THE FOLLOWING SHOULD ONLY BE REGARDED AS HISTORICAL INFORMATION AND NOT TREATED AS AUTHORITATIVE.
See here for the currently maintained thread on tweaking T4Fx.
Per request, here are the tweaks I have applied to my copy of TenFourFox via about:config
This is a work in progress. As I find (refind?) pertinent information I will fill in the gaps and exand any explanations or definitions. Feel free to comment if you have anything to add or comment on.
*Please note that this is not exhaustive. It's only what I have found by extensive Googling of the phrases "firefox high cpu", "firefox high memory usage", "firefox slow", "firefox memory", "firefox cache" or "firefox optimization". Your mileage may vary and any or all of these may not work for you. I'm not responsible for any damage or problems you may have by applying these tweaks. All I can say is they work for me.
**Further note. This post/thread assumes that you know how to create a key and value based on what you see below. Some of the keys and values are not present on a default install of TFF/FF so you will need to create them. If you do not know what you are doing with the about:config file, either learn about it first or don't make any of these changes.
***Finally note that some changes I have made are specific to my setup. I don't use caching at all because I'm using TOR and Private Browsing. I don't want tracks to be made.
I might suggest making a copy of your profile folder before making any modifications. You can always copy it back if you perceive things to be screwed up. TFF, like Firefox makes no backups of settings so once applied you have to recall what you did to set it back. It's easier just to copy back your profile folder if you've made a lot of changes.
Key, Value
Extensions.checkCompatibility, false
Allows you to turn off any compatibility checking for when you install extensions. Useful when you want to install an extension you know works but the program refuses to install.
Key, Value
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency, 1
This checks how often TFF looks to see if the cache for a page is outdated. 0 is never, 1 is automatically.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.capacity, 16384
This is my disk cache size. 16384 = 1GB
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.enable, false
I have this set to not cache to disk. True will enable disk caching.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.max_entry_size, 4096
For me this is set at 4MB, meaning the disk cache can only write cache files of 4MB any time it writes. I have disk caching disabled so this has no meaning right now.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.parent_directory, /Users/eyoungren/Library/Caches/TF4Fx_Cache
I chose to tell TFF where I want it to have the cache when I use disk caching.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl, false
Disk caching of HTTPS pages is disabled.
Key, Value
browser.cache.memory.capacity, 18432
The value of the memory cache (how much physical ram you give TFF). This is in kilobytes I think, but I'm not sure.
Key, Value
browser.cache.memory.enable, false
I have the memory cache disabled.
Key, Value
browser.cache.memory.max_entry_size, 4096
This is set the same as with the max entry size for disk caching. 4MB.
Key, Value
browser.cache.offline.capacity, 747520
Offline capacity of the browser cache. In kilobytes I think.
Key, Value
browser.cache.offline.enable, false
I have the offline cache disabled as well.
-- In other words, I have completely disabled all caching.
Key, Value
browser.history_expire_days_min, 1
My browser history expires every day. I don't really use history since if I want to go back to it I will bookmark it. Keeping all that history just slows things down.
Key, Value
browser.sessionhistory.max_entries, 2
This setting determines how many pages back the browser remembers. When you click the back button the browser references these pages. I have it set to two. Storing more requires more memory, slowing the browser down.
Key, Value
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers, 0
Your session history. I have it set so TFF never remembers session history, which takes ram. I have TabMixPlus which does this for me.
Key, Value
browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs, 0
The session history TFF remembers for each open tab. Again, I set it to off so TFF never remembers.
Key, Value
browser.tabs.animate", false
Animation = increased CPU load. I have this set to off.
Key, Value
browser.turbo.enabled, true
Old setting, supposedly removed with FF 1.1. Conflicting reports on whether it works or not.
Key, Value
config.trim_on_minimize, true
This is actually a Windows only setting. It returns ram when a window is minimized. I just included it on the off chance it does anything on my system.
Key, Value
content.interrupt.parsing, true
Determines if page loading is interrupted to responde to user input.
Key, Value
content.max.tokenizing.time, 2250000
Maximum amount of time TFF will be unresponsive when rendering pages. content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing must be set to true for this preference to take effect. Lowering the interval will make the application more responsive at the expense of page load time. A multiple of the value of content.notify.interval is recommended.
