Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is not scheduled until the second half of 2007, and Microsoft’s first shot at its successor, Windows Vista, may not be due out before “early 2007.” Meantime, many system builders (and their clients) will be keeping today’s WinXP SP2 systems running for some time.

That makes now the perfect time for revisiting your deployed XP boxes and making sure your clients are getting the best possible performance from their systems. Your clients will be happy with a faster-running OS; some may even be amazed. This is also a golden opportunity for system builders to check in with clients and pick up a little extra income from performing just such tune-ups.

In this Recipe, I’ll show you ways to restore the zip of WinXP-based PCs both old and new. I’ll also show you the places to look for WinXP problems that can develop over time, and how to fix them. I’ll also look at performance saving set-up issues, and how to battle the demons like fragmented disks and unused network devices that can steal precious CPU cycles and memory from your systems.

First, deciding whether a WinXP system needs a mere tune up or a full blown repair is a judgment call you’ll have to make. Listen and learn before rushing to judgment. For instance, if a client complains that their system’s performance has taken a sudden hit, or that stability has suddenly become an issue, you’re probably looking at a hacked machine, virus attack, or failing hardware. In all three cases, a repair job is in order. But if a client complains about an older model PC that simply won’t run as fast as it used to, that probably means the time has come for a tune up. That’s where this Recipe comes in.

Also, before starting a tune up, spend some time observing the system’s operation. Note how long it takes to restart. How quickly does it access commonly used applications, such as email clients or browsers? You may want to time the start-up of for the system’s word processing program, or measure how long the machine needs to save a typical file. Then, after you complete the tune-up, make the same measurements, and compare your before and after results. Payroll Software Manage Paychecks, Pensions & Taxes Fast & Easy Deployment. Check Now !

Your goal, of course, is to improve overall system performance. But these measurements will give you a feel for the immediate benefits of system cleaning and tuning. One thing you’ll probably note is that some systems respond better to certain tweaks than do others. This is a normal result of different usage patterns.

First, Back Up

You’ve probably heard this a million times already, but before you tune up any PC, first back up the system’s data. Losing data, especially a client’s data, is not only embarrassing, but also potentially costly. Avoid this amateur’s mistake. Back up the computer before you run any system tools or do any troubleshooting. Period.

I’m not being overcautious. Some of the following steps can cause preexisting, hidden problems to surface. These problems, in turn, can prevent the computer from restarting. This isn’t very likely, but it is possible. So don’t take chances, and do make backups.

If you’re not using backup software, Windows XP Professional even includes a utility called Backup that can be deployed quite easily. To open the Backup wizard, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. Then select Backup. Told you it was easy!

For information on how to use Microsoft’s Backup, see the company’s Windows XP Backup Made Easy. You can also show this article to more advanced clients who have critical backup needs, such as daily accounting and customer records.

Once you have completed the backup and the system’s data is secure, you’re ready to move on to my performance-improving tips.

Tip 1: Remove Unused Programs

To begin tuning up a computer’s performance, remove unnecessary programs. New programs are installed all the time, but typically, only a few are actually used. Maybe your client has installed a trial version or two of a popular game to check them out, and then forgot about them. Users are quick to say “Yes” to an install, but rarely take the time to remove the software after the trial period. All those unused installations can be sitting on the hard disk, consuming resources and hurting performance.

Let’s get rid of them! Follow these four steps to remove unused programs:

1. Click Start, then click Control Panel.
2. Click on Add or Remove Programs.
3. Scroll through the list, and examine each program. WinXP lists how often a program is used and what day it was last launched. You might want to review this list with your client. Ask, “Do you ever use this? Will you ever use this?” If the answers are No, remove the program.
4. But do not remove anything labeled Update or Hotfix. These are official Windows updates and fixes. Leave them alone.
5. For each program you no longer want, click on the program’s name, then click the Remove button and follow the prompts to uninstall them. It’s that easy.

You may have to restart the computer each time after removing a program. If so, after the computer restarts, repeat the steps above to remove the rest of the unused programs you and your client have chosen. If the computer has been in service for a while, repeating this process may take some time. No matter; it’s well worth the effort. Every unused program, even trial versions, take up much-needed space on the disk, as well as in the OS proper. Bottom line: If your client doesn’t need it, their PC will be faster without it.

