Firefox Tabs On Bottom/Below The Address Bar/Toolbars

If you like your tabs on the bottom - below the toolbars - instead of on top, here is the simple solution. This works with the new Firefox version 29.0.1. 

You may have had your tabs below the toolbars up until now, and then Mozilla updated Firefox to version 29.0.1

If you want your tabs back below the toolbars, download and install Classic Theme Restorer. Restart Firefox. Then open the Add-ons page, go to Extensions, then click on Options for Classic Theme Restorer. Change Tabs On Top to Tabs Not On Top. OK. Done.

I found that manually making the change in About:config did not work, but this add-on does.

There are a lot of other things you can do with this add-on. See this page for more about this add-on.

Thumbnail Zoom Plus Firefox Add-On

If you would like to be able to see large versions of pictures on all sorts of pages on the Internet when you hover your cursor over a thumbnail, this is the Firefox add-on for you.

I bumped into this add-on today and am loving it. I was using it on Google Image Search results, and later on an artist's blog. For pages like a Google Image Search result page, I found I had to hover for a few seconds on some pictures for the large version to pop up, but, considering the amount of pictures loading on these search result pages, it is a minor annoyance.

Go here to get it.

Google Image Search Freezes In Firefox - Solution

When you run a Google Image Search and the results freeze for a number of seconds before Firefox responds, you may have a problem add-on installed. 

Checking

First, try the search in any other browser. If it runs fine in the other browser, then it is something going on in Firefox.

Next, run Firefox in Safe Mode. To do this, in Firefox, click on Help, then Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

Now try the image search. If it runs fine, then one or more add-ons are the culprit. 

Go to your Add-ons page in Firefox (Tools, Add-ons or Firefox button, Add-ons). 

• Write down all the enabled add-ons
• Disable a bunch (make sure to mark down which ones you disabled) and restart Firefox
• Test an image search. If it doesn't work, re-enable the ones you disabled before and disable a bunch more (marking those ones down) and restart and test again. Repeat this process until you get the image search working
• Once the image search is working, you will know that the problem add-on is in the most recent bunch you disabled.
• Re-enable one add on at a time, restart Firefox and test until the search freezes again. This way you will find which add-on is causing the problem
• Once you find out which add-on is causing the problem, disable it and re-enable the others you want enabled, restart Firefox and do a final image search test. If all is working, remove the problem add-on.

I recently had this problem and found that Linkification was causing the problem, so I removed it and all was well again. If you read up on this add-on at the link, it may seem obvious why this would cause a problem. It was a useful but not necessary add-on.

Tab Mix Plus for Firefox 17

If you've been using Tab Mix Plus for Firefox, you may have found that it doesn't work in Firefox 17.

Here is a version that works. Go to this page and click on the blue Dev-Build to install the new version.

Tab Mix Plus Dev-Build 0.4.0.4pre.120724a Released

My Top 20 Free Windows Programs - Sept. 2012

Backup
Cobain Backup - a free backup program that you can fully customize - scheduling, backing up to various drives including network drives, differential or full backup, etc. Uses Shadow Volume Copy so you can back up while you work on your computer. In the task pane it now also shows the total size (GB, MB...) of your backup task.

Browser
Firefox - Still the best browser. Faster than ever. Better memory management. More secure and stable. Tons of extensions to meet your needs. Check out Personas - an easy way to dress up Firefox. Now also available for mobile Android devices.

Clean-Up
CCleaner - great for cleaning up temp files, temp files leftover from crashes, and cleaning up the Registry, disabling unnecessary start-up items, cleaning up IE add-ons, scheduled events and more.

Revo Uninstaller - an advanced un-installer program that enables you to remove the usual leftover registry items and folders. Scroll to the bottom of the page at the link to get to the free version download link.

Defraggler - from the makers of CCleaner, this program is a great replacement for the Windows defragment program. Works in all recent versions of Windows. This program lets you see what is going on (like the old program in XP). It is fast and can work even if you have less than 10% of the hard drive free. Not as necessary in Windows 7, but very handy for older XP and Vista system hard drives.

Email
Thunderbird - an excellent email program from Mozilla (same group that brings you Firefox). I find this much easier to customize and to backup and move files around when need be, and much more stable than Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail/Windows Live Mail programs. Tabs, excellent search function, File-Link (large file management) and more.

