The about:config address is a special location that allows you to change configuration options in Firefox. Most of these options aren’t every-day, end-user-friendly options. Instead these options can look a little overwhelming to the pedestrian. But to those that hold no fear of tweaking, about:config is your friend. In this article I will show you a few tweaks in about:config so you can get familiar with how this special configuration address is used.

When you first load about:config in your Firefox browser you will have to click an “I’ll Be Careful, I Promise” button that warns you what you are about to do can void your warranty. It’s okay, really, go ahead and push the button.

Once you push the button you will see entries like this:

accessibility.accesskeycausesactivation     default     boolean     true

The first entry is the Preference Name. Next is the Status, followed by the Type, and the Value. Each entry follows this same format.To change a value in an entry you only have to right click that entry and, depending up on the type of value, click the Toggle entry in the popup menu. If the value is, say, an integer a Modify entry will appear allowing you to modify the value of the entry.

Within the about:config there are various categories:

• Accessability
• Advanced
• Alerts
• Browser
• Config

Your about:config will show each entry arranged according to category. You will also find a very large amount of entries – don’t let that overwhelm you. You can also search your entries (thanks to the handy Filter.

So let’s take a look at a few about:config entries that will make a noticeable change in the speed of Firefox. These entries are:

• network.http.pipelining.
• network.http.proxy.pipelining
• network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

The fastest way to find this is to enter pipelining in the Filter.

Once you have found them you will do the following:

• Set network.http.pipelining to “true” by right clicking the entry and selecting Toggle.
• Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to “true” by right clicking the entry and selecting Toggle.
• Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to value like 50 by right clicking the entry, selecting Modify, entering the new value, and clicking OK.

Now let’s add a totally new entry to help speed up Firefox. Click anywhere and select New and then select integer. A small window will open asking for the name of the new entry. Enter nglayout.initialpaint.delay and give it a value of “0″ (no quotes) when prompted.

Firefox should now be noticeably faster.

Of course using about:config isn’t limited to speed. Browse through the listing of entries and you will notice that nearly every possible configuration option imaginable is there. Play around with familiar entries and see how far you can tweak Firefox. Just use caution, if you don’t know what an entry does make sure you look it up before you edit it. A good place to find information on each entry is the official Firefox about:config Entries database.

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I should probably start with some basic information on how you edit the Firefox configuration at all. This is actually pretty simple: Enter about:config in the address bar and hit enter. A large preferences list should appear. Every option has a preference name, a status, a type and a value.We are using the name to find the option in the large list. Status defines if it is still the default value or has been edited by the user, type defines which values are accepted in the value field. For boolean it would be true or false, integer a number and so on. To filter the list enter part of the name into the Filter text field, the results get updated on the fly. On to the tweaks..

Change location of bookmarks file

• key: browser.bookmarks.file
• default: not existing, create new String by right-clicking and entering the above key
• value: path to bookmark.html, for instance e:\bookmark.html

You might want to change this if you want to use a removable drive to store your bookmarks for instance.

Middlemouse Paste

• key: middlemouse.paste
• default: false
• change to: true

Setting this option to true makes it possible to paste text into any text field in Firefox.

Hide Go Button

• key:browser.urlbar.hideGoButton
• default:false
• change to:true

If you set this value to true the Go button will be removed giving you more space in that bar. No one uses the go button anyway, just hit enter, this has the same effect.

Click Selects all in url bar

• key:browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
• default:true
• change to:false

This is useful if you often copy only part of the url. The default behavior selects the complete url first if you click into the url bar and you have to click and select again to copy part of the url only.

Open Search Results in a new Tab

• key:browser.search.openintab
• default:false
• change to: true

Opens the search results always in a new tab instead of the currently active tab.

Spellcheck for textareas

• key:layout.spellcheckDefault
• default:1
• change to: 2

This activates the spell check for textareas and input fields as well.

Autofill in url bar

• key:browser.urlbar.autoFill
• default:false
• change to:true

Known urls are automatically completed while entering them.

Disable extension compatibility check

• key:extensions.checkCompatibility
• default: not existing, create new Boolean with the above name
• value: false

Setting this value to false means that Firefox will not check installed extensions for compatibility. Great during updates, could lead to problems with incompatible extensions though.

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