Tip 2: Free Up Wasted Space

Let’s continue finding and freeing up otherwise wasted disk space. For this step, we’ll deploy Microsoft’s Disk Cleanup tool. Just follow these four steps:

1. Open My Computer, then right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties.
2. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. Disk Cleanup will spend a few minutes examining your disk.
3. The Disk Cleanup dialog box shows you space on your disk that you can free up.
4. Select the desired checkboxes in the Files to Delete list, and then click OK. Disk Cleanup will spend several minutes clearing space.

Consider automating this disk cleanup process for your clients. For more information on this, check out the Microsoft Knowledge Basic article,

Tip 3: Defragment

WinXP comes with a great tool to defragment the data stored on disk called, appropriately enough, the Disk Defragmenter. Commonly referred to as simply “defrag,” this utility cures a condition that occurs when disks become congested and parts of files get written farther and father apart. When a file is fragmented, it takes longer for the computer to read it; the disk head has to skip around to find the data on different sections of the hard disk, and the computer’s logic has to keep track of the various pieces and reassemble them correctly.

Defrag will first do a quick analysis of a disk and determine if there’s enough fragmentation to warrant use of the utility. If it does finds significant fragmentation, defrag will move data around on the disk to make accessing it more efficient. Running this utility should ensure your client’s programs will load faster by retrieving data quicker.

It’s easy to defragment a disk. Just follow these four steps:

1. Open My Computer, right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties.
2. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now. The Disk Defragmenter opens.
3. Click the appropriate hard disk, and then click Defragment. Disk Defragmenter will start to work. Defragging will take from several minutes to several hours, depending on how much data there is and how badly the data is spread out. As the amount of data stored approaches the disk’s capacity, defragging takes longer, as there is less space in which to work.
4. If the system has more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk in the system. Defragmenting the disk with WinXP on it will result in the greatest improvement in overall performance.

If files on your computer are not badly fragmented, you won’t see a large improvement in performance. But for most XP machines that have been running for a long time, startups and general performance can improve remarkably by doing a defrag.

Have you ever come across a really cool video on the web and want to download it to your hard drive, but the site doesn’t have the functionality? This is no longer a problem with the UnPlug Firefox Extension.

Simply put, this add-on allows you to download embedded media on a web page to your computer. From the description:

UnPlug works for lots of sites including youtube.com, ifilm.com, current.tv, revver.com, peekvid.com, video.google.com, mobuzztv.com and lots, lots more.

So if you are not content to just view the content online (pun intended), this is the perfect plugin for you.

source : pc tips box

While the Consumer Electronics Association announced that it would go green by purchasing 20,000 tons' worth of carbon offsets, a few companies at CES 2008's Sustainable Technologies TechZone introduced new products that use fewer nonrenewable resources from the get-go. They're still a little pricey for the average consumer, but they show that both sunlight and water are viable power sources for laptops, iPods, cell phones, and other gadgets.

A lot of solar chargers work with small devices, but laptops generally have been left in the dark--until now. Voltaic Systems' Generator briefcase, scheduled for release this spring at a not-so-cheap $599, lets you plug your laptop into a rechargeable battery inside the case. A solar panel that covers one of the briefcase's sides provides the power. The battery inside is smart enough to know whether your laptop needs 12 or 20 volts, and Voltaic Systems bundles in a bunch of universal plugs that should fit many brands of products. The bag weighs 4 pounds with the battery, so it's not uber-light for a fabric bag. The fabric, by the way, is water-resistant and made of recycled PET plastic.

You need direct sunlight to get the best charge, though, and one laptop takes a day to charge. The company recommends that you charge a small amount at frequent intervals rather than letting your laptop drain and then trying to charge it up all at once. That might be hard to remember to do. As a result, the Generator--while it looks really neat--is still too expensive, heavy, and labor-intensive to use for most people.

For a little fun in the sun, Freeplay Energy's NR-2XS solar-powered radio should arrive in the United States in May for about $100. It has a line-in for playing the tunes from your music player, USB for charging up small devices, and a headphone port. It also plugs into an electrical outlet, should the sun fail you. The radio comes in white, black, red, and blue.