Entertainment
Winamp - best free media player overall - yes it has playlists and you can use it with your ipod or any other MP3 player. Works better than iTunes and doesn't install other programs behind your back, and you can customize its many settings (file formats to deal with, whether it launches on its own or by your command...). Great for doing live mixes as you can queue songs up.

Freemake Video Converter - With video collections moving to hard drives away from disc collections, here is a great free program that you can use to convert your DVD movie or TV show into an AVI file (or other digital format).  Here is the short how-to video for this process. To go with this, here is a decryption program - DVD43 - that operates in the background. It should work with most DVDs.

VLC Media Player - for playing a wide variety of video and music files, DVDs, and streaming. When Windows Media Player won't play it (WMP in Windows 7 works much better but there are still files it won't play), this will. The user interface isn't that pretty, but it works.

File Sharing
uTorrent - the best little torrent program around. Pronounced MOO-torrent (as the initial u is actually the micro symbol). Although there was a threat to stick ads in the free version, they backed down and made them optional.

Peerblock - lets you control who your computer "talks to" on the Internet. By selecting appropriate lists of "known bad" computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which have been "hacked", even entire countries! They can't get in to your computer, and your computer won't try to send them anything either.

Productivity 

Libre Office - the best free alternative to MS Office. Libre Office picked up where Open Office left off - same program but newer/more developed. And it can open .docx  and .xlsx files. You can create a PDF directly from any of the programs in the suite with a click of an icon. Word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, database, and a math program. You can make it save things in MS Office format by default if you need to share documents with others who have MS Office. The link takes to you the page where you can download the main installation file and the help file. Download both, install the main one first and then the help file. If you currently have Open Office installed, make sure to remove it before installing Libre Office. The first time you open the program it will take a while to load to configure itself. You may need to open it again if it doesn't fully open. After that it opens normally.

EssentialPIM - A personal information manager. Similar features to Outlook (outside of the email part). If you want a PIM that is not bogged down by the email part of Outlook (and it's other issues) - just a basic appointment calendar, contact list, To Do list and notes - this is a great program.

Security
AVG Free - anti-virus and anti-spyware and more, and continues to improve. Easy to use and works better than the big commercial programs. Go here for installation instructions for AVG Free 2013.

Malwarebytes - A good anti-spyware removal program to use along with your regular security program to occasionally check for bugs. Has a quickscan mode that takes about 10 minutes, and a full scan mode. Also adds as a context menu so you can right-click on a file/folder/drive and choose to scan it with Malwarebytes.

Mailwasher Free - filter out Spam before it gets to your email program. Works with a wide variety of email programs. Free version only works for one email address. Paid version will work with multiple addresses.

Utilities
7zip - 32bit or 64bit - decompression and compression of many many compression formats. After installing, run 7-Zip File Manager program as administrator, go to Tools, Options,click on the two + buttons, Apply and close the program.

Adobe Reader - Although it's big and sometimes annoying, this is still the best all round PDF reader. Works well in browsers. (I used to recommend Foxit Reader, but it is kind of buggy when dealing with opening PDFs inside a browser)

Crossloop - enables you to remotely connect to another computer to give or get help. Very simple to use. No need to create an account.

Dropbox - Actually a service, not a program, but very useful. Need to share or sync files with yourself or others in your group/business remotely, or, want to backup your work on-line? Free account starts at 2GB. There are other on-line free storage services, but Dropbox is probably the easiest to use and most versatile (and the least buggy).
From Wikipedia: Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software. In brief, Dropbox allows users to create a special folder on each of their computers, which Dropbox then synchronises so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of the computer it is viewed on. Files placed in this folder are also accessible through a web site and mobile phone applications.
You can also share a file with someone who does not have a Dropbox account. To do this: Open your Dropbox folder. Open the Public folder. Right-click on the file you've put in there, select Dropbox, Copy Public Link. Then, send this link to the other person. This is a great way to send a file that is too large for email servers, or share a safe file that your email service keeps blocking (installation files, even when zipped, are often blocked by email services).

Honourable Mentions:
CDex - A simple program for converting CDs to digital audio files.

Freemake Audio Converter - a great program for converting digital audio files. Converts from and to many file formats.

EMDb - a free DVD/Video catalogue database program. Automatically downloads info from IMDB. I haven't used this but it looks like the best free one.

