A lot of people are complaining that Firefox has become bloated with its third version and they would very well like to go back to Firefox 2. Though we, the folks at DailyGyan, do not share the same opinion, we would still like to help you by showing how to downgrade from FF3 to FF2.

Related: Ultimate guide on how to get old versions of software.

Before beginning your downgrade, we would like to warn you that the extensions you have installed in FF3 will no longer work in Firefox 2, in most cases. But go ahead, see which all are not working and be ready to reinstall the ones that are not compatible.
OK, let's start. Here is what you should do:

1. Create a back up of your profile directory
   See this link to find where your profile directory is. Then create a copy of this directory in some convenient location. Read the link for more information.
   
   
2. Download Firefox 2
   This can be a bit daunting. That's because the Firefox site no longer gives you a link to download Firefox 2. The site talks about nothing but Firefox 3.
   Or is it? Get Firefox 2 from http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0.0.14/win32/en-US/. Linux users, you are smart enough to guess where Linux version would be, right?
   
   
3. Uninstall Firefox 3
   You can uninstall FF3 using the Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs or by running the [Firefox Installation Directory]\uninstall\helper.exe
   Select not to remove your profile information.
   Linux/Ubuntu users you need to run sudo apt-get purge firefox-3.0
   
   
4. Install Firefox 2
   Though most of your addons will be rendered un-usable, you can still have your bookmarks and passwords list saved. Ensure that the old bookmarks.html and key3.db files are still in the profile directory. Rename signons3.txt to signons2.txt.
   Now, install Firefox 2, and if all went correct you will have your bookmarks and saved passwords intact in your Firefox 2. Now it's time to reinstall all addons that Firefox have marked as not-compatible.
   Ubuntu users need to run sudo apt-get install firefox-2 to install Firefox 2. For other distributions, download the tar file from the above said Mozilla Releases site and untar it to a suitable location.
   

Do you know any easier method to get this done? Did you find any stumbling blocks? Share with us in the comments.

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One of the main reason why Firefox has been so successful, is that you can tweak it to match your needs. Though there are another 12 million Firefox users out there, still you can make your Firefox installation unique, matching your personality.
This short guide gives you a myriad of options that can be tweaked in Firefox 3. Read along.

1. Auto complete in the address bar as you type an address.
   Majority of the people out their seems to have a love-hate relationship with the Firefox3's new address bar (that Mozilla likes to call as the awsome bar). In a humble attempt to tame this address bar we give you some hacks that can reform the smart bar to become the real smart bar.
   
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter browser.urlbar.autoFill into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to true to enable autofill.
   Now, as you type in an address, you can see that not only the drop down list is shown, but the address bar itself is auto completed for you.
   
   
2. Enabling spell check in text-fields
   By default Firefox does spell checking only in multi-line text boxes. If you want the Firefox to spell check the single line text entry fields too, this hack is for you:
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter layout.spellcheckDefault into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to 2.
     
   
   
   
3. Tweaking the full screen mode
   By default Firefox 3 hides the location bar and tab bar when you enter the full screen mode. Here is how to disable this behavior.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter browser.fullscreen.autohide into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to false to disable hiding of location and tab bar.
   • If you just want to disable the hiding animation, set browser.fullscreen.animateUp to 0.
     
   
   
   
4. Turn On Color Profile Support
   
   The Good news is that (unlike Firefox2) Firefox3 contains a built-in advanced color profile support, which makes Firefox 3 compete easily with any desktop image viewers/editors in terms of color support. The bad news is that this mode is disabled by default. This is what you should do to enable the color profile support.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter gfx.color_management.enabled into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to true to enable color profile support.
     
   
   
   
5. Always display the go button
   By default Firefox 3 displays the Go button only when you are editing the address in the location bar. This is how you can display it always.
   • Open userChrome.css file in your profile directory using notepad.
   • Add the following line to the end of the file: #go-button { visibility: visible !important; }
   • Restart Firefox.
   If you don't want to tamper with the userChrome.css file, here is an extension that does the same for you.
   
   
   
6. Make the location bar display only typed addresses
   Dont want the location bar to show entries in your bookmark or history? Here is what you should do.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button
   • Enter browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to true.
   