Just Add Water

The HydroPak is the first water-powered, fuel-cell, hydrogen-generating charger that I've ever seen. Horizon Fuel Cell Technology, which makes the fuel cell, and Millennium Cell, which makes the hydrogen generator, have teamed up to create a line of products that can charge a laptop or a smaller gadget such as a phone or iPod. It's scheduled for release in the United States in the third quarter of 2008.

The product comes in two sizes. The 600-milliliter version generates 270 watt-hours of power, has two USB ports, and can recharge items as big as laptops and power-tool batteries. It costs $400 for the fuel-cell unit and $20 for each hydrogen cartridge. The 20-milliliter size, which a spokesperson said can charge an iPod in 45 minutes, generates 15 watt-hours of power. It will cost about $50, for the initial fuel cell and cartridge.

diNovo Mini wireless keyboard from Logitech

What is it?

diNovo Mini wireless keyboard.

How much will it cost me?

$150.

Who makes it?

Logitech.

Why should I care?

If you've got a Windows Media Center PC or a Playstation 3 in your living room, and you want to get the most out of it, this is a clever-but-somewhat-pricey solution.

How would you describe it?

Windows Media Center PCs and PS3s may not quite be brothers from another mother, but they do share a similar urge to be the all-singing, all-dancing set top box for the living room by letting you you navigate photos, listen to music, watch video and browse the Internet. To do all of those things well requires a few more buttons than your typical remote, which is where Logitech's diNovo Mini wireless keyboard comes in. It connects to your PC or PS3 via Bluetooth 2.0 wireless, with a range of roughly thirty feet. The media controls allow you to easily adjust volume or switch channels; the keypad lets you perform text searches or fill out forms more quickly than would an onscreen keyboard; and the subtle backlighting means you won't have to whip out a flashlight to see what you're doing. The ClickPad, which you can see pictured in the upper-right corner of the device, works both as a D-pad for navigating menus and as a touchpad like you'd find on a laptop, which comes in particularly handy for Web browsing.

When can I get my hands on it?

February 2008.

What's your verdict?

Try. We like it...but we're reluctant to spend more than $100 for what's essentially a remote control.

Windows Vista is a rather heavy operating system with many neat features, but unfortunately they all come at a price. Right out of the box it requires a pretty hefty system to run (arguably). Before you run out and buy a new computer just so you can run your base operating system, check out these 10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows Vista tips to lighten the load. This is just the first in the series, so many of them may be very apparent to those experienced in tweaking. If you’re still using Windows XP, then check out 10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows XP.

This article details the following 10 tips:


1. Turn off UAC, or at least make it less annoying
2. Disable Aero
3. ReadyBoost
4. Tweak Indexing Service
5. While you are at it, fix the rest of your search options.
6. Get rid of the sidebar
7. Defender has a use?
8. Tweak your services
9. How to find out the next area for improvement – Tweak your programs
10. Not really a tweak but…

To learn more please read the entire article at its source: 10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista

A blogger at The Open Source Advocate corrals five ways to run Windows programs in Linux. These include the obvious, like choosing an open-source alternative instead, to the slightly more inventive: Run the application on a remote Windows system.

This method can be as simple as connecting to a Windows XP Pro workstation using rdesktop. However, you may have many Linux workstations that need to run Windows applications using this method. In that case, there are software options available that provide more scalability and features.

Of course, we’ve looked at various individual ways to run Windows apps in Linux, including this one on VMWare. But this is worthwhile reading for anyone who’s new to Linux or considering a switch. I count myself among the latter category, and I’m gratified to see there are so many options available

Five ways to use Windows apps in Linux [The Open Source Advocate]

aMSN is an MSN Messenger clone licensed under the GPL. Its main objective is to assist users who are new to the GNU/Linux operating system keep in contact with those who use the Microsoft program which is available only on Windows and Macintosh. To achieve this objective, aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of MSN Messenger, and supports many of its features.

aMSN has features not present in MSN Messenger. Users can set alarms, are able to see others who have removed them from their contact list, and are able to open many profiles at once. It is also very customizable, with extensions and themes available at the main site. aMSN also allows functions not available in the Macintosh version of MSN Messenger, such as webcam support, and the “nudge” feature.

aMSN is available for any system that supports Tcl/Tk 8.4 or higher. This includes Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and any UNIX variant including Linux.