Key, Value
content.notify.backoffcount, 5
Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will periodically render what has been received to that point. Because reflowing the page every time additional data is received greatly slows down total page load time, a timer was added so that the page would not reflow too often. This preference controls the maximum number of times the content will do timer-based reflows. After this number has been reached, the page will only reflow once it is finished downloading. Note, -1 means unlimited and 0 means none. You can set it to any number. I don't suggest 0 as that means the page will not reflow at all and will only show when completely loaded.
Key, Value
content.notify.interval, 750000
Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will periodically render what has been received to that point. Because reflowing the page every time additional data is received greatly slows down total page load time, a timer was added so that the page would not reflow too often. This preference specfies the minimum amount of time to wait between reflows.content.notify.ontimer must be set to true for this preference to take effect
This preference affects the default value of content.max.tokenizing.time.
Lowering the interval will lower the perceived page loading time but increase the total loading time, especially on slower connections. Values below 100,000 have a significant impact on performance and are not recommended.
Key, Value
content.notify.ontimer, true
Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will periodically render what has been received to that point. Because reflowing the page every time additional data is received greatly slows down total page load time, a timer was added so that the page would not reflow too often. This preference specfies whether that timer is active.
Key, Value
content.switch.threshold, 750000
The user can interact with a loading page when content.interrupt.parsing is set to true. When a page is loading, the application has two modes: a high frequency interrupt mode and a low frequency interrupt mode. The high frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser more frequently to allow for greater UI responsiveness during page load. The low frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser less frequently to allow for quicker page load. The application enters high frequency interrupt mode when the user moves the mouse or types on the keyboard and switches back to low frequency mode when the user has had no activity for a certain amount of time. This preference controls that amount of time.
content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing must be set to true for this preference to take effect.
Raising the value will make the application more responsive at the expense of page load time.
-- The following settings are specific to Flash. Apparently these were settings for FF version 3 beta and below. They were removed with version 3. They will make Flash run smoother and take less CPU load. BUT! The risk of using them is that when or if FF/TFF encounters a problem the app will crash. Creating these keys will make FF/TFF more prone to crashing. Note that I have all of them set to false. That's because I have disabled all plugins for security purposes. But if you aren't worried/don't need security then just enter the keys and the value of TRUE.
Key, Value
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.i386.flash player.plugin, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.libflashplayer.so, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.libnptest.so, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nptest.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.x86_64, false
Key, Value
dom.max_script_run_time, 0
"Javascript that executes for whole seconds is probably doing something wrong... says Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript. When a script is executing, Mozilla's UI will be unresponsive until the scripts thread ends. Correspondingly, Mozilla will alert you when a script is taking a long time to run and let you stop the script. This preference lets you define what a long time is.
The value is a positive integer, determining the number of seconds of execution before warning. 0 and negative values are considered "forever."
Key, Value
dom.storage.enabled, false
I don't want my plugins using any hard drive space.
Key, Value
javascript.options.jit.chrome, true
javascript.options.jit.content, true
These are TFF specific keys and allow you to turn on the JIT processor that TFF uses for Javascript
Key, Value
javascript.options.mem.gc_frequency, 5
This is the time in seconds that Javascript does garbage collection. Garbage collection of course releases ram back to the system.
Key, Value
javascript.options.mem.max, 50000
Unsure, but I believe this is the amount of memory in kilibytes alloted to Javascript.
Key, Value
javascript.options.typeinference, false
Whether type inference (a new feature of later versions of FF) is on or not. Enabling it will give you a speed hit and make the browser unstable.
--The following key/values are where the real speed tweaks come in to play.
Key, Value
network.dns.disableIPv6, true
If you aren't using IPv6, turn it off to save ram.
network.dns.disablePrefetch, true
Prefetching pages draws ram
network.dnsCacheEntries, 512
I am only caching 512 DNS entries. These are lookups for the pages you are browsing/have browsed. Having them cached speeds up page loading because the browser is not seeking domain name resolution every time it tries to find a page. Too many though takes up more ram.
network.dnsCacheExpiration, 3600
Amount of time that your cached DNS entries stay cached. In miliseconds.
network.http.keep-alive.timeout, 20
The amount of time (in seconds) before your page keep alive times out.
network.http.max-connections, 1000
The maximum amount of connections allowed. Period.
network.http.max-connections-per-server, 100
The maximum number of connections to any given server. Keep in mind, THIS IS PER TAB! So, if you have a max of 100 connections and have ten tabs open you have hit your max connections!
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy, 100
The number of connections kept alive when using a proxy.
