Thunderbird 5 and making old add-ons work

The fix for this is the same as for Firefox 5.
Go to this post and follow the instructions.
You can install Mr. Tech Toolkit in Thunderbird too.
Exception to the instructions - when you come to adjust the MaxVersion, change it for where it says Thunderbird this time instead of Firefox - it is most likely at 3.2pre or something similar - change this value to
7.*
With this updated Mr Tech Toolkit installed in Thunderbird your old add-ons should work. Note, for some they might work only be very buggy, so use with caution. If you find one that is very buggy, disable it and restart Thunderbird.

Lost after updating to Firefox 5?

Common questions after updating Firefox | Troubleshooting | Firefox Help
This link has some answers to common questions.

Many answers to questions from updating from v3.6 to v4 also apply. For more info and tips, see these posts as well:
Firefox 5 update and making old add-ons work

Firefox 4 - Recommended Add-Ons

Tab Groups and App Tabs in Firefox 4

Firefox 4 - new features explained in detail

Firefox 5 update and making old add-ons work

Firefox just came out with their update from v4.01 to v5. This will, for the time being, make a lot of themes and add-ons incompatible.

To get around this, install Mr Tech Toolkit. But, the latest version of this does not work with FF5. To make it work (and make your other add-ons work), download (don't install), v6.0.4.9000 here.
Next, open this file with 7zip (get that here.)
Once you have 7zip installed, right-click on the toolkit.xpi file, choose 7zip and Open Archive.
Extract the install.rdf file.
Open it with Notepad.
Look for 2 locations of
maxVersion>4.*
and replace these with
maxVersion>7.*
This will force this add-on to be compatible with all FF versions up to just before 8.
Save this file and close it. Now, drag it into the 7zip window, archiving it and overwriting the original file in the archive.
To make sure you did things correctly, double-click on the install.rdf file and check to make sure the maxVersion>4.* has been changed to maxVersion>7.*

Once you've successfully changed this, open Firefox.
Open Add-ons (orange button at top left, then Add Ons, or, compact Menu button, tools, add-ons, or Tools, Add-ons)

At the top right beside the search field, there is a button with a down arrow on the side of it. Click on this and choose Install Add on from file.
Then, navigate to the file toolkit.xpi.
Install it.
Restart Firefox
Close Firefox again
Open it again.
The problems should be solved.
(You might need to close and open Firefox one more time.)

Note, if the Add-ons manager page can't be closed, press Alt+F4 to close it.

Facebook facial recognition - Handy time-saver, or invasion of privacy?

Say hello (or goodbye) to Facebook Photo facial recognition | Sync™ Blog
Facebook is going to make it so when you upload your album of photos, you can choose to have FB automatically scan and tag your album photos with the names of your friends who are in them (so you don't have to do this one by one manually).

Some say having FB automatically tag you in friends' albums is an invasion of privacy. But, how can you say that when your friends will often tag you in these photos anyway? And, if you are tagged in a photo by a friend, you are notified on FB. If you don't like being tagged in certain photos, you can always remove the tags.

Whenever I upload photos, I usually tag friends.

Unfounded concern?
In all the information about this new feature, it only speaks of your friends and automatically tagging your friends in your photos. It does not mention that it will automatically tag strangers with their names (if they are on Facebook). Yes, this would be a concern, but it seems that it will only be suggesting tags for people you are FB friends with.

More info on the Facebook Blog.

How to opt out of the new feature
If you don't want this new feature to automatically tag you in your friends' photos, you can opt out by going to:
Account, Privacy Settings, Customize Settings, and finally to Things others share.
There will be a new section that you can adjust (when this new feature goes through):
Disable > Suggest photos of me to friends.
You can still use the new feature to tag your photos, but others won't be able to use it to automatically tag you (they will have to manually tag you in their photos).

Firefox 4 - Recommended Add-Ons

It's been 4 years since I posted a listed of recommended add-ons (extensions) for Firefox. A lot has changed, but some things stay the same.

Some add-ons continue to be very useful. Some have stopped being updated and have been replaced by newer and better versions. And Firefox has incorporated some into their program.

Note: if any of the links don't work, just Google Firefox Add On and the name of the add on.

Mr Tech Toolkit (used to be Mr Tech Local Install)
Get the FF4 version (6.04.9000) hereThis is a quick fix version that seems to work okay in FF4, but the Add-ons manager window is often too big. To close the Add-ons manager window, hit Alt+F4.
**Install this add-on first. With it installed, you can then install add-ons that are not deemed compatible with FF4, yet might work in FF4.
Here is the regular add-on page
The primary goal of this extension is to provide the tools needed to install and manage extensions and themes locally and tons of other features.

Compact Menu 2 (replaces Tiny Menu)
(replaces Tiny Menu)
Add a compact menu button to the navigation toolbar, and hide the menu bar.