You need the tkdnd binaries, you get them from TkDND developers cvs server with the following commands

$cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@tkdnd.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tkdnd login

(Hit enter, no password needed)

$cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@tkdnd.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tkdnd co -P tkdnd/libThen

you need to make a tkdnd in the amsn directory using this command

$mkdir $AMSNDIR/utils/tkdnd

(mine was in /usr/share/amsn)

Finally you need to copy over the files from the cvsserver to the directory you just made using this command

$cp tkdnd/lib/*tcl $AMSNDIR/utils/tkdnd/

and

$cp tkdnd/lib/Linux/libtkdnd1.0.so $AMSNDIR/utils/tkdnd/

Restart aMSN and you can enjoy dragging files to the conversation windows to send them.

When you try to change mouse pointers scheme, you may receive a string of error messages indicating that the mouse pointer cursor files are missing or corrupted. This happens if some or all of the *.CUR or *.ANI files are missing in the Windows\Cursors folder. Totally 184 (*.cur and *.ani) cursor files ship with Windows XP by default, and are available in compressed format in the Windows XP CD-ROM.

To extract ALL the *.cur and *.ani files, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM in the drive and type these lines in the Command Prompt:

Expand X:\i386\*.CU_ -r C:\Windows\Cursors

Expand X:\i386\*.AN_ -r C:\Windows\Cursors

Note:

* Where X:\ is the CD-ROM drive-letter
* _ is not a space, but an explicit “Underscore”

Change the target path if Windows is installed in a different folder/drive. Now all the mouse pointer / icons should be restored. Alternately, you can download ALL the cursor files from here (65 Kb). Unzip and extract the files to your Windows\Cursors folder.

It’s only been a month since Windows Vista’s public release hence compatibility issues with system drivers and software are to be expected, i.e. your favourite game or image editing application may not work in Windows Vista yet.

Fortunately, you can have both Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same system, by setting up your PC to dual-boot.

Assuming that Windows XP is installed first, create a new partition on your hard drive:

1. Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage.

2. Create a new partition using Disk Management.

Next, install Windows Vista to the new partition using Custom Install - a dual-boot menu will be automatically created.

Things are a little bit trickier if you start with Windows Vista first, e.g. your new PC comes with Windows Vista and you want to add Windows XP as an option during bootup. You can format your PC, install a clean copy of Windows XP and follow the steps above or make use of bootsect.exe as discussed in our forum. Your other alternative is to use the free VistaBootPRO to make chanegs to the Windows Vista Boot Configuration Data registry as outlined here.

I recently noted that Vista has some interesting new behaviors regarding applications that are launched from the Startup folder. By default, their I/O priorities are throttled back for a total of one minute from launch. This is a good idea to keep lots of smaller or background-use applications from all starting up at once, but it doesn’t seem to be such a good idea if you try to boot an application like Outlook, which is by nature I/O intensive, by putting it in the Startup folder.

To that end, I tried a few experiments. I wrote a batch file to start up several major applications Outlook, Word, Windows Live Writer, AIM and at least one or two other things and put it into the Startup group. Between each program launch, I instigated a forced seven-second delay by using the CHOICE command (a sneaky trick I picked up from somewhere). I wanted to see if this would cause any difference in the amount of utilization or responsiveness.

When I used this to launch the programs in question, all of them were launched at the Very Low I/O priority and the end result was that they were all fairly difficult to work with during that low I/O period.

I then took the same batch file out of the Startup group and ran it from the desktop after a cold boot. The programs in question all started up quite snappily and I could choose between any of them without difficulty and they were all running at Normal I/O priority, too.

So here’s my tentative recommendations for what to put in the Startup group. Much of this advice may be redundant but I’ll elaborate where needed. Efficient Software for HR Easy Work force Management. Fast Deployment. Contact us Today!

1. Include programs that run by default in the background and are not things you typically work with directly after logging in. AIM, for instance, is a good candidate for this sort of thing.

2. Don’t include major applications like Word or Outlook. Launch those manually so you can benefit from those getting the maximum I/O priority. (My above script seems to work nicely for group launching, although I had some minor window-focus issues that I think I can solve relatively easily.)

