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Tech Tip: Speed Up Firefox by Loading Tabs On-demand

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On December 2, 2010, 5:05 AM

Firefox users who are used to having fifteen or more tabs open while surfing the web, or perhaps tend to load up their browser with a bunch of open pages from their last session, will surely know the impact this can have in terms of performance. It may not be a major issue on powerful desktop PCs with processing muscle and memory to spare, but you can bet more modest rigs and most laptops will struggle trying to pull up a huge list of pages at the same time.


Luckily, there are ways heavy tab users can ease the memory-guzzling effect that their browsing habits can have on their systems – and today we’ll specifically mention two: using the BarTab extension or making a quick about:config tweak.

Continue reading our Tech Tip of the Week.

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User Comments: 14

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  1. Doesn't Chrome do this by default already?

  2. What does it matter whether Chrome is doing it already? This is for Firefox.

  3. Guest said:

    What does it matter whether Chrome is doing it already? This is for Firefox.

    Indeed. People are too focused on "yeah, well, my browser already does this" to realize that other browsers can do the same thing if they want. Google did it first...so what. Firefox didn't claim to do it first. They saw how successful it was with Chrome, so now they're doing it. They'd be stupid not too, lol.

  4. Oh good, i might have used firefox more if chrome didn't do it.

    Right now, 38 tabs.

    I thought it did take a second when visiting a tab that was unopened for a day.

  5. Pffftt...

    IE has done it before Chrome, thus way before Firefox.

  6. Guest said:

    Pffftt...

    IE has done it before Chrome, thus way before Firefox.

    .....and?

  7. and??

    FireFox is late in the game by 5 years. Something so simple, should not require an installation of extension.

  8. I don't understand, Is it bad that firefox has done it now?? :/

    And please don't support IE, we all know how good it is..!

  9. Thanks for the tip, very usefull for guys like me using =~ 200tabs all the time

  10. who in the hell uses Chrome? only fools....google makes their money by tracking you everywhere you go on the net...and they don't give a sh#t about your privacy...

  11. who in the hell uses Chrome? only fools....google makes their money by tracking you everywhere you go on the net...and they don't give a sh#t about your privacy...

    If you're talking about Google Chrome, I have it & I love it. Its the fastest browser I have. Not to mention, NO browser is perfect.

  12. who in the hell uses Chrome? only fools....google makes their money by tracking you everywhere you go on the net...and they don't give a sh#t about your privacy...

    You could argue the same about Facebook, and how many billions use that?

  13. who in the hell uses Chrome? only fools....google makes their money by tracking you everywhere you go on the net...and they don't give a sh#t about your privacy...

    What Browser does? I'm not being difficult; I'd like to know if there really is a browser out there that cares about your privacy and doesn't track you everywhere you go.

  14. You could argue the same about Facebook, and how many billions use that?

    Damn good point.

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