Firefox Tuning

[laszlo]

***This thread contains out of date information. See Category: Tweaking preferences at the mozillaZine Knowledge Base for updated info.***




The purpose of this thread is to collect and discuss various tuning options for Gecko based browsers and correct some of the more obvious mistakes in several tweak collections that are circulating on the web. Note that I'm not a Gecko developer, so take the information in this post with a grain of salt. Anybody who's able to fill in the holes or correct errors is most welcome, as well as additional useful preferences. Happy tuning.

Parsing/Rendering Preferences:

Warning: these options actually exist for internal fine-tuning and debugging purposes and are not meant to be changed by the normal user. They are kind of Voodoo to anyone not intimately familiar with Gecko, because they are not explained anywhere outside of the source.

The default values are as optimized as possible for a wide range of different connection types and system speeds. Experimenting with some of the values might improve perceived rendering speed by forcing Gecko to show page contents earlier, but might also have a reverse influence on total page load times. Test thoroughly on your system, as far as it is possible.

nglayout.initialpaint.delay

• Description: time to wait before an initial reflow attempt during page rendering (?)
• Type: integer
• Unit: milliseconds
• Default: 250
• Recommendation: keep in synch with content.notify.interval (?)

content.notify.ontimer

• Description: enable timer-based reflows during page rendering (?)
• Type: boolean
• Default: true
• Recommendation: leave on default.

content.notify.interval

• Description: time steps for the initial reflows defined by content.notify.backoffcount (?)
• Type: integer
• Unit: milliseconds * 1000 (?)
• Default: 120000
• Additional Info: nsHTMLContentSink.cpp, Bug 72138
• Recommendation: do not set this below 100000. Synchronize with nglayout.initialpaint.delay (?) In contrary to what other tweak examples say, setting this to 100 is absurd.

content.notify.backoffcount

• Description: number of initial reflows during timer-based rendering (?) After this number the page is only reflowed when the calculation of the layout of larger parts of the page is finalized (?)
• Type: integer
• Default: -1 (never)
• Example: 10
• Additional Info: nsHTMLContentSink.cpp
• Recommendation: experiment with some values depending on the bandwidth/latency of your connection and overall system speed.

Even more Voodoo:

content.switch.threshold

• Description: (?)
• Type: integer
• Unit: milliseconds * 1000 (?)
• Default: 750000
• Additional Info: nsHTMLContentSink.cpp
• Recommendation: keep in synch with nglayout.initialpaint.delay and content.notify.interval (?)

content.maxtextrun

• Description: (?)
• Type: integer
  
• Unit: kilobytes (?)
• Default: 8191
• Additional Info: nsHTMLContentSink.cpp, Bug 77540
• Recommendation: leave on default.

content.interrupt.parsing

• Description: enable interruption of parsing to return to the application's event loop from time to time (?)
• Type: boolean
• Default: true
• Recommendation: leave on default.

content.max.tokenizing.time

• Description: time after which parsing is interrupted to return to the application's event loop (?)
• Type: integer
• Unit: milliseconds * 1000 (?)
• Default: 3 * content.notify.interval
• Example: 2250000
• Additional Info: nsHTMLContentSink.cpp, Bug 76722
• Recommendation: leave on default. Lowering this might make Firefox more responsive during loading of large pages, but might also raise total page load times. If you change this, make it a multiple of content.notify.interval.

HTTP Connection Preferences:

These options control the number of opened HTTP connections. If you raise them, do it reasonably. Changes like these are at least partly responsible for the infamous /. effect.

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server

• Description: maximum number of persistent (keep-alive) connections per server.
• Type: integer
• Default: 2 (as per recommendation in HTTP/1.1 specification)
• Recommendation: none

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy

• Description: maximum number of persistent (keep-alive) proxy connections.
• Type: integer
• Default: 4 (as per recommendation in HTTP/1.1 specification)
• Recommendation: none

network.http.max-connections-per-server

• Description: maximum number of HTTP connections of any type to a single server.
• Type: integer
• Default: 8
• Recommendation: none

network.http.max-connections

• Description: maximum number of total HTTP connections.
• Type: integer
• Default: 24
• Recommendation: none

HTTP Pipelining Preferences:

Pipelining is a HTTP/1.1 feature that speeds up transfers by requesting several objects at once without waiting for a response first. More info...

network.http.pipelining

• Description: enable pipelining for non-proxy connections.
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Additional Info: might still lead to problems with servers that don't support pipelining correctly and that are not on the internal blacklist.
• Recommendation: true

network.http.proxy.pipelining

• Description: enable pipelining over a proxy.
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Additional Info: see network.http.pipelining.
• Recommendation: true

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

• Description: maximum number of consecutive requests in one pipeline.
• Type: integer
• Limit: 8
• Default: 4
• Additional Info: nsHTTP.h. Optimal value depends on connection bandwidth/latency.
• Recommendation: 8. While it doesn't hurt to set it to 100 like in other tweak examples, it will have no effect whatsoever because of the mentioned limit.

network.http.pipelining.firstrequest

• Description: enable pipelining on first request to a server.
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Additional Info: since it doesn't seem to get picked up anywhere in the source, this preference doesn't seem to be used. First requests are obviously never pipelined.
• Recommendation: do not use this preference. While it probably doesn't hurt, it will have no effect either.