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server, 25
The number of connections kept alive per server (per tab!)
network.http.pipelining, true
In HTTP 1.1, multiple requests can be sent before any responses are received. This is known as pipelining. Pipelining reduces network load and can reduce page loading times over high-latency connections, but not all servers support it. Some servers may even behave incorrectly if they receive pipelined requests. If a proxy server is not configured, this preference controls whether to attempt to use pipelining.
network.http.pipelining.firstrequest, true
Enable pipelining on the first server request.
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, 8
Maximum number of pipelining server requests. More than 8 are generally ignored and decrease performance.
network.http.pipelining.ssl, true
Pipelining enabled on HTTPS.
network.http.proxy.pipelining, true
Pipelining enabled when using a proxy.
network.http.use-cache, false
When a page is loaded, it can be cached so it doesn't need to be downloaded to be redisplayed. I have caching completely disabled so this setting reflects that.
network.prefetch-next, false
If a page has links this setting determines if those links are prefetched. Remember, prefetching takes ram.
network.websocket.enabled, false
I have websockets disabled. This is a security issue with TOR. If this is enabled and you use a websocket FF/TFF will use local DNS inquiries instead of using TOR if you make more than one websocket connection and therefore reveal your real IP address. This was a recent bug discovered in the TOR browser. Since I am using Torbutton and Vidalia, I have changed this setting in TFF.
network.websocket.max-connections, 1)
The max websocket connections. I have it set at 1, but because of the previous setting it doesn't really matter. I made it one just so that if for any reason there IS a websocket connection I am only making one connection.
nglayout.initialpaint.delay, 0
The amount in seconds before TFF begans to display the page it is loading. The default is a much higher amount to allow for a total page load before displaying the page. That results in an appearance of a longer load time. I have it set to 0 because I want TFF to start displaying content the moment it loads it.
Key, Value
places.history.enabled, false
This is for live bookmarks. Live bookmarks being active sucks ram and CPU. I have it disabled.
Extensions
Some extensions I use that you may wish to look at. BetterCache, SafeCache, NoScript, RequestPolicy, AdBlockPlus and Ghostery. Beyond security issues some of the ones I name benefit you because content is not loaded until you say it is. That can speed up page loading.
That's about it.
See here for the currently maintained thread on tweaking T4Fx.
<------------------BELOW THIS LINE/OLD INFO ONLY--------------------->
Per request, here are the tweaks I have applied to my copy of TenFourFox via about:config
This is a work in progress. As I find (refind?) pertinent information I will fill in the gaps and exand any explanations or definitions. Feel free to comment if you have anything to add or comment on.
*Please note that this is not exhaustive. It's only what I have found by extensive Googling of the phrases "firefox high cpu", "firefox high memory usage", "firefox slow", "firefox memory", "firefox cache" or "firefox optimization". Your mileage may vary and any or all of these may not work for you. I'm not responsible for any damage or problems you may have by applying these tweaks. All I can say is they work for me.
**Further note. This post/thread assumes that you know how to create a key and value based on what you see below. Some of the keys and values are not present on a default install of TFF/FF so you will need to create them. If you do not know what you are doing with the about:config file, either learn about it first or don't make any of these changes.
***Finally note that some changes I have made are specific to my setup. I don't use caching at all because I'm using TOR and Private Browsing. I don't want tracks to be made.
I might suggest making a copy of your profile folder before making any modifications. You can always copy it back if you perceive things to be screwed up. TFF, like Firefox makes no backups of settings so once applied you have to recall what you did to set it back. It's easier just to copy back your profile folder if you've made a lot of changes.
Key, Value
Extensions.checkCompatibility, false
Allows you to turn off any compatibility checking for when you install extensions. Useful when you want to install an extension you know works but the program refuses to install.
Key, Value
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency, 1
This checks how often TFF looks to see if the cache for a page is outdated. 0 is never, 1 is automatically.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.capacity, 16384
This is my disk cache size. 16384 = 1GB
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.enable, false
I have this set to not cache to disk. True will enable disk caching.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.max_entry_size, 4096
For me this is set at 4MB, meaning the disk cache can only write cache files of 4MB any time it writes. I have disk caching disabled so this has no meaning right now.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk.parent_directory, /Users/eyoungren/Library/Caches/TF4Fx_Cache
I chose to tell TFF where I want it to have the cache when I use disk caching.
Key, Value
browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl, false
Disk caching of HTTPS pages is disabled.
