While the tab bar is providing a great way to quickly change and access different websites it basically blocks part of the website when it is not needed. It`s not needed by the way when you interact with a website and needed again if you want to access another tab or open a new one.

Hide Tab Bar is a Firefox add-on that offers two methods to hide the tab bar. The first is by offering a keyboard shortcut to enable and disable it. This is a convenient way if you set the shortcut to a key that you can reach without hassle. I’m using the F1 key for that which is normally used to display the Firefox Help document which I never access.

The second option is to set a timer to automatically hide the Firefox tab bar after a certain amount of time that is specified in milliseconds. The task bar disappears after that time and appears again if you move the mouse in the area, it pretty much works like the option to hide the Windows task bar only that you can specify the time in Firefox.

I do prefer the keyboard shortcut though because this auto hide option distracts me to much.

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I was checking out Lifehacker and a user called Bugmenot21 has posted a way to use your old extensions in Firefox 3. Now, I’m not a fan of this method since I prefer to wait till the developers themselves release compatible versions. Still, if you’re interested, you can give this a shot. I’m not guaranteeing anything though.

• Open Firefox and type ‘about:config’ (without the quotation marks) in the address bar.
• Right-click anywhere in the window and select New > Boolean. A box named new boolean value will open. Type extensions.checkUpdateSecurity in the preference field. Click OK. Set its value to False.
• Similarly, create another new boolean value entry. This time, type extensions.checkCompatability. Like earlier, set the value to False.

That’s it. Now, all your extensions that were previously incompatible or did not secure updates should work in the Beta version. Be warned though that this is not a foolproof solution to the problem. Don’t be surprised if one or more of your extensions stats behaving strangely.

Do you know of any other ways to get extensions working in Firefox 3? Or would you prefer to wait till it becomes stable?

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Firefox Throttle and IE Throttle are add-ons for Firefox and Internet Explorer respectively that allow a user to throttle the bandwidth of the browser by selecting maximum values for upload and download. IPs and / or websites can be excluded from this effect which is good if you have a website that you don’t want to throttle. Local Area Network IPs are excluded automatically and some presets are available to choose the bandwidth assigned from.

Lastly it provides stats for uploads and downloads of the session as well as total stats since installing / reseting the add-on. The Internet Explorer version comes without stats.

A better but more complicated way of setting up bandwidth limitations would be to configure it on a broader level, say the router for instance which would have the advantage that the user could select all applications that connect to the Internet instead of just Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Guess some users might find this useful nevertheless.

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With the level of dedication put forward by the Thunderbird developers and users it will definitely be the right move. In the meantime, here are 45+ valuable extensions for Thunderbird users that extend the functionality, add missing features and provide security enhancements.

Appearance:

Contacts Sidebar – displays the address book in the sidebar when toggled with F4.

Cute Menus – adds icons to all Thunderbird menu entries.

Flatstyle – changes the look and feel to resemble Microsoft Office.

Minimize to tray – moves Thunderbird from the task bar into the system tray.

Tiny Menu – save space by compacting the menu.

Composing:

Auto Zip Attachments – zips attachments automatically before sending the mail.

Clippings – Save frequently used texts to prevent typing the same texts over and over again.

Copy Plain Text – Copies texts without formatting.

Nested Quote Remover – removes nested quotes automatically when replying.

Signature Switch – switch signatures with ease.

Fun:

Bork Bork Bork – Feeoo veb peges oor meeel es spukee by zee Svedeesh Cheff.

Leet Key – 7r4n5f0rm5 0r 3n(0d35 53|3(73d 73×7 1n70 |337 5p34k 4nd d1ff3r3n7 3n(ryp710n5.

Smilie Inserter – insert smilies in messages.

Functionality

Addressbooks Synchronizer – synchronized selected address books with local, ftp, imap or webdav books.

Display Quota – displays IMAP quota and warns when a limit is reached.

Fox Clocks – keep an eye on the time around the world.

Lightning – finally a calendar for Thundebird.

Locale Switcher – lets you switch the locale setting with ease.

Quick Note – write down quick notes (phone numbers for instance)

Provider for Google Calendar – sync data between Lightning / Sunbird and Google Calendar.

Remove Duplicate Messages – scans for and removes duplicated messages.

TB Properties – adds a Properties function to display more information about images and links.

Thunderbrowse – allows you to view websites in Thunderbird instead of your default web client.

[UN]Read – adds a button and shortcut that switches between view all / view unread mode quickly.

Update Notifier – notifies the user whenever an update for an extension or theme is available.

Reading:

Change – currency converter for 36 currencies.

Dictionary Search – lookup a selected word.

GDirections – Uses Google and Yahoo maps to find directions from one of several locations that you have addded to the location of the selected text.

Image Zoom – adds the ability to zoom into images.

Maximize Message Pane – Collapses thread pane to maximize the message pane.

Quick Folders – bookmark mail folders for faster access.

Quote Colors – assigns colors to quotes depending on the quote level.

Open Long Url – makes it possible to open multi-line urls.

Text Size Toolbar – adds buttons to the toolbar which can increase and decrease text size.

Track Packages – track packages from various services such as UPS, Fedex and DHL with a right-click.

Security:

Enigmail – adds flexible and easy to install OpenPGP functionality to Thunderbird.

Sender Verification Extension – reports if the sender in the From header was the actual sender of the email when possible.

Thunder Plunger – removes traces of accounts that have been deleted in Thunderbird.

Xpunge – Compacts mail folders which gets rid of already deleted emails that are still stored in those folders unless compacted.

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Extensions are listed alphabetically and contain the mentioned link as well as a short description about the functionality of the extension. Feel free to add extensions that I have not listed at the moment, would love to receive some feedback on extensions that you consider a must have.

• Adsense Notifier – displays Adsense earnings in the statusbar. Only useful if you want to always have an overview of your Adsense earnings.
• Auto Copy -Copies selected text automatically to the clipboard.
• ChatZilla – An IRC client for Firefox which is pretty useful if you want to quickly connect to IRC.
• Download Sort – Saves Downloads automatically in different directories.
• Download Statusbar – A better way of displaying downloads in Firefox.
• Firebug – Great for Web Development. Check CSS dependencies of elements on a website for instance.
• Gmail Notifier – Lets you know if new mail arrived in your gmail mailbox.
• Gmail Space – Use Gmail to store files.
• Google Toolbar for Firefox – I don’t use it that often, mostly to check Pageranks.
• Greasemonkey – very useful in conjunction with scripts from userscripts for example.
• Linkification – converts nearly all kind of urls into clickable links.
• Screen grab – saves the whole website as a pdf file.
• SearchLoad Options – tweak the functionality of the searchbar
• Send Tab URLs – Emails the URLs of all browser tabs
• Stumbleupon – Nice toolbar to add new sites to your profile.
• Super DragAndGo – Drag images a few inches to save them automatically. Drag links the same way to open a new tab with them.
• Tab Mix Plus – Adds lots of functionality to tabbed browsing. I use it ti add a second row if to many tabs are open at once.
• Translator – translate foreign web pages.
• UI Tweaker – tweak Firefox
• URL Fixer – fixes common typos in urls such as www.ghacks,net
• Video Downloader – download videos from sites like youtube.

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