Useful Cache Preferences:

browser.cache.memory.capacity

• Description: amount of memory assigned to memory cache.
• Type: integer
• Unit: kilobytes
• Default: 4096 in older builds, dynamically assigned depending on total amount of memory in newer builds (?).
• Recommendation: set this to a high fixed value if you have enough RAM to noticeably improve back/forward button performance while going many steps back/forward (?)

browser.cache.disk.capacity

• Description: amount of disk space assigned to disk cache.
• Type: integer
• Unit: kilobytes
• Default: 50000
• Recommendation: none

browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl

• Description: switch to enable caching of objects served over a secure connection (SSL).
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Recommendation: true on systems where it is secure to cache these objects.

browser.cache.disk.parent_directory

• Description: path to parent directory of Firefox' disk cache.
• Type: string
• Default: profile folder
• Additional Info: use double backslashes as path separators in Windows. Not existing directories will be created if they don't exist.
• Example: E:\\Folder1\\Folder2
• Recommendation: none

Useful Miscellanous Preferences:

browser.xul.error_pages.enabled

• Description: use an error page instead of a modal dialog when a connection error occurs.
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Additional Info: Bug 28586. This is not enabled by default because the implementation lacks some functionality.
• Recommendation: true (in combination with Show Failed URL)

plugin.expose_full_path

• Description: show full path to plugins in about:plugins.
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Recommendation: true

signed.applets.codebase_principal_support

• Description: this is a preference to be used while developing scripts that need enhanced privileges. It allows potentially security-critical JavaScript to bypass the signing stage (?)
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Recommendation: unfortunately setting this to true this is the only working way I'm aware of to selectively grant JavaScript access to the clipboard. The user will still be asked everytime a script/applet requests access to privileges. If you're using this, be sure to only grant access for scripts/hosts you trust, otherwise this can be a huge security risk, because it opens your system to virtually everything (!!!)

----------------------------

Changing these preferences can either be done by user.js or by about:config. The most comprehensive collection of preferences including descriptions can be found here.

----------------------------

Testing the options that influence rendering speed and total page load time isn't easy for normal users.

One possible method is to locally save a large page and then load it from disk, measuring time by a JavaScript onload handler or with a stopwatch.

Another method is to use an online speed tester like http://www.numion.com/stopwatch.

Neither of these methods will lead to results that are comparable among different connections and systems. Further suggestions or example pages are most welcome.

----------------------------

Finally, here are the values I use at the moment on dialup and a fast machine (AthlonXP @ 2GHz) for the set of preferences in this post:

browser.cache.memory.capacity : 65536
browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl : true
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled : true
content.interrupt.parsing : true
content.max.tokenizing.time : 3000000
content.maxtextrun : 8191
content.notify.backoffcount : 5
content.notify.interval : 750000
content.notify.ontimer : true
content.switch.threshold : 750000
network.http.max-connections : 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server : 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy : 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server : 4
network.http.pipelining : true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests : 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining : true
nglayout.initialpaint.delay : 750
plugin.expose_full_path : true
signed.applets.codebase_principal_support : true

As an example, these settings locally render scragz' table test in an average of about 2.4 seconds compared to an average of about 3.4 seconds with Firefox' default settings on my system, that's an improvement of almost 30% in this specific test, while starting rendering earlier than with the default settings. For more info on this see scragz' original post.

----------------------------

Disclaimer: I don't take any responsibilty for any damages whatsoever caused to you or anybody else by changing these preferences on your copy of Firefox or any other Gecko based browser. Have fun ;)

Edited to update the information for "signed.applets.codebase_principal_support".

[bcool]

If I may say without distracting: your contribution here is an important resource. It was extremely thoughtful of you to take the time to construct it in such a clear and concise manner. Until convinced otherwise, I shall certainly take it with much more than a grain of salt. Thanks for providing this noob with some guidance. Thank you.