   
   
7. Change the number of suggestions displayed in the Location bar menu
   By default Firefox 3 displays upto 12 results in the drop down list as you type an address. Here is how to change this number.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to any positive number.
   
   
   
8. Hide RSS feed icon from the location bar
   If you feel that little rss icon is taking up your precious screen real estate, you can easily disable it.
   • Open userChrome.css file in your profile directory using notepad.
   • Add the following line to the end of the file: #feed-button[feeds] { display: none !important; }
   • Restart Firefox.
   
   
   
9. Hide the star icon from the location bar
   You may be a keyboard junkie or you may be too used up to the old ways that you'll never use the star icon sitting up in the location bar. If you never use it, why let it be there? Here is how to remove the star icon from location bar.
   • Open userChrome.css file in your profile directory using notepad.
   • Add the following line to the end of the file: #star-button {display: none !important;}
   • Restart Firefox.
   
   
   
10. Disable single-click-select-all in the location bar.
    One of the real pain in the neck feature of Firefox is that it automatically selects the entire address in the location bar if you click anywhere near it. You just wanted to correct a typo in the address, but instead of putting the cursor at the clicked location, Firefox selected the entire address. Without looking into the screen, you corrected the typo and now the entire address is gone. Now buddy, start typing again, says Firefox. Here is how to make the behavior more 'humane'.
    • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
    • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
    • Enter browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to false.
    
    
    
11. Reduce the size of the back button
    
    This may not be that evident at first, but will soon reveal to be a no-brainier once you know it. This is all you have to do: Right-click on Firefox's toolbar, and choose Customize. In the dialog box, select "Use small icons."
    
    
12. Disable blinking text
    Sorry, Mr. Blinking Text, you are not welcome. Here is how to stop all blinking text:
    • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
    • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
    • Enter browser.blink_allowed into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to false.
    
    
    

What other tricks and tips have you found on Firefox 3? Share with us in the comments.

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Firefox 3 is ready for download. Get it here.

And if you download it today itself, you’ll also help Firefox set a Guinness world record.

Download Firefox 3 | New Features | Video Tour

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Sage was one of the extensions that we missed a lot, since we moved to Firefox 3. Sage was last updated on January 2007 and since then the lead developer Peter Andrews and his team seems to have lost interest in the project.

Now comes the good news. A good guy named Mike, have ported the Sage to Firefox 3 under the name Sage-Too. Thank you Mike.

Sage is an excellent RSS reader addon for Firefox. This is how the sage developers describe it.

Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed reader extension for Mozilla Firefox. It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don't.

And this sentence is true to core. You get only what you want in Sage. No extra fat, no unwanted bells and whistles.

Sage-Too have retained all existing features of Sage. So if  you are interested to know the features of Sage-Too, the Sage features page ought to be your destination.

 

Get Sage-Too | Developer Blog

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Are you waiting eagerly for the release of Firefox 3?

We bet you are. So are 80,731 Americans, 14, 457 Canadians, 13,656 Russians, 6,889 Indians and a total of 492,238 people worldwide.

Huh!, what about the numbers, you ask? This is the number of people who have pledged to download Firefox 3, on the day it is released.

Firefox 3 is currently in Release Candidate 1 (RC1) version. There will an RC2 coming soon and if there are no major bugs found in RC2, it will be released as Firefox 3 somewhere in June. And, the Firefox team have a really big plan for this day...

Firefox team is all set to create a new Guinness World Record of the most software downloaded in24 hours. If you are interested to try out Firefox 3, they will get you informed immediately when the release is ready for download, so that you too can contribute to help Firefox get the Guinness World Record.

Just visit this page, click on 'Pledge Now', give your country name and email, and they will get you notified when Firefox 3 is released.

Firefox3 World Record | Download Firefox3 RC1 | Firefox3 Features

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One of the most appreciated change that Firefox 3 brought about was the revamped Addon Manager.

Addon manager, now have a "Get Addons" tab which displays a list of addons that Mozilla recommends for you. By default the Addons manager displays 5 recommended addons. This hack explains how you can increase the number of recommended addons.

1. Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
2. Hit "I''ll be carefull. I promise!" button.
3. Type extensions.getAddons.maxResults into the filter field and change its value from the default 5 to a higher number.

Note: It seems that Firefox or the Mozilla site imposes a restriction by which only a maximum of 8 recommended addons can be queried. Even if you set the above value to a number greater than 8, you'll get only 8 recommended addons.

Happy Firefoxing.

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If you have a wide screen monitor, the Firefox's sidebar is definitely worth a shot.



Firefox sidebar occupies about one-eighth of your screen width, sits in the left portion of the screen and can carry an always visible web page, no matter what tab your are currently browsing on.

Even though you can load any web site into the sidebar, sites that are customized for viewing in a mobile phone browser or iPhone works best. This is because the width of the Firefox sidebar almost matches with the width of a mobile phone screen, giving the perfect experience.

Here we give you a collection of sites and their address, that you can load up in your sidebar. But first, here is what you should do to get a page loaded in sidebar.

1. If the link given is of an extension, just install that extension to get the sidebar.
2. Bookmark the link (Right click the link and select "Bookmark This Link").
3. Right click on the bookmark, select properties.
4. Check the box named "Load this bookmark in the sidebar".
5. Now click on the bookmark to load it into sidebar.

Sites to load into Firefox sidebar.

1. Google Search: http://www.google.com/m


2. Google Chat: http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/client
   


3. Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader/i/
   


4. iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig/mobile
   


5. Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/m
   


6. Gmail: http://m.gmail.com
   


7. Twitter: http://m.twitter.com/
   


8. Facebook chat: http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
   


9. Delicious: Delicious Extension, which opens a sidebar.
   


10. Remember The Milk: http://m.rememberthemilk.com/
    


11. Flickr: http://m.flickr.com/
    


12. Orkut: http://m.orkut.com/
    


13. Facebook: http://iphone.facebook.com/
    


14. MySpace: http://mobile.myspace.com/
    


15. Digg: http://digg.com/iphone
    

How To Load Any Website Into Sidebar?

You can convert any web page into its mobile version using the Google Mobilizer. Just enter the website you wish to see in the sidebar and hit enter. Google will give you the address you need to bookmark and load in the sidebar.

Bookmark this link to load DailyGyan.com in your sidebar.

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If you have been brave enough to try out Firefox 3, you might have noticed that a lot of extension in the Firefox addons site is unavailable to you.
This is because those extensions were made for Firefox 2 and are hence not supported in FF3. So, the good folks at Mozilla have completely disabled downloading of such addons, if you browse to the addon page using Firefox 3.

We however disagree with the Mozilla developers. We have found that a large number of Firefox 2 addons function seamlessly in Firefox 3 and it is really cruel to lock out FF3 users from enjoying those extensions.

How to download Firefox 2 extensions using Firefox 3 From The Firefox Addons Site?

1. Take Firefox. Type about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
2. Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
3. Right click and select New -> String.
4. Enter the preference name as general.useragent.override and the value as Firefox/2.0.0.14

Now go to an addons page like this and see whether the "Download Now" option is enabled.

How to enable installing Firefox 2 extensions in Firefox 3

We have already covered this here, but reproducing it here for making this post complete.
Even though, you are able to download FF2 addons using the above method, your Firefox 3 will resist installing incompatible addons unless you perform the below steps.

1. Type about:config into Firefox's address bar and click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
2. Right-click anywhere. Choose New -> Boolean. Make the name of your new config value extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false.
3. Make another new boolean pair called extensions.checkUpdateSecurity and set the value to false.
4. Restart Firefox.

That's it. Now you'll be able to download all addons from Firefox Addons site and also install them in Firefox 3.

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No big deal. We have already broken the ice a week before, in this post.
The official delicious blog announced it only today. Duh!

Read Firefox 3, del.icio.us, and you from delicious blog.

Once again. No big deal, delicious. Daily Gyan readers knew this was coming.

Related: How to install delicious extension in Firefox 3 beta

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Good news for Delicious users who are missing their beloved Delicious addon in Firefox 3 beta. Yahoo is secretly cooking up a delicious extension for Firefox 3.