3. Don’t include applications that will block other things until they complete heavy I/O operations. Since they launch with very low I/O priority, they’ll essentially be stuck until that bar lifts.

I downloaded the release candidate of Vista Service Pack 1 yesterday and was prepared to wait till its public debut next week before writing about it. But after upgrading a few machines here and doing some tests, I changed my mind. If Microsoft’s decision to ditch the WGA kill switch in SP1 didn’t convince you, would you be interested in a 300% increase in tripling your network file transfer speeds?

Forget the reports you might have read about SP1 resulting in no performance boost. That story was based on a silly artificial benchmark involving scripting of Office applications. Back here in the real world, where gigabit network connections are now commonplace, you’ll see at least one huge improvement when transferring files over network connections.

In its original release, Vista had some design problems with its networking stack, resulting in slow file transfers, especially when connecting to computers running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Home Server (all three of these products share a great deal of their code base, including core networking components). In Vista SP1, file transfer speeds are dramatically improved. In this post, I’ll describe what I saw.

I did two sets of file-transfer tests using two separate systems configured to dual boot between Vista RTM and the new Vista SP1 release candidate. Both systems have dual- or quad-core processors (both in the Intel Core 2 Duo family) The first group of files consisted of two large DVD images in ISO format, totaling 4.2 GB.

Firefox is a great browser, but you already knew that, right? Firefox’s keywords facility can be used for a neat search trick. It is best used for a directed search engine that digs specific data for example, a Bugzilla search, IMDb search, LXR search or Marcel/wine search wine-searcher, and so on. Here are the steps:

1. Using Firefox, go to a site that offers a simple search facility (for example, IMDb, LXR or your local Bugzilla).

2. Place the cursor within the search box.

3. Right-click, and select Add a Keyword for this Search.

4. Give your new search shortcut a name.

5. Give your new search shortcut a short keyword (for example, I use bz for my Bugzilla search and lxr for LXR).

That’s it. To try out your new keyword search shortcut, open a new tab (Ctrl-T), place the cursor at the location bar (Ctrl-L), type your keyword followed by the search term(s)-for example, assuming you added keyword bz for the search at bugzilla.mozilla.org, then typing “bz 95849″ in the location bar will show you this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95849.

This is an ideal way to use a search engine that digs through some specific data.

Andrei provides an excellent tip for Firefox users in Pasting Wrapped URLs:

Here’s another Mozilla/Firefox tip: if you copy a URL wrapped over multiple lines from somewhere and try to paste it into the address bar, you will end up only with the first line of it. To fix it, go to about:config and change editor.singleLine.pasteNewlines setting to 3 or add:

user_pref(”editor.singleLine.pasteNewlines”, 3);

to your user.js file. Now all the line breaks will be removed upon pasting.

Excellent! I’d been looking for such a feature.

When you try to change mouse pointers scheme, you may receive a string of error messages indicating that the mouse pointer cursor files are missing or corrupted. This happens if some or all of the *.CUR or *.ANI files are missing in the Windows\Cursors folder. Totally 184 (*.cur and *.ani) cursor files ship with Windows XP by default, and are available in compressed format in the Windows XP CD-ROM.

To extract ALL the *.cur and *.ani files, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM in the drive and type these lines in the Command Prompt:

Expand X:\i386\*.CU_ -r C:\Windows\Cursors

Expand X:\i386\*.AN_ -r C:\Windows\Cursors

Note:

* Where X:\ is the CD-ROM drive-letter
* _ is not a space, but an explicit “Underscore”

Change the target path if Windows is installed in a different folder/drive. Now all the mouse pointer / icons should be restored. Alternately, you can download ALL the cursor files from here (65 Kb). Unzip and extract the files to your Windows\Cursors folder.

A modern PC with Vista Home Edition takes about one and a half minutes to boot. An older machine with XP is about the same. That’s 30 seconds for the PC itself (the BIOS) to boot up, plus a minute for the Windows operating system to boot. Sometimes, you need to reboot Windows (e.g. when installing new software), but there is no need to restart BIOS, too. However, the default is to reboot both. (That’s called doing a “cold boot,” rather than a “warm boot.”) There’s a trick that works on both XP and Vista to get it to do a warm boot instead, thus saving you 30 seconds per cycle.The trick is to hold down the SHIFT key when invoking the restart.