Tab Group Menu
See more about this, Tab Groups and App Tabs here

Tab Mix Plus
Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager.

Send Link Button
Add a toolbar button to trigger Firefox's built-in "Send Link..." menu item.
Quickly email the link to the page you are on by clicking this Send Link button.

Dictionary
Add a dictionary search tool to the Add-ons bar. Results open in a new tab.

Adblock Plus (replaces Adblock)
Blocks ads.
Install, and then subscribe to EasyList filter subscription when this pops up.
If it is not blocking ads, make sure it is enabled, and if already enabled, right-click on the adblock icon, choose Preferences, Filters, Update all subscriptions.
If you want to temporarily disable, Right-click on the icon and choose Disable Everywhere, then re-load your tab.
To permanently disable it on a site or page, choose Disable on , or Disable on This Page Only.

Video Download Helper (replaces Fast Video Download and Unplug)
The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
This works also for audio and picture galleries.

Fireshot (replaces Snapper)
Capture all or part of a web page, even flash. Annotate, save to disk, upload, email ... very versatile Firefox screen capture add-on.

Personas Plus
Personas are free, easy-to-install "skins" for Firefox. Personas Plus extends that built-in functionality to give you even more control and easier access to new, popular, and your own favourite Personas.

Googlebar (not to be confused with Google Toolbar)
The original (though unofficial) Google toolbar for Firefox, with an emphasis on easy access to many types of specialized searches.
Install Mr Tech Toolkit first to make this work in FF4. It is not compatible, but it will work okay.
I especially like the fact that you an have google local search on the toolbar.

Print/Print Preview Update (replaces Print/Print Preview)
Replace the default "Print" button with the Mozilla Suite "Print/Print Preview" toolbar button/menu, with additional "Page setup" option. Adds Print and Print Preview to the context menu.

Update Notifier - no longer needed as FF4 has a setting to update add-ons automatically.


OTHER USEFULL ADD-ONS
Blog much? Get Scribefire
ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog(s).

Scribefire Next
A work in progress - the next version of Scribefire. I would recommend waiting for a while for the bugs to be ironed out of this before switching to this new version.

FireFTP
FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP/SFTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP/SFTP servers.
A great and very quick and easy way to upload/download files for your website.

Greasemonkey and Greasefire,
Customize the way a web page displays or behaves, by using small bits of JavaScript. You don't have to write the scripts if you aren't into that. There are thousands of scripts written for all sorts of sites.
You can go here
and root around for scripts, or, better yet, install
Greasefire
and let this automatically find scripts for you.
When you visit a web page that has compatible user scripts on Userscripts.org, this extension will highlight the Greasemonkey/Scriptish icon in the toolbar button (or status bar icon for older versions of Greasemonkey). Right click the icon and choose the "X scripts available" menu item to see and install the scripts available for the current page.
I mainly use these to fix issues on Facebook. I use: FFixer, Unfuck Facebook, Facebook and Comment Fixer.

IETab Plus (updated version of IETab)
Make sure to un-check Support Price Comparison feature in Settings.
Supports Adblock Plus in IE mode!
Works with IE8 and IE9 now.
IETab Plus enables you to use the embedded IE engine within tabs of Mozilla Firefox. It is not only a great tool for web developers, like the old IE Tab, but also an useful tool for normal users, since you can easily switch to IE when you meet incorrectly rendered web pages in Firefox.

MozImage,
Great for viewing and downloading a number of pictures at once from a web page.
You will need Mr Tech Toolkit to make this work.

Linkification
Converts text links into genuine, clickable links.
Newest version compatible with FF4 (linked above).
Regular FF Add-ons link:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/linkification/


Special Mouse Gestures add-ons
Great for use with a mouse, not so handy for use with a touchpad.

FireGestures (replaces All-in-OneGestures)
A customizable mouse gestures extension which enables to execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures.

QuickDrag (replaces Super DragAndGo)
Extends the function of the drag-and-drop mouse gesture so that it can be used to load URLs, do a web search of selected text on a page, or save an image on a page. The successor to Super DragAndGo.


Others that might be useful/interesting (that I have not tried them out):

LinkExtend - Safety, KidSafe, Site Tools
LinkExtend provides meta-site-ratings for computer safety, child safety, company ethics, and popularity. Safety results come from eight online services giving you a safer browsing experience. Site links, titles, files and reviews are also included.

NoSquint
Beyond the page zoom in/out features in Firefox (Ctrl+ to enlarge a page, Ctrl- to reduce and Ctrl0 to reset), NoSquint allows you to adjust the text-only and full-page (both text and images) zoom levels as well as colour settings both globally (for all sites) and per site.

Bookmarks Menu Tool Button