K-ski writes,
"Is there a way that when you open Firefox you can have multiple pages open upon start-up of the program? In other words having multiple home pages?"
Why yes there is. And you can go about it a few ways. First, you can have it always show the tabs you had open last time that you exited Firefox.
Go to Tools, Options in Windows--or Preferences in Mac OS X.
In the main section, go to the drop-down menu "When Firefox Starts" and choose "Show my windows and tabs from last time."
Now every time you launch Firefox, it will give you all the tabs you had when you closed it.
But, if you want a defined set of tabs every time, no matter where you left off, you can do that, too. Thanks to Shameer for the easy tip on this.
First open up the tabs you want to use as your home page set.
Then, go to Preferences in OS X--tools, then options in Windows.
Change the drop-down menu to "Show my homepage."
And then press the button "Use Current Pages." You should see the URLs for all the pages you had open listed in the text box marked home page. Each URL is separated by a pipe symbol. That's the one that looks like this: | Handy to know if you want to make a quick edit to the list later.
In Firefox, one of the awesome bar's awesome tricks is guessing which URL you meant to type. It does it by querying Google and using the Browse By Name search feature to take you directly to a site.
For instance, if I just type "http", Firefox can't find anything definitive in the history for just that part of a URL, so it kicks it over to the keyword search. Google takes you to the top search result for that keyword, which is the Wikipedia article on HyperText Transport Protocol.
But, if you don't like Google, you can change that. Here's how:
Type about:config in the location bar and press return.
This takes you to a warning, asking you to be careful. Do be careful. Once you're sure you mean it, press the "I'll be careful, I promise button."
Now type keyword.URL into the box marked Filter.
Double-click on keyword.URL and a dialog box will pop up with a Google URL in it. This is the URL the awesome bar uses to do a search when it can't make sense of what you typed.
I suggest saving that URL somewhere, in case you want it back. Though it is currently in the article for keyword.URL at MozillaZine.org.
In the text box, replace the URL with whatever search engine you'd rather use.
Press OK.
Now go to the awesome bar and for a test type "http" again.
Instead of taking you to the Wikipedia article, it gives you Bing search results for http.
You can change the keyword search to hit other sites, as well.
For instance, Scroogle is a site that returns Google results without your IP address being logged or cookies being set.
And Nathan Thompson, Class of 2011, e-mailed me about how he's using CNET search to power his keyword lookup in Firefox. He just uses the cnet.com search string and ends it after query=.
That, my friends, will give you a few more options to tweak your Firefox awesome bar's awesomeness.
Here's a handy add-on to work you right around these artificial barriers. Go to addons.mozilla.org and search for user agent switcher, or you can find it at CNET's Download.com. Add the plug-in to Firefox and restart your browser.
When you come upon a naggy site that doesn't like your browser, go to tools, select User agent switcher, and select the browser you need to pretend to be.
Reload the page and the prejudice ends. You can use it on many sites to log-in to your classes or pay your bill. It will even fool Mozilla.org into insulting you for using IE. That's how good it is.
Do be aware, sometimes the reason they warn you to use a certain browser is because their crappy site BREAKS in every other browser, so the user agent won't help you in those situations. But for a lot of sites, you'll be able to use them just as if you had Internet Explorer running in Windows.
The Internet is full of threats like cross-site scripting attacks and clickjacking. A lot of these attacks work by injecting scripts in Web pages that you don't even know are there. You can give yourself a modicum more protection by running a Firefox plug-in called NoScript.
NoScript blocks all scripts from running until you authorize them. Let me show you how it works.
Go to addons.mozilla.org and search for NoScript or get it from Download.com. Install it as you would any add-on. Once you have it installed, look in the bottom right corner at the little S with the cross-out symbol.
Clicking on it brings up a submenu that lets you choose how to handle scripts on the page you're at. The safest way to go is not to allow any scripts. You'll never fall victim to code that doesn't run.
But some sites won't work without scripts so, the next safest thing is to temporarily allow only the scripts you need or trust. A lazier and slightly less safe method is to temporarily allow all on a page.
The next more convenient level, but also less safe is to permanently allow scripts individually or all for a page. This becomes necessary for things like your Bank's Web site or Google Docs where you don't want to constantly allow scripts every time you launch your browser. If you permanently allow scripts from a site, you're putting your trust in that site that it will never allow itself to be infected by a malicious script.
The worst thing you can do is globally allow all scripts. You might as well not run NoScript at that point. If you have allowed a script on a page and you change your mind about it, you can always choose forbid, to start blocking it again.
Running NoScript means you're going to have to do a bit more thinking about pages you surf to. It was enlightening when I first started running NoScript to see which of my banks and utilities worked just fine without scripts and which became disabled. If nothing else, NoScript gives you more control over what risks you expose yourself to on the Net.
Thanks to garysimmons on Twitter who pointed to a Lifehacker article from the awesome Gina Trapani on how to force your old add-ons to work in the beta version of Firefox.
Big warning! You're removing a safety net when you do this. Be prepared to deal with bugs, crashes, and security risks if you do this.
OK. Here's how to do it.
Go to the Firefox address bar and type about:config.
