Computer Tips For Geeks » Mozilla Firefox

Change Home Button To Left Side In Firefox 5

Nelson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:01:44 +0000

I just upgraded Firefox on my computer to version 5, and I find this new version to be slightly faster than the version I was previously running which was version 4, so I’m hooked with Firefox again. I left Firefox for Google Chrome a few months ago, but a month or so after using Chrome I switched to Opera because Google Chrome was crashing too much. Opera is a good browser, but it does not have the same add-on options as Firefox, and is a bit slow.

Now I’m back to Firefox… my old bud.

I’m probably too obsessive with clean Interfaces when it comes to browsers, and that’s the reason I switched to Google Chrome a few months ago, but I find the new Firefox Interface to be very clean, the only problem is that the home button is placed on the wrong side, at least for me it is. I use Google a lot for my work, and I’m constantly running queries about technical problems that come up everyday, and every time I go too deep on search results, I like to reset the search and start all over, or change the keywords I’m searching with. having the home button on the far top right side in Firefox makes it inconvenient for me to quickly go back to Google home page… I know I am a weirdo, I find that uncomfortable.

luckily switching the home button to the left side in Firefox 5 is very easy. here is how. right-click the home button and click on Customize:

The customize toolbar will come up.. ignore it. then click and hold the home button and drag it to the left side of your browser. this is how mine looks:

that’s it.. now just click on the close button on the toolbar window. you should be all set now..

cheers,

Nelson

Browse the Web Anonymously

Nelson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:00:00 +0000

If for some reason you need to browse the Internet anonymously without leaving any trace like cookies, downloaded web files, disk cache, closed tabs list etc.then there is a Firefox plugin to do that. also Google Chrome has a built-in feature called incognito to browse the web anonymously, but lets talk about the Firefox plug-in first.

Stealther is a Firefox plugin that let you browse the web anonymously in that way once you close the browser no history of your online visits is saved on the local disk of the computer. this is a good plugin to use when using a public computer, or a computer you don’t want to leave any traces on. download the plugin from Firefox addons at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1306 and install it. the installation is very simple. once you restart Firefox, the plugin will show up under the Tools menu on your Firefox browser:

Once you click on the Stealther, Firefox will go into stealth mode. while on stealth mode, you won’t be able to login to online accounts that require to install tracking cookies, etc.
You can also choose what to disable or allow on the plugin by going to the extensions options. click on Tools, then choose Add-ons look for the Stealther plugin and click on Options:

the Stealther options window will pop-up:

from here you can choose what to disable or allow by checking or unchecking the options.

Now if for some reason you don’t want to use this plugin on Firefox, then download Google Chrome. in Google Chrome you don’t need any plugin just download it, and from the menu click on the wrench icon and click on New Incognito Window:

that should pop-up a new window totally anonymous on your browser.

Open Microsoft Office 2007 files on Firefox With OpenXML Viewer

Nelson — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:58:10 +0000

Microsoft Office 2007 new XML format has created many frustrations for people trying to open files created in the new file format on older office suites. Microsoft created an office compatibility pack to fix this problem, and is recommended that you install the pack if you are using an older office suite than office 2007. If you only need to view a file in the new .XML format, then you can install a Firefox plugin to do that. the plugin is called OpenXML and it can be downloaded from here save it to your desktop.

Extract the zip file to your local folder.

The zip file contains the Readme.txt, the License.txt file and the Firefox extension installer OpenXMLViewer _ win _ firefox.xpi.

click on the .xpi file. The codesigned plugin information is displayed on the screen, signed against MindTree Limited.

click on Install Now.

Once the plugin is installed, restart Firefox.

Once Firefox is restarted, navigate to Tools>Add-Ons. In the extensions tab, OpenXMLViewer should be visible.

Browse Internet Explorer web based applications on Firefox

Nelson — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:00:00 +0000

As a big open source fan I love Firefox. Firefox is my primary browser on my computer, but I work on a Microsoft based company, and so everyone is forced to use Internet explorer to use some web based applications we have. One of those apps is OWA ( Outlook Web Access ) Check Outlook Web Access screenshots below and see the difference:

from Firefox:

from Internet Explorer:

If you notice those two screenshots they are a bit different, the search button is missing from Firefox, and some of the formatting is missing as well. Some .NET based applications don’t work at all. These are the errors we get when trying to open them on Firefox:

We’re sorry. Your browser is not compatible with this application.

Only Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, or 2003 is supported.

The way I could these applications on Firefox was by using the IE Tab plugin for Firefox. This plugin lets you switch back and forth between Firefox and Internet Explorer with just a click.

Once you have installed the plugin, you will need to add the application URLs to the IE Tab Options:

Now when you type the application URL on the address bar on Firefox, the web page will be rendered using the IE engine. You won’t notice you are actually using IE, only an IE icon will change on the lower right hand corner:

once you navigate to a different web page, it will change to Firefox mode again.