Head over to Delicious Yahoo Groups page and download the extension from the Files section (You'll need to have a Yahoo account to join this group). Though the extension is still in alpha, we didn't find any glitches at all. So let's take delicious addon for a ride in Firefox 3.

Related: How to install delicious extension in Firefox 3 beta

Features in this new release are:

• Status bar indicators for new links for you and network activity
• Jump to Tag feature (press F2) allows you to quickly access tags and
  bookmarks using the keyboard
• General performance and usability enhancements
• Preferences now in a separate dialog under Tools (which also can be
  invoked via the prefs button on the FF Add-ons pane).
• FF3 support (like you'd think we'd forget)
  

What do you think about this version of delicious addon? Tell us in the comments.

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Whenever you install an extension, Firefox will show the above message box. Initially the Install button will be grayed out for 3 seconds, during which you have to sit there, watching the timer ticking down. Even though there are very good reasons why such a delay is put in force, still some of us have felt the need to remove that.
If you are a Firefox addon-surfer (hey, we coined that term :D) who installs (and obviously, uninstalls) a couple of extensions every day, the 3 seconds delay can easily become a time sink.

Related; Install Addons The Easy Way In Firefox

You can easily disable the installation wait by a simple about:config hack.

1. Type about:config into the Firefox address bar and hit enter.
2. Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
3. Enter security.dialog_enable_delay into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to 0

Try to install some addons now and you will notice that there is no wait period in the dialog box that pops up.

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How do you install addons from a site other than mozilla addons ?

A normal person will click on the link to extension's .xpi file. Firefox will then nag with a message bar on top saying it prevented the site from installing software in your computer. Then one have to click the Allow button to install the addon.

In the background, this process adds the site permanently to your list of sites that are safe to install extensions in your computer, which may not be what you intended, if you were just trying out new extensions. Doesn't look too good. Isn't it?

Well, it's time to stop being just another normal person and become a real uber-elite Firefox user. So read along the different ways in which one can install an addon in Firefox.

1. Copy the url of the xpi file (Right click the install link and select Copy Link Location). Paste it into the address bar and hit enter.
   
2. Right click the link, select Save Link As and download the file to your computer. Then drag and drop the file into Firefox window.
   
3. Copy the url of the xpi file (Right click the install link and select Copy Link Location). Select File -> Open File and paste the address into the location field. Hit enter.
4. In Windows Explorer, right click the downloaded xpi file and select Open With Firefox.
   
5. Enable the secret Install Extension button in Firefox: Type about:config into the address bar and hit enter. Click "I'll be careful, I promise!" button. Change the value of extensions.hideInstallButton to false. Now, if you take the Tools -> Addons, you can see a new button named "Install" near to "Find Updates". On clicking it, a file-open dialog is shown. You can then browse to a downloaded xpi file to start installation.
   

All these methods do just the same thing - install a Firefox extension. You have to the select the method that best suits you and the current situation and adopt it. Eg: If you have downloaded a large number of extensions, enabling the Install button may be worth it.

The usual disclaimer is valid here - "Never install an extension from an untrusted source".

Happy Firefoxing.

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You may know AdBlock Plus plugin for Firefox as a pretty good way to block ads on websites. What you may not know is that it can be used to download flash media embedded in web pages like a flash game. See the screen cast where I download a super cool game "4 Wheel Madness" from flashgames247.com
(Safe for work, no audio)



In case you can't understand from the video, here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to the page having the game. In this example it is http://www.flashgames247.com/play/754.html
   
2. When the flash content loads, you get a link named "block" that AdBlock Plus have added to the top right corner of the game. Click on it.
   
3. In the window that pops up, copy the location of the swf file and cancel the pop up.
   
4. In a new tab paste that address and hit enter. When the game loads, select File -> Save Page As and save the swf file to your computer.
   
5. Now you can play that game even when you are not connected to internet by opening that swf file in Firefox or IE.
   

Happy Gaming.

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Firefox 3 beta have been released, and if you have been reading DailyGyan, you already know how to run Firefox 2 along with Firefox 3.

But Firefox 3 beta has a serious issue. Lack of extensions!
Many extension writers are waiting for the official release of Firefox3 before porting there extension to it. The result is that many of our beloved extensions refuse to install in Firefox3.