Click the button promising to be careful.
You're promising to be careful...RIGHT?
Right-click anywhere on the screen, choose new, then Boolean.
Name your new preference extensions.checkCompatibility. Press OK. Then set it to false and press OK again.
Now right-click again anywhere choose New and Boolean and make the name of this one extensions.checkUpdateSecurity and set the value of that one to false.
Great! You've just instructed Firefox not to check the validity of the extension and to tell update security to go take a flying leap.
If you're sure you want to do that, restart Firefox.
Now all your add-ons should load quite nicely. At least if they don't crash the whole browser. Don't forget you turned off the capability to ensure secure updates. So do be careful.
One last tip, several people wrote to me about the Add-on called Nightly Tester Tools. It allows you to use otherwise incompatible add-ons in beta versions, although it doesn't seem to get Firefox 2 add-ons to work in Firefox 3.
But there's a security risk there. You don't know where that URL is going. It could be a map, or the pictures of your friend's vacation. Or it could be a malicious Web site that hijacks your computer installs a Trojan and keylogger, and you never even know. You just think the Web site's broken.
The key is to hover over any URL to make sure it's sending you somewhere you trust. But tiny URLs only show the shortened URL when you hover over them.
So you can take one of two security precautions.
1. Never click on a shortened URL.
2. Use a Firefox plug-in that Sam in Melbourne, Australia, told me about, called bit.ly preview, which lets you see the whole URL that a tiny URL will redirect you to. Here's how it works.
Go to addons.mozilla.org and download the add-on and install it in Firefox.
The first time you run it, you'll need to enter a bit.ly log-in and API key. Go to bit.ly and sign up for an account if you don't have one. Then click on the account page.
Copy the API key and paste it into the field back on the options screen, then add in your log-in name and press the save button. Then close the add-ons window.
Now when you hover over any bit.ly URL, you'll see the full URL and page title. It's supposed to work with other tiny URL services, but I could only make it work for Bit.ly. Which still makes it very useful for Twitter.
Another Twitter-specific add-on that works for all links is Power Twitter. It translates every link in Twitter from a URL to a linked title of the page you're going to. It still won't let you see the full URL, but you'll have a much better idea by the title than you would have otherwise.
It also does other cool things like embed videos and pictures so you don't have to link out to them. Just remember to pay attention to that *before* you click and you'll be a little safer.
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Firefox won't save my homepage
Moving to a new computer is a pain. You can sync bookmarks and export some data, but it's almost like starting over again. Thankfully, Download.com editor Jessica Dolcourt tipped me off to the Weave plug-in. Weave syncs your bookmarks, search queries, passwords, and even open tabs and then encrypts the data on Mozilla's servers. This can save a lot of time when you're setting up a new computer or if you browse the Web on more than one computer.
If you're not comfortable with beta version software, you may want to wait on this, because you need to run the latest beta version of Firefox. Go to www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-beta.html to download the current version.
Install that browser, then go to labs.mozilla.com/projects/weave/ and download and install the Weave add-on. Once you've restarted the browser, choose Tools then Weave then sign-in.
If this is the second browser you're setting up, then you'll choose to set up another computer. If it's your first browser, you choose Get Started with Weave. Then you'll enter a username and password for your account and a separate passphrase for the encryption on Mozilla's servers. Don't forget that one, or you're kind of screwed.
You'll be challenged to figure out one of those crazy spam-preventing Captchas, then you'll need to tell Mozilla which computer this browser is on and what kind of computer it is. The first sync will happen and then you're done. You can tweak your preferences in the tools menu under Weave. After that, you just go to any other computer you want synced, and set up Weave on them. The process will be similar. You'll need to remember your username and password.
Weave will get even cooler when Firefox's mobile applications come out. You'll be able to sync your phone's Mozilla to your computer as well.
Go to addons.mozilla.org and search for SimpleSearch. While it's still in the experimental stage, you'll have to log in to use it.
After you've installed the add-on, go to a page on the Web and highlight a word. Right click and highlight the search option.
Choose the search engine you want.
And you'll be taken to that search.
The back button. The backspace key or Delete button on a Mac, sends you back one page.
Need to type in a URL? F6 highlights the address bar. No more fumbling around with the mouse.
Need to search for a word on a page? Control-F in Windows or Command-F in a Mac opens the Find function.
Maybe you want to copy all the text on a page. CTRL-A in Windows or Command-A in Mac highlights everything for your cutting and pasting pleasure.
Want to quickly close a Tab? Control-W in Windows and yes Command-W in Mac closes it quick.
Of course, opening a new tab is as easy as Ctrl-T in Windows or Command-T in Mac.
And a new Window? You can almost guess it? Control-N in Windows Command-N in Mac.
Flip through all the tabs easily With CTRL-Tab. Or CTRL-Shift-Tab to go the other direction.
Can't remember that page you visited earlier today? Control Shift-H in Windows or Command-Shift-H in Mac pops-up your history.
And if for some reason you need to get to the bottom of a page fast, press End. To get back to the top, press Home.
There's certainly more shortcuts out there, so if you like these, keep your eyes sharp for other Firefox keyboard shortcuts.
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