Key, Value
browser.cache.memory.capacity, 18432
The value of the memory cache (how much physical ram you give TFF). This is in kilobytes I think, but I'm not sure.
Key, Value
browser.cache.memory.enable, false
I have the memory cache disabled.
Key, Value
browser.cache.memory.max_entry_size, 4096
This is set the same as with the max entry size for disk caching. 4MB.
Key, Value
browser.cache.offline.capacity, 747520
Offline capacity of the browser cache. In kilobytes I think.
Key, Value
browser.cache.offline.enable, false
I have the offline cache disabled as well.
-- In other words, I have completely disabled all caching.
Key, Value
browser.history_expire_days_min, 1
My browser history expires every day. I don't really use history since if I want to go back to it I will bookmark it. Keeping all that history just slows things down.
Key, Value
browser.sessionhistory.max_entries, 2
This setting determines how many pages back the browser remembers. When you click the back button the browser references these pages. I have it set to two. Storing more requires more memory, slowing the browser down.
Key, Value
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers, 0
Your session history. I have it set so TFF never remembers session history, which takes ram. I have TabMixPlus which does this for me.
Key, Value
browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs, 0
The session history TFF remembers for each open tab. Again, I set it to off so TFF never remembers.
Key, Value
browser.tabs.animate", false
Animation = increased CPU load. I have this set to off.
Key, Value
browser.turbo.enabled, true
Old setting, supposedly removed with FF 1.1. Conflicting reports on whether it works or not.
Key, Value
config.trim_on_minimize, true
This is actually a Windows only setting. It returns ram when a window is minimized. I just included it on the off chance it does anything on my system.
Key, Value
content.interrupt.parsing, true
Determines if page loading is interrupted to responde to user input.
Key, Value
content.max.tokenizing.time, 2250000
Maximum amount of time TFF will be unresponsive when rendering pages. content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing must be set to true for this preference to take effect. Lowering the interval will make the application more responsive at the expense of page load time. A multiple of the value of content.notify.interval is recommended.
Key, Value
content.notify.backoffcount, 5
Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will periodically render what has been received to that point. Because reflowing the page every time additional data is received greatly slows down total page load time, a timer was added so that the page would not reflow too often. This preference controls the maximum number of times the content will do timer-based reflows. After this number has been reached, the page will only reflow once it is finished downloading. Note, -1 means unlimited and 0 means none. You can set it to any number. I don't suggest 0 as that means the page will not reflow at all and will only show when completely loaded.
Key, Value
content.notify.interval, 750000
Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will periodically render what has been received to that point. Because reflowing the page every time additional data is received greatly slows down total page load time, a timer was added so that the page would not reflow too often. This preference specfies the minimum amount of time to wait between reflows.content.notify.ontimer must be set to true for this preference to take effect
This preference affects the default value of content.max.tokenizing.time.
Lowering the interval will lower the perceived page loading time but increase the total loading time, especially on slower connections. Values below 100,000 have a significant impact on performance and are not recommended.
Key, Value
content.notify.ontimer, true
Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will periodically render what has been received to that point. Because reflowing the page every time additional data is received greatly slows down total page load time, a timer was added so that the page would not reflow too often. This preference specfies whether that timer is active.
Key, Value
content.switch.threshold, 750000
The user can interact with a loading page when content.interrupt.parsing is set to true. When a page is loading, the application has two modes: a high frequency interrupt mode and a low frequency interrupt mode. The high frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser more frequently to allow for greater UI responsiveness during page load. The low frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser less frequently to allow for quicker page load. The application enters high frequency interrupt mode when the user moves the mouse or types on the keyboard and switches back to low frequency mode when the user has had no activity for a certain amount of time. This preference controls that amount of time.
content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing must be set to true for this preference to take effect.
Raising the value will make the application more responsive at the expense of page load time.
-- The following settings are specific to Flash. Apparently these were settings for FF version 3 beta and below. They were removed with version 3. They will make Flash run smoother and take less CPU load. BUT! The risk of using them is that when or if FF/TFF encounters a problem the app will crash. Creating these keys will make FF/TFF more prone to crashing. Note that I have all of them set to false. That's because I have disabled all plugins for security purposes. But if you aren't worried/don't need security then just enter the keys and the value of TRUE.
