Recommended Firefox Extensions

The following is a list of the Firefox extensions that I use most frequently. Most of them are available at the Firefox Add-Ons site. But some of them are available at the Mozdev Extension Room, or at the developer's home page. To find any on this list that are not in the Add-Ons site or the Extension room, just type Firefox and the extension name in Google and you should be able to find them.

MR Tech Local Install – Install this one first.
This extension allows you to install extensions from within the extension window from a files on your computer (instead of off a web site). This makes it handy for re-installing if you are doing a fresh install of Firefox. It also lets you remove the installation delay, sort the extension and theme windows alphabetically, comes with a re-start button and a few other things. You can also use it to tell Firefox to ignore the version, so older extensions will work with newer versions of Firefox.

Adblock
Blocks ads from loading on web pages. When it is on, it will show the word Adblock in the bottom right of your screen on the status bar. Right click on this to access the options menu. If you want to check a page with all the ads, then disable and re-load the page. To block specific Flash ads that are coming up (even with Adblock on), chose Overlay flash (for left click) on the Adblock options menu, then left-click on the ad. It will pop up with a window showing you the address for the flash file. If it has something like shoptv in the address, you can make a wild card out if it - change it to *shoptv* and then it will block all flash ads from shoptv. Once you've blocked this, reload the page and the other flash graphics that were not ads (that you don't want blocked), will re-appear.

Adblock Filterset.G Updater
Companion extension for Adblock - a big set of filters for common ads. A constantly updated database of ads and ad domains on the web.

All-in-OneGestures
Allows you to program various mouse gestures (using right click and drag) to do many things (instead of having to click keys or search through menus or select buttons). Examples: I have mine programmed so when I drag-right on a link, it opens in a new tab in the background. To close the current tab, I drag-down. When you right-click and drag a red line appears on the screen to help guide what you are doing.

Canadian English Dictionary
The English version of Firefox 2 comes with the American English dictionary installed by default. For Canadian English, install this dictionary.

CompactLibraryExtensionOrganizerCLEO
Save your backed up extensions (see FEBE) into one extension file for easy re-installation (in case you need to do a fresh install of Firefox, or if you are setting it up on a friend's computer).

Dictionary Tooltip
Double-click on a word and up pops the meaning. Simple. You can also chose which dictionary site you use. The list also includes the Urban Dictionary, which is good for looking up slang terms.

DownloadManagerTweak
Gives you a few more options for your Download window.

Fast Video Download
Saves embedded flash videos from many sites, including, You Tube, Google Video and many more. Just click on the icon on the status bar and the Save As window comes up. Simple.

FirefoxExtensionBackupExtensionFEBE
FEBE enables you to backup your extensions as their original installation file forms.

Firefox Menu Buttons
This gives you many more buttons to use for customizing your menu toolbars, which is very handy if you also use the Tiny Menu extension.

FireFTP
An excellent and simple FTP program that opens up in a Firefox tab. Just create a new account, enter your ftp address, login and password and away you go. Very simple for uploading files to your web site.

Googlebar
I like this better than using the search field that comes with Firefox (which is limited). And I like it more than the Google Toolbar (which comes with too much stuff). This extension is very customizable. Find it at:
http://googlebar.mozdev.org/installation.html#versions
scroll down to Experimental Version and install the latest version.

Googlepedia
When you run a Google search you will get the usual list of sites, but with Googlepedia running, you will also see the Wikipedia site that relates to your search on the right half of your screen. You can expand, shrink or hide the Wikipedia page.

IETab
Sometimes you will come to a page that won't load properly in Firefox (because some web programmers program sites for IE only (which does not fully support web standards)). With this extension you can open Internet Explorer inside a Firefox tab. You can also use this to program specific sites, so whenever you click on the bookmark or a link to that site, it will come up as an IE tab.

Print/PrintPreview
Puts the print/print preview arrow back on the Print button on your toolbar (so you can preview what will print and decide which pages you want.)

Snapper
With this you can select (drag and draw a rectangle around) anything inside your browser window on a web page and save it as an image file.

SuperDragAndGo
Download/save an image to your computer by left-clicking and dragging on it.

Tab Mix Plus
Fully customize the way that the tabs work and appear. This includes Session Manager, which is very handy (and is more customizable than the built-in Firefox restore function) for when Firefox crashes when you are in the middle of something.

Tiny Menu
Menu-izes the text menu, so it becomes a drop-down menu - thus saving you more space on the main menu bar.

Unplug
If you can't save the video with Fast Video Download, try this one. Right-click on the page, chose Unplug from the menu and the page will change to one with a list of the video in different formats. Chose the one you want and save. This extension seems better than Video Downloader and Downloaded Embedded.

Update Notifier
Currently, you can set Firefox to automatically update itself. But you can't set this for extensions. With this extension you can. You can set this so every time you open Firefox, it will check for updates for all extensions and themes, download and install them, all automatically in the background (so you don't have to worry about doing this manually).