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 Some have stopped being updated and have been replaced by newer and better versions.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) here
This 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
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) here
This 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
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
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