PDF Creator - Easy to create PDF files from any file - just print and select PDF Creator and it creates a PDF version of the file. You can also merge multiple files of any format into a multi-page PDF file. If you have Libre Office and only need to create PDFs of files you create with it, there is no need for this creator program.

More Programs
AlternativeTo - This is a great site for finding alternative programs (free or commercial) if you can't afford the usual expensive version, or for finding programs for very specific purposes.

Got any favourite free Windows programs for computer I left out? Add them in comments below.

Firefox add-on Fireshot update

FireShot - Screenshot tool - Capture and Annotate :: Versions :: Add-ons for Firefox
Today, Fireshot won't let you use it as an add-on for Firefox unless you update to the recent experimental version. Click the link above and Add to Firefox the Experimental version 0.92 and allow it to install. Once done, restart Firefox. Fixed.

More ways to make old add ons compatible in Firefox and Thunderbird

If you have updated Firefox and/or Thunderbird and have found that some of your favourite add ons no longer work, there are a number of ways to make them work.
One way, that I have written about for Firefox and for Thunderbird, is to install Mr. Tech Toolkit. But, the problem with that add on is that it is outdated and incompatible and must be adjusted to be made to work. Also, currently, the forced-to-work version of Mr Tech Toolkit will also cause the Add-Ons Manager page to show in a way that makes it difficult to close it. If you want to switch from using that add on to using the Add-on Compatibility Reporter (see below), install the reporter add on and disable the toolkit add on and restart (in either Firefox or Thunderbird).

The Add-on Compatibility Reporter
This is an add-on made by Mozilla that will enable all old add-ons and will also let you send a report to Mozilla that a certain old add-on still works fine in the new version of Firefox or Thunderbird if you so desire.
Here is the version for Thunderbird.

There is an issue with forcing old add ons to work. Sometimes they don't work and can cause problems. The only way to troubleshoot this is to disable them one by one and restart to test things out. Sometimes an add-on can cause a very odd specific problem. Once you find out which add on is causing the problem, disable it and keep it disabled. If you don't need it anymore, uninstall it. But, if you would like to use it if it would work, keep it disabled but check once in a while to see if it is updated. If it is ever properly updated, it will usually stop being labelled as incompatible with the current version on the Add Ons Manager list. Once you see this you could give it a try again - enable it - and see if it still causes the old problem.

Here are a couple of articles from ghacks.net discussing the Add-on Compatibility Reporter and other methods of forcing compatibility and the issues around this.

Firefox Add-on Compatibility Reporter, Force Add-On Compatibility

Three Methods To Force Add-On Compatibility in Firefox

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.

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

Tab Groups and App Tabs in Firefox 4

What are Tab Groups? | How to | Firefox Help
If you work with a lot of tabs open at a time, this new feature in Firefox 4 can be quite useful.



Click the link above to find out how to use tab groups.

Tab groups are a way to organize tabs. The feature itself is good, but, to make it more convenient, here is an extension that creates a drop-down menu from beside the tab group button so you don't have to open tab groups to name the groups, switch between the groups and other handy things.
Note: if the TabGroupsMenu drop down menu arrow is not showing on the Tab Groups icon on your toolbar, open Add Ons Manager, go to TabGroupsMenu, click More, and then check off ON, instead of Default. Fixed.
TabGroups Menu



Also, very useful - App Tabs
This is meant for web applications you have open, but, you can use it for any tabs you have open all the time. Right-click on the tab and choose Pin as App Tab. The tab will be pinned to the far left, with just the icon showing on the tab. You can do this to more than one tab. When you close the browser and open it again later, your app tabs will be there still. If you switch groups, these app tabs stay at the left side of the tab bar, no matter what tab group you are looking at.
If you want to put the tab back as a regular tab, right-click on the tab and choose Unpin Tab.
More details about App Tabs here.

Make old extensions work in Firefox 4

If you want to upgrade to Firefox 4, and you use some extensions (add-ons) that you can't live without, make sure you install the latest version of Mr Tech Toolkit. Right-click this link and save the xpi file to your computer. Then open your add-ons manager in FF4 and click on the little cog wheel in the top right and choose to install from a file.

To make it so you can use non-compatible extensions: in the Add Ons manager, click on the Options for Mr Tech Toolkit, Miscellaneous tab, XPI Install Options, UN-check Enable Addons Compatibility Check, and make sure to check Allow web sites to install software (if you want to be able to install extensions from different web sites).