Windows Vista: Select Start, then hover over the right arrow that is to the right of the padlock icon until the pop-up menu appears that contains “restart” as one of it’s choices. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “restart” choice.

Windows XP: Select Start. Select “Shut Down…”. Change the drop-down combo box under “What do you want the computer to do?” to “Restart”. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “OK” button.

If you’re preparing to reinstall an operating system (for example, doing a clean install of Windows XP) or an application like Microsoft Office, you will need to find your copy of the software’s product key (CD key). Normally this product key is located with the manual or CD that came with your software.

If you’ve lost your product key you can often times find it in the registry but this can be very difficult to impossible to retrieve manually. Luckily, there are many free key finder programs available to help.

Below are the top 3 free key finder programs.

more and source:http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm

Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation. Started as a fork of the browser component (Navigator) of the Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox has replaced the Mozilla Suite as the flagship product of the Mozilla project, stewarded by the Mozilla Foundation and a large community of external contributors.

Mozilla Firefox is a cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Although not officially released for certain operating systems, the freely available source code works for many other operating systems, including FreeBSD,OS/2, Solaris, SkyOS, BeOS and more recently, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

I am providing some Very Useful Tips to speedup your Firefox.

In your location bar, type about:config

Once it Opens You should see similar to the following screen

Tip1

In the filter bar type network.http.pipelining

You should see the following screen

Normally it says ” false ” under value field , Double click it so it becomes ” true “.

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip2

In the filter bar again and type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Once it Opens You should see the following screen

Default it says 4 under value field and you need to change it to 8

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip3

Go to the filter bar again and type network.http.proxy.pipelining

Once it Opens You should see similar to the following screen

Normally it says ” false ” under value field , Double click it so it becomes ” true “.

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip4

Go to the filter bar again and type network.dns.disableIPv6

Once it Opens You should see the following screen

Normally it says ” false ” under value field , Double click it so it becomes ” true “.

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip5

Go to the filter bar again and type plugin.expose_full_path

Once it Opens You should see the following screen

Normally it says ” false ” under value field , Double click it so it becomes ” true “.

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip6

Now you need to Create new Preference name with interger value for this got to Right click -> New -> Integer

Once it opens you should see the following screen

Here you need to type nglayout.initialpaint.delay and click ok

Now you need to enter 0 in value filed and click ok

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip7

Now you need to Create one more Preference name with interger value for this got to Right click -> New -> Integer

Once it opens you should see the following screen

Here you need to type content.notify.backoffcount and click ok

Now you need to enter 5 in value filed and click ok

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Tip8

Now you need to Create one more Preference name with interger value for this got to Right click -> New -> Integer

Once it opens you should see the following screen

Here you need to type ui.submenuDelay and click ok

Now you need to enter 0 in value filed and click ok

Once you finished this you should see the following screen.

Some more Tweaks

Enable the spellchecker for inputfields and textareas (default is textareas only)

layout.spellcheckDefault=2

Open lastfm://-links directly in amarok

network.protocol-handler.app.lastfm=amarok
network.protocol-handler.external.lastfm=true
Firefox Memory Leak Fix

Open a new tab. Type “about:config” without quotes into the address bar and hit enter/click Go.

Right-click anywhere, select New, then Integer. In the dialog prompt that appears, type:

browser.cache.memory.capacity

Click OK. Another dialog prompt will appear. This is where you decide how much memory to allocate to Firefox. This depends on how much RAM your computer has, but generally you don’t want to allocate too little (under 8MB), but if you allocate too much, you might as well not do this. A good recommended setting is 16MB. If you want 16MB, enter this value into the dialog prompt:

16384

(Why 16384 instead of 16000? Because computers use base-12 counting. Thus 16 megabytes = 16384 bytes. Likewise, if you want to double that and allocate 32MB, you’d enter 32768.)

Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart. If your Firefox still uses the same amount of memory, give it a few minutes and it should slowly clear up. If that fails, try a system reboot.

Now your Firefox will now be 3 - 30 times faster in loading pages.