[CaptnBlack13]

Thanks for the tips,

I tried your settings, they do seem to improve loading time somewhat on my dialup connection, whether it's only a percieved improvement or not, I can't say, but any improvement for dialup helps.

Also, don't know if it improves speed any or not , but I disable image placeholders, makes things look better while loading,,, to me anyway.
The setting for it is: user_pref("browser.display.show_image_placeholders", false);

[bcool]

oh by the way, your setting content.switch.threshold : 750000 would actually appear like this in the user.js: user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);

is this correct?

[CaptnBlack13]

oh by the way, your setting content.switch.threshold : 750000 would actually appear like this in the user.js: user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);

is this correct?

Yes, I think that's the correct way to enter it.

It might be a good idea to post the prefs the way they should appear
in user.js.

In case users would like to copy/paste them into user.js

Not a big deal for me, but others might not know the correct way to enter the prefs.

[laszlo]

First of all, thanks for the feedback. :)

Following the questions and suggestions, here are the above settings to copy/paste into user.js:

Code: Select all

user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl", true);
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 8191);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);
user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
user_pref("signed.applets.codebase_principal_support", true);

Also, don't know if it improves speed any or not , but I disable image placeholders, makes things look better while loading, to me anyway.
The setting for it is: user_pref("browser.display.show_image_placeholders", false);

I use that pref, too, but I didn't include it here because it's more of a cosmetic thing because it halfway emulates the way IE shows pictures while loading, which makes it look faster to some people (including you and me), but it has the slight disadvantage that it also doesn't show a "broken image indicator" when a picture can't be loaded correctly. Anyway, here we go:

browser.display.show_image_placeholders

• Description: disable the loading indicator while loading a graphic and the "broken image indicator" shown when an image can't be displayed.
• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• Additional Info: the missing "broken image indicator" might be confusing to some people.
• Recommendation: true if you can live without the "broken image indicator".
• user.js: user_pref("browser.display.show_image_placeholders", false);

[sygpro]

I have just rescently hear the possibility to tune firefox and first I pick up some things at tips page and use them like that. Then I found some "old" topics here about tuning firebird and I edited my user.js littlebit by taking tips at that thread and now I saw thisone thread.. It seems that lazlo knows a lot about this tuning thing, so I desided to ask what you (and other of you as well) think of this one?

// Stop reusing active windows:
user_pref("advanced.system.supportDDEExec", false);

// This one makes a huge difference. Last value in milliseconds (default is 250)
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);

// Enable pipelining:
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 4);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 128);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 24);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 12);

// Specify the amount of memory cache:
// -1 = determine dynamically (default), 0 = none, n = memory capacity in kilobytes
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 4096);

// Change language to Finnish (default is "en, en-us")
user_pref("intl.accept_languages", "fi, en, en-us");

// disable target="_blank" (open in same window):
user_pref("browser.block.target_new_window", true);

Atleast this seems to make my browser faster a little bit, but still IE6 seems about as fast as FF. What would be best tunings for FF when usings 512 ADSL? And what kind of "features" do you recommend? Is it possible to make links which opens to new window, open to new tab without tabbrowser extension? I don't like it a lot, and I read something that one line in user.js and tabbrowser preferences could do the same. But what it didn't say is that will page then open to new tab, if link is for example in mail program, not in browser?

And it would be nice if you give user.js code as commented, so it would be easier to see what is tuning in there. And what if I chance my user.js a lot from what is now, do I have to do any changes to prefs.js?

Sorry about this stupid questions, but I'm newbie here, but willing to learn.. And afterall, if you ask, you'll be stupid just once, if you don't you'll be stupid rest of your life...

[laszlo]

OK, let's go:

user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 4);

Try with 8.

user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 128);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 24);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 12);

These are a little high. When you use Pipelining, you probably don't need that many connections. Think of the servers you're pounding ;)

user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 4096);

How much RAM do you have, or more precisely, how much RAM do you have to spare? I'd try to set this higher (as long as you don't edit large graphics in Photoshop while surfing) or leave it on the default.

What would be best tunings for FF when usings 512 ADSL?

That's hard to answer, it depends on your general system speed, too.

I'd start with the following settings:

Code: Select all

user_pref("browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);

According to ghola, another user who tried this with DSL, this is what gave him the best results. If you don't see an improvement, either play with them until satisfied or just remove the preferences starting with "content." from your user.js and prefs.js without Firefox running to set them back to their defaults.

Is it possible to make links which opens to new window, open to new tab without tabbrowser extension? I don't like it a lot, and I read something that one line in user.js and tabbrowser preferences could do the same. But what it didn't say is that will page then open to new tab, if link is for example in mail program, not in browser?