Note: sometimes using old non-compatible extensions can make things buggy, so, use at your own risk.

For more tips on customizing the Firefox 4 layout, see:
http://thortweak.blogspot.com/2011/03/firefox-4-new-features-explained-in.html

Firefox 4 - new features explained in detail

Back to the front of the pack: Ars reviews Firefox 4
Ars Technica reviews the major new features of Firefox 4.

The link above has some tips on adjusting things more to your liking. See the link below for more tips:
Lifehacker: How to fix annoyances with Firefox 4's new look

My Top 20 Free Windows Programs - June 2010

In no particular order:

Backup
Cobain Backup - a free backup program that you can fully customize - scheduling, backing up to various drives including network drives, etc. Now uses Shadow Volume Copy so you can back up while you work on your computer.

Browser
Firefox - the latest version of Firefox is fast and very secure and remains the best with extensions of all the browsers. Check out Personas - an easy way to dress up Firefox.

Clean-Up
CCleaner - great for cleaning up temp files, temp files leftover from crashes, and cleaning up the Registry, disabling unnecessary start-up items and more.

Revo Uninstaller - an advanced un-installer program that enables you to remove the usual leftover registry items and folders.

Defraggler - from the makers of CCleaner, this program is a great replacement for the Windows defragment program. Works in all recent versions of Windows. This program lets you see what is going on (like the old program in XP). It is fast and can work even if you have less than 10% of the hard drive free.

Email
Thunderbird - an excellent email program from Mozilla (same group that brings you Firefox). I find this much easier to customize and to backup and move files around when need be than Outlook or Outlook Express. The latest version has tabs and the search feature is most excellent.

Entertainment
Winamp - best free media player overall - yes it has playlists and you can use it with your ipod or any other MP3 player. Works better than iTunes and doesn't install other programs behind your back, and you can customize its many settings (file formats to deal with, whether it launches on its own or by your command...). Great for doing live mixes as you can queue songs up.

DVDFlick - convert and burn digital video files (many formats supported) to DVD in regular DVD video format. Also has basic menu creation features too.

VLC Media Player - for playing a wide variety of video and music files, DVDs, and streaming. When Windows Media Player won't play it, this will. The user interface isn't that pretty, but it works.

File Sharing
uTorrent - the best little torrent program around. Pronounced MOO-torrent (as the initial u is actually the micro symbol)

Peerblock - lets you control who your computer "talks to" on the Internet. By selecting appropriate lists of "known bad" computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which have been "hacked", even entire countries! They can't get in to your computer, and your computer won't try to send them anything either.

Productivity
Open Office 3 - the best free alternative to MS Office. And it can open .docx files. You can create a PDF directly from any of the programs in the suite with a click of an icon. Word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, database, you can make it save things in MS Office format by default if you need to share documents with others have MS Office, and more. Currently on version 3.2.1

EssentialPIM - A personal information manager. Similar to many of the other features in Outlook (outside of the email part). If you want a PIM that is not bogged down by the email part of Outlook - just a basic appointment calendar, contact list, To Do list and notes - this is a great program.

Security
AVG Free - anti-virus and anti-spyware, and much improved since it first came out. Easy to use and works better than the big programs that must be purchased.

Malwarebytes - A good anti-spyware removal program to use along with your regular security program to occasionally check for bugs. Has a quickscan mode that takes about 10 minutes, and a full scan mode. Also adds as a context menu so you can right-click on a file/folder/drive and choose to scan it with Malwarebytes.

Mailwasher Free - filter out Spam before it gets to your email program. Works with a wide variety of email programs. Free version only works for one email address. Paid version will work with multiple addresses.

Utilities
TeraCopy - Improves copying speed for large files and for when copying a lot of files at once. Also has better overwrite and skip options. Install it and it replaces the Windows copy function. You can still use the usual cut/copy and paste shortcuts.

7zip - decompression and compression of many many compression formats, and free!

Foxit PDF reader - works directly inside a Firefox tab as well as on its own. Faster and with a much smaller footprint than Adobe Reader. They keep making this better with every version

Crossloop - enables you to remotely connect to another computer to give or get help. Very simple to use

Got any favourite free programs I left out? Add them in comments

Firefox 3.6 is Here!

If you are upgrading there will be issues with some extensions (as usual).
To upgrade, click on Help, check for updates and follow instructions

If you are using Tab Mix Plus, after you upgrade to 3.6, manually install the new version of Tab Mix Plus from here.
After installing the Tab Mix Plus update, restart Firefox, go to Tools, Add Ons and Enable Tab Mix Plus and restart Firefox again.

If, when Firefox 3.6 starts up, you get a log of errors and warnings, it could be that you have some incompatible add-ons causing problems. Go to Tools, Add-ons, and Disable all the add-ons with red exclamation marks and restart Firefox. The problem should be fixed.

Make sure you have Mr. Tech Toolkit installed so you can make your fave add-ons compatible.

You might want to disable any add-ons you had to deal with memory as 3.6 seems to handle memory issues better.

One thing new to 3.6 is Personas. Install the Personas Plus add-on here. See the green button in the lower right to install the add-on.

Here is an article at PC World on some of the new features

Remove jerkiness in You Tube videos

YouTube Auto Buffer & Auto HD & Remove Ads for Greasemonkey
Add Greasemonkey, then add this script.

Firefox Add-On Tiny Menu upgrades from version 2.0 to 2.0.1

Tiny Menu :: Add-ons for Firefox
If you were having problems with squished bookmark drop-down menus in Firefox with Tiny Menu add-on version 2.0, then make sure to update to version 2.0.1. This problem has been fixed.

Updating Firefox and add-ons that are no longer compatible

MR Tech Toolkit :: Add-ons for Firefox
If you don't have the Mr. Tech Toolkit add-on installed, you may end up with some incompatible add-ons whenever you update Firefox. Install this add on. Then, whenever Firefox updates and something stops working, open up the add-ons (Tools, Add-ons), find the one that is no longer compatible, and right-click on it and choose Make Compatible. Then, restart Firefox.
Most of the time this will fix the add-on an it will work. But sometimes, the add on will no longer work properly. If the add-on no longer works properly or causes problems, disable it and watch for updates for it.

Lastest Firefox Update Will Detect Outdated Flash

Firefox 3.5.3, 3.0.14 will detect outdated Flash | MX Logic
The latest version of Firefox (3.5.3 and 3.0.14) will let you know if you have an outdated Adobe Flash plug-in.
If you haven't updated yet, to manually update, Click on (Menu), Help, Check for Updates, and follow the instructions to install the update.

My Top 15 Free Windows Programs for 2008

Inspired by the post at Lifehacker, and, since it's been a while since I've written up a top-list, here is my top 15 list of free Windows programs.

In no particular order:

Firefox 3 - the latest version of Firefox is fast and very secure and remains the best with extensions of all the browsers

AVG Free 8 - anti-virus and anti-spyware, and much improved since it first came out. Easy to use and works better than the big programs that must be purchased.

7zip - decompression and compression of many many compression formats, and free!

Foxit PDF reader - now works directly inside a Firefox tab as well as on its own. Faster and with a much smaller footprint than Adobe Reader. They keep making this better with every version

Crossloop - for remote connections with clients for help/repair - free and very simple to use

Shutdown Guard - for stopping Windows Updates from automatically restarting your computer (XP and Vista)

Winamp - best free media player overall - yes it has playlists and you can use it with your ipod or any other MP3 player. Works better than iTunes and doesn't install other programs behind your back, and you can customize its many settings (file formats to deal with, whether it launches on its own or by your command...)

Quicktime Alternative - streamlined and unobtrusive version of Quicktime

Realplayer Alternative - streamlined and unobtrusive version of Realplayer

Open Office 3 - the best free alternative to MS Office. And it can open .docx files now. You can create a PDF directly from any of the programs in the suite with a click of an icon. Word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, database, you can make it save things in MS Office format by default if you need to share documents with others have MS Office, and more.

Thunderbird - excellent email program from Mozilla (same group that brings you Firefox). I find this much easier to customize and to backup and move files around when need be than Outlook or Outlook Express.

Picasa - a good, free program from Google for viewing, sorting and editing your photos and more

Superantispyware - A great 2nd program for manually scanning your computer after AVG Free 8 to catch and fix anything that might have been missed. I like this better than Ad Aware and Spybot put together.

CCleaner - great for cleaning up temp files, temp files leftover from crashes, and cleaning up the Registry and more.

Cobain Backup - a free backup program that you can fully customize - scheduling, backing up to various drives including network drives, etc.

Got any favourite free programs I left out? Add them in comments.

Happy New Year!