolbar[movingtab] + #nav-bar {
margin-top: unset !important;
}

/* scroll buttons */
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme) #alltabs-button,
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme) .tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox > .scrollbutton-up,
#TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme) .tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox > .scrollbutton-down {
fill: black !important;
}

/* tweaks for Windows Classic theme *//*
#nav-bar:not(:-moz-lwtheme),
#PersonalToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme),
#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]) #TabsToolbar:not(:-moz-lwtheme) {
border-left: unset !important;
border-right: unset !important;
background: unset !important;
}

#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]) #toolbar-menubar:not(:-moz-lwtheme) {
background: unset !important;
box-shadow: unset !important;
border-bottom: unset !important;
}

#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]):not(:-moz-lwtheme) #navigator-toolbox,
#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]):not(:-moz-lwtheme) #nav-bar,
#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]):not(:-moz-lwtheme) #navigator-toolbox::before,
#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]):not(:-moz-lwtheme) #nav-bar::before,
#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]):not(:-moz-lwtheme) #navigator-toolbox::after,
#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]):not(:-moz-lwtheme) #nav-bar::after {
background: unset !important;
box-shadow: unset !important;
border: unset !important;
border-image: unset !important;
}

#main-window:not([tabsintitlebar]) toolbar:not(#TabsToolbar):not(#toolbar-menubar):not(#nav-bar):not(:-moz-lwtheme) {
background: unset !important;
}
/**/

 

I agree with "tabs on bottom" thing as well. As soon as browsers started putting them over the URL bar instead of under it, I couldn't understand why anyone would want that.

It allows for a lot of customization for how you want tabs to behave (strangely enough, though, it doesn't change the UI for "tabs on bottom"). What I especially like that I've become too accustomed to is that any bookmark, history link, search bar query, or URL typed in the address bar: it opens it in a new tab. This is crucial to my workflow in that not everything opens in the same tab taking you away from a page you currently have open. I've been using it for over 10 years and am so used to that behavior that there is no way I could do without it nowadays.

 

Below the bookmarks (if you have that toolbar on) or URL line where they belong. It's really difficult looking for fixes for that as many "developers" seem to think it means at the bottom of the browser window rather than just below the bookmarks (which are below the URL bar).

I'll help as much as I can via replies, etc. Most of it is easy once you get the hang of it. Just ask about what you need help with and I'll do my best to get you to where you want to be.

 

Mike,

I may have an easier way than the manual stuff. I discovered I can upload files so I've attached a userChrome.zip file. Download and unzip it and you'll have the userChrome.css file for "tabs on bottom" to drop in the Chrome folder in your user profile folder. It only contains the tabs-on-bottom css code and not the code that changes the URL bar.

 

Microsoft Edge: The Best Browser To Download Other Browsers With!

Chrome hasn't given me a reason to switch back to FF, and since I have an Android phone, I probably never will.
As for extensions, AdBlock Plus, Better History, Tin Eye reverse image search, Autopagerize, Privacy Badger, Google Voice, and HTTPS Everywhere.

I suspect that whatever game she's playing is either Flash-based or it has some sort of memory leak...
[I have a system running PRTG to monitor my networked devices, and I can always tell when someone has a Farmville-equivalent running--available memory just disappears...] Chrome, Firefox, Edge or IE didn't matter, they all made the MS office program resource usages look anorexic by comparison.

 

So, what you're saying Chris, is that the Facebook games ARE what's causing the browser crashes?

 

Before you wife goes through the trouble of setting up another FB account, fire up Task manager on that PC and watch what happens with that particular browser process when the game is doing its thing.

Keep in mind that the sole purpose of those games is to profit off a player's lack of patience and need for instant gratification...

 

The thing is, those are the games she likes to play.

Unfortunately, when it comes to even most of the PC basics the wife admittedly knows next to nothing, including Task Manager, and I'll swear up and down that I have told her about Task Manager and other PC applications, REPEATEDLY and FLUENTLY (The latter is an old 'Our Gang' reference!) over the years! Memory buildup DUE to the use of Flash for the Facebook games does strike me as a very likely culprit, as I've experienced this with other Flash applications, though for some reason, I hadn't previously considered it a possibility with the wife's issue! One other problem that springs to mind is she always does her gaming in Full Screen mode. I fear that even if I can get her to avoid full screening it to monitor Task Manager, that act itself may cause lower readings than may be typical.

I'm not sure what else to do, at this point? Thanks for your kind input, at any rate!

CHEERS!

 

This is the reason I reverted to FF51 (the newest version I had the actual files for...my mistake re that) when I updated to the previous FF version I used (55 or 56, it didn't last long enough to notice...). I usually have around 30 tabs open, and they wouldn't automatically reload on startup. Intolerable. Yes, I am (we are...) spoiled.

 

About the only thing you can do is throw more resources at it, assuming the PC isn't more than about 5 years old and can accommodate additional RAM. (bump it up to 16GB if the system supports it and you can find the proper parts for a reasonable price.)

 

Both of our PCs have 6GB of RAM with a limit of 8GB. Using ReadyBoost with USB memory sticks is our only other viable option, unfortunately. We currently use one 16GB stick each.

CHEERS!

 

I feel your RAM pain. Back in the XP days I had rather limited RAM and FF had memory leaks that would slowly "eat" up whatever RAM was available, slowing things to a crawl. I had a utility that would clear the RAM while FF was running and make it useable again. I ran it every other day (I use lots and lots of tabs which doesn't help such issues) as I tend to keep my home system running 24/7 and only restart the browser if there are issues (rare these days).

I don't use Chrome partly because it's a memory hog and the number of tabs I have open at once on a very regular basis causes it to slow to a crawl - even on my work system which has 32GB available. I don't have those issues with FF or any of its forks. I don't know if the memory leaks have been fixed or that I have enough RAM to deal with those issues.

 

That's why I started using a portable version of FF. It's very easy to keep old versions around and I copy the folder with a version number added before every upgrade just in case. I also keep auto updates fully disabled - no notification either (which can actually cause them to install if you're not careful). Before checking for updates I copy the folder, check, sometimes install, and often roll things back until I find a fix for whatever stupid change they made this time.

You really need to make that about:config change to force tabs to open like they used to do. I think it was stupid on the developers part to remove that setting box. The average user won't change it and they could make "on" the default. At least the about:config setting hasn't yet been deprecated. I know starting with that many tabs open can cause things to be sluggish while it's all loaded. I don't care. I plan accordingly, start the browser, and do something else while it all loads. If I need to get to something right away I know how to select each tab and stop it loading, going back to reload them later.