Key, Value
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.i386.flash player.plugin, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.libflashplayer.so, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.libnptest.so, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nptest.dll, false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.x86_64, false
Key, Value
dom.max_script_run_time, 0
"Javascript that executes for whole seconds is probably doing something wrong... says Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript. When a script is executing, Mozilla's UI will be unresponsive until the scripts thread ends. Correspondingly, Mozilla will alert you when a script is taking a long time to run and let you stop the script. This preference lets you define what a long time is.
The value is a positive integer, determining the number of seconds of execution before warning. 0 and negative values are considered "forever."
Key, Value
dom.storage.enabled, false
I don't want my plugins using any hard drive space.
Key, Value
javascript.options.jit.chrome, true
javascript.options.jit.content, true
These are TFF specific keys and allow you to turn on the JIT processor that TFF uses for Javascript
Key, Value
javascript.options.mem.gc_frequency, 5
This is the time in seconds that Javascript does garbage collection. Garbage collection of course releases ram back to the system.
Key, Value
javascript.options.mem.max, 50000
Unsure, but I believe this is the amount of memory in kilibytes alloted to Javascript.
Key, Value
javascript.options.typeinference, false
Whether type inference (a new feature of later versions of FF) is on or not. Enabling it will give you a speed hit and make the browser unstable.
--The following key/values are where the real speed tweaks come in to play.
Key, Value
network.dns.disableIPv6, true
If you aren't using IPv6, turn it off to save ram.
network.dns.disablePrefetch, true
Prefetching pages draws ram
network.dnsCacheEntries, 512
I am only caching 512 DNS entries. These are lookups for the pages you are browsing/have browsed. Having them cached speeds up page loading because the browser is not seeking domain name resolution every time it tries to find a page. Too many though takes up more ram.
network.dnsCacheExpiration, 3600
Amount of time that your cached DNS entries stay cached. In miliseconds.
network.http.keep-alive.timeout, 20
The amount of time (in seconds) before your page keep alive times out.
network.http.max-connections, 1000
The maximum amount of connections allowed. Period.
network.http.max-connections-per-server, 100
The maximum number of connections to any given server. Keep in mind, THIS IS PER TAB! So, if you have a max of 100 connections and have ten tabs open you have hit your max connections!
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy, 100
The number of connections kept alive when using a proxy.
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server, 25
The number of connections kept alive per server (per tab!)
network.http.pipelining, true
In HTTP 1.1, multiple requests can be sent before any responses are received. This is known as pipelining. Pipelining reduces network load and can reduce page loading times over high-latency connections, but not all servers support it. Some servers may even behave incorrectly if they receive pipelined requests. If a proxy server is not configured, this preference controls whether to attempt to use pipelining.
network.http.pipelining.firstrequest, true
Enable pipelining on the first server request.
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, 8
Maximum number of pipelining server requests. More than 8 are generally ignored and decrease performance.
network.http.pipelining.ssl, true
Pipelining enabled on HTTPS.
network.http.proxy.pipelining, true
Pipelining enabled when using a proxy.
network.http.use-cache, false
When a page is loaded, it can be cached so it doesn't need to be downloaded to be redisplayed. I have caching completely disabled so this setting reflects that.
network.prefetch-next, false
If a page has links this setting determines if those links are prefetched. Remember, prefetching takes ram.
network.websocket.enabled, false
I have websockets disabled. This is a security issue with TOR. If this is enabled and you use a websocket FF/TFF will use local DNS inquiries instead of using TOR if you make more than one websocket connection and therefore reveal your real IP address. This was a recent bug discovered in the TOR browser. Since I am using Torbutton and Vidalia, I have changed this setting in TFF.
network.websocket.max-connections, 1)
The max websocket connections. I have it set at 1, but because of the previous setting it doesn't really matter. I made it one just so that if for any reason there IS a websocket connection I am only making one connection.
nglayout.initialpaint.delay, 0
The amount in seconds before TFF begans to display the page it is loading. The default is a much higher amount to allow for a total page load before displaying the page. That results in an appearance of a longer load time. I have it set to 0 because I want TFF to start displaying content the moment it loads it.
Key, Value
places.history.enabled, false
This is for live bookmarks. Live bookmarks being active sucks ram and CPU. I have it disabled.
Extensions
Some extensions I use that you may wish to look at. BetterCache, SafeCache, NoScript, RequestPolicy, AdBlockPlus and Ghostery. Beyond security issues some of the ones I name benefit you because content is not loaded until you say it is. That can speed up page loading.
That's about it.
Last edited:
