Following are two
programs as opposed to extensions, but as the applications are geared for Firefox only, I think they probably belong here more than in the
Useful Programs thread. I'm reasoning that as the
Flashgot extension actually contains an executable, making
it a Firefox only
program then I should probably follow suit here. If a moderator disagrees I'd ask that it please be moved to the
Useful Programs thread if that's more appropriate.
Here are two stand alone programs which allegedly optimize different files involved in Firefox start-up and the handling of cookies etc. The proof is in the pudding -- having tried both of them, I do notice some improvement on Firefox 3.6 on one of my older PC's.
PROGRAM: SpeedyFox
Version: 1.4
Author/Program Homepage: http://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox
Program Download: http://www.crystalidea.com/download/speedyfox.exe
Description:
The program claims to defragment the SQLITE databases which contain Firefox cookies and other profile settings which apparently get fragmented over time.
Notes:
Download the stand alone program, then exit Firefox. When Firefox is no longer running (better check the Task Manager for this, as Firefox.exe sometimes lags a while when closing), start the application. Choose the profile to be defragmented, run, exit the application, and restart Firefox.
I balk at the claim that it speeds start-up by a factor of three, but there was undeniably some improvement.
CCleaner has an option which claims to compress the SQLITE database (which I haven't used), but it sounds similar so if you are using that
CClenaer option you might not notice much if anything.
PROGRAM: UPX (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables)
Version: 3.04
Author/Program Homepage: http://upx.sourceforge.net/#download
Program Download: http://upx.sourceforge.net/download/upx304w.zip
Description:
The program claims to compress executables (*.exe and *.dll files) so they load faster.
Notes:
I saw some improvement in load time on an old machine.
Directions:.
From
Gizmo's Freeware at
TechSupportAlert.com -- always a good place to look for freeware fixes.
Quote:
You can slash Firefox's slow load time by compressing the DLLs and executables. There are many choices for compression but I suggest you use UPX which is free, efficient and time proven.
1. Download UPX from http://upx.sourceforge.net/#download
2. Unzip upx.exe into your Firefox installation folder which is normally C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox.
3. Make sure Firefox is not running then shell to a command prompt in the Firefox installation directory.
4. Type in the following command in a single line and hit return:
for %v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\%v"
5. If on some later occasion you want to unpack the files, just type in the command above but add the decompression switch "-d" after "do upx."
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Unfortunately you'll need to repeat this procedure with every Firefox version update.