In this How To, I'll show you how to install a Firefox2 extension in Firefox3 beta using the official del.icio.us Firefox extension as an example.

1. Go to the delicious extensions page.
   
2. Right click on the Install Now and select "Save Link As". Save the xpi file to your computer.
   
3. Open the downloaded xpi file using any zip application. Inside the archive there will be a file named install.rdf. Open it using a text editor.
   
4. Change the line <em:maxversion>2.0.0.*</em:maxversion> to <em:maxVersion>4.0.0.*</em:maxVersion>
   
5. Save the file and update the archieve.
   
6. Drag the modified xpi file into Firefox to start the installation.
   

Update: LifeHacker blog suggests the following procedure.

• Type about:config into Firefox's address bar and click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
• Right-click anywhere. Choose New>Boolean. Make the name of your new config value extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false.
• Make another new boolean pair called extensions.checkUpdateSecurity and set the value to false.
• Restart Firefox.

(However, I couldn't get this method to work for me. Even after setting the two values, firefox was still doing compatibility check and failed to install the extensions.)

Related: Official Delicious Extension for Firefox 3 Beta
Happy Firefoxing

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In Firefox, you can enable spell check of a Text Field by right clicking the field and selecting Spell check this field.

However, did you know how to enable spell check by default?

1. Type about:config in the address bar and hit enter.
   
2. Find the preference name layout.spellcheckDefault
3. Double click on it and change the value to 2.

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You have heard about the Firefox 3 beta that was launched and want to checkout the new cool features, but is twitchy about messing up your current spiced up Firefox 2 profile.
Amit at Digital Inspiration recently posted a solution to this by asking readers to try out the Firefox portable edition. Daily Gyan wasn't satisfied. We wanted to run the native Firefox 3 build along with Firefox 2 without messing up our existing profiles. And yes, we did it at last. Here is a How-To.

1. Create a backup of your existing profile folder - C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
   
2. Download Firefox 3 beta 3 from Mozilla.
   
3. Install it to a folder different from the installation location of Firefox 2.
   
4. During installation select custom and ask the installer not to create any shortcuts. (We'll create them manually)
   
5. Important: At the end of the installation, do *not* select the check box to launch Firefox. We are not yet ready to lanuch it.
   
6. In a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd), navigate to the folder where you installed Firefox 3 and run the command
   firefox.exe -P
   .In the window that pops up, click new and create a new Profile named Firefox3Test.
   
7. Now create a shortcut of firefox.exe in the Desktop. Edit the shortcut's property and add -P Firefox3Test to the end (after the "" ends) in the command option.
   

Use this shortcut to launch Firefox 3. Use your old shortcuts to launch Firefox2.

Points to remember:

• Always do a backup of your profile folder
  
• Do *not* uninstall Firefox 2
  
• Do *not* install Firefox 3 into the same folder where Firefox 2 is installed.
  
• You cannot run Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 simultaneously. Only one can be run a time.
  
• Do *not* allow Firefox 3 to run with default profile. This can seriously mess up your existing Firefox 2 settings.
  

If you found this interesting, now would be a good time to subscribe to DailyGyan updates.

Happy Hacking.

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Did you know that

• the keyboard shortcut for opening a new tab is Ctrl + t, and that to undo closing a tab is Ctrl + Shift + t ?
  
  
• that double clicking empty space on the tab bar will open a new tab and middle clicking on an open tab will close it?
  
  
• that you can remove any address from the url bar drop down list by highlighting it and pressing delete key?
  
  
• that you can stop animation of GIF images by pressing ESC key?
  
  
• that you can still save images when right click context menu is disabled by dragging the image to the url bar and selecting Ctrl + s
  
  
• that you can recover accidentally deleted bookmarks by opening the Bookmarks Manager and selecting Edit -> Undo (Ctrl + z)
  
  
• that there is a smarter way to search for words than the Ctrl + F dialog that you use? Just type / followed by the search words. Search for next occurrence using Ctrl + g
  
  
• that you can see the list of installed plugins by entering about:plugins in the address bar and hitting enter?
  
  
• that you can alter any web page by entering javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0 into the address bar and hitting enter?
  

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