It probably won't. The closest you can get is with this:

Code: Select all

user_pref("browser.block.target_new_window", true);
user_pref("browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick", true);
user_pref("browser.tabs.opentabfor.urlbar", true);

True Single Window Mode is at the moment only possible with Tabbrowser Extensions or Tabbrowser Preferences.

And what if I chance my user.js a lot from what is now, do I have to do any changes to prefs.js?

As said above, just remove the settings you don't want any longer from user.js and prefs.js to reset them.

Here's the user.js I use at the moment:

Code: Select all

user_pref("browser.blink_allowed", true);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl", true);
user_pref("browser.chrome.load_toolbar_icons", 2);
user_pref("browser.display.enable_marquee", true);
user_pref("browser.display.screen_resolution", 81);
user_pref("browser.display.show_image_placeholders", false);
user_pref("browser.related.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll", true);
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
user_pref("clipboard.autocopy", true);
user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 8191);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("dom.allow_scripts_to_close_windows", false);
user_pref("dom.disable_image_src_set", false);
user_pref("dom.disable_open_click_delay", 1000);
user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_flip", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_move_resize", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.close", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.directories", false);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.location", false);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.minimizable", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.personalbar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.resizable", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.scrollbars", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.status", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);
user_pref("editor.singleLine.pasteNewlines", 0);
user_pref("inspector.blink.border-color", "#CC0000")
user_pref("inspector.blink.border-width", 1);
user_pref("inspector.blink.duration", 2000);
user_pref("inspector.blink.invert", false);
user_pref("inspector.blink.on", true);
user_pref("inspector.blink.speed", 200);
user_pref("inspector.dom.showAnon", true);
user_pref("inspector.dom.showWhitespaceNodes", true);
user_pref("layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word", false);
user_pref("layout.word_select.stop_at_punctuation", false);
user_pref("layout.xml.prettyprint", true);
user_pref("middlemouse.contentLoadURL", false);
user_pref("middlemouse.paste", true);
user_pref("middlemouse.scrollbarPosition", true);
user_pref("mousewheel.withcontrolkey.action", 1);
user_pref("mousewheel.withnokey.numlines", 10);
user_pref("mousewheel.withnokey.sysnumlines", false);
user_pref("mousewheel.withshiftkey.action", 3);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);
user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
user_pref("plugin.scan.Acrobat", "6.0");
user_pref("security.warn_entering_secure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_weak", true);
user_pref("security.warn_leaving_secure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_submit_insecure", false);
user_pref("security.warn_viewing_mixed", false);
user_pref("signed.applets.codebase_principal_support", true);
user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 50);
user_pref("ui.textSelectBackground", "darkblue");
user_pref("ui.textSelectBackgroundAttention", "lightgreen");
user_pref("ui.textSelectForeground", "white");

A few of these preferences don't work with Firefox or newer Mozillas, I just leave them in because I use this file with different versions.

If you have any specific questions regarding these settings, just ask.

[sygpro]

Thanks for being so helpful for newbies as well.. I use now same user.js, with adding couple of those things which were on mine user.js file. If I understood you right, there is some preferences which don't work in firefox (as you said there is), but those preferences can be leaved in there, meaning that even when they are not working in firefox, that doesn't mean that they will make firefox itself not to work right?

[viper208]

First of all, thanks for the feedback.

Following the questions and suggestions, here are the above settings to copy/paste into user.js:

Code: Select all

user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl", true);
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 8191);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);
user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
user_pref("signed.applets.codebase_principal_support", true);

Laszlo, you user.js code really improved my Firefox speed significantly !
I did scragz' table test with my Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040218 Firefox/0.8.0+ without an user.js in my profile directory and the result was a very slow 24 seconds !
With your user.js code implemented the result of scragz' table test was 9.2 seconds !
I also notice a significant speed improvement on other webpages too.

Thanks a lot !

[Jonx]

Thanx for those Voodoo's

[GrailKnight]

Wow!

Serious speed increase with your settings laszlo.
I had about 20% of those before in my user.js file yet adding the rest you posted made a huge diff.

Still new to all of this yet and I have nothing but compliments for everyone in the forums.

Thanks a lot.

[soccer_dude182]

Thanks for the tips!

[laszlo]

It's nice to hear that these settings seem to be an improvement for everyone.

If I understood you right, there is some preferences which don't work in firefox (as you said there is), but those preferences can be leaved in there, meaning that even when they are not working in firefox, that doesn't mean that they will make firefox itself not to work right?

That's right. You will see them all in about:config, but Firefox will effectively just ignore the ones it can't use.

[Colin Ramsay]

How you advise changing your current settings (which I believe are for dialup) if one was on broadband?