Firefox Question

Maklershed

Maklershed

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Hello all my computer literate CAG friends .. I have a problem that perhaps someone could help me with. I've been using Firefox for sometime and I love it. I find it to be better than Internet Explorer in every way. But lately I've had a growing problem. If I have a browser window open for more than 10 minutes my system resources get eaten up at an alarming pace. It increases and increases to the point that my computer slows up so much it nearly freezes. I checked my task manager and Firefox is the definite cause of this. I'm wondering why this is happening and more importantly, what can I do to fix it. My friend says the only option I have is to reinstall it completely but I only wanna do that as a last resort because I have everything configured exactly how I want it.

If it helps anyone, here are the extensions I'm using:

Talkback
Adblock Filterset G
TargetAlert
Adblock
Customize Google
McAffee Site Advisor
Autofill
 
This is called a memory leak... something that the creators have yet to address. I'm not sure if Beta 2 has this issue but this problem is pissing me off. I only use FF due to tabbed browsing because frankly, I've had fewer problems with IE.

Memory leaks can cause FF to stay open even if you close all the windows. This means that even though you closed the windows, it's still running hidden in the background (open up your task manager to make sure it closes). This can be a problem if you log into sites and just close the browser instead of logging out... because if the browser is still running the background, you'll still be logged in and whoever opens up FF again can usually access the site you logged into (because you were never logged out).

BTW, I'm not anti-FF as I am using FF now and rarely use IE. Like I said, tabbed browsing is nice. I am considering going to Opera though or the new IE.
 
[quote name='Vinny']This is called a memory leak... something that the creators have yet to address. I'm not sure if Beta 2 has this issue but this problem is pissing me off. I only use FF due to tabbed browsing because frankly, I've had fewer problems with IE.

Memory leaks can cause FF to stay open even if you close all the windows. This means that even though you closed the windows, it's still running hidden in the background (open up your task manager to make sure it closes). This can be a problem if you log into sites and just close the browser instead of logging out... because if the browser is still running the background, you'll still be logged in and whoever opens up FF again can usually access the site you logged into (because you were never logged out).

BTW, I'm not anti-FF as I am using FF now and rarely use IE. Like I said, tabbed browsing is nice. I am considering going to Opera though or the new IE.[/quote]

Ahh ok .. thanks for the info. And about the tabbed browsing .. what exactly is that and the benefit of it? I'm wondering if I should consider Opera as well. I've heard nothng but good things about it.
 
[quote name='Maklershed']Ahh ok .. thanks for the info. And about the tabbed browsing .. what exactly is that and the benefit of it? I'm wondering if I should consider Opera as well. I've heard nothng but good things about it.[/QUOTE]
Instead of having several windows open, you can just right click a link and open up a new tab. It makes browsing several pages at once a lot cleaner and easier.
 
[quote name='Maklershed']Ahh ok .. thanks for the info. And about the tabbed browsing .. what exactly is that and the benefit of it? I'm wondering if I should consider Opera as well. I've heard nothng but good things about it.[/quote]its pretty much allows you to open up another spot for a link inside firefox without having to open ANOTHER page like IE does eg. if you want to go to 5 diff sites you can have them all in the same firefox page, which you can scroll through at will, with IE you would have 5 different PAGES
 
Opera is another bad ass browser, I've been using it for years. I find it simpler and way faster then firefox, and you don't need to tweak it. Only downside is that ytmnd.com doesn't load too well on it, but all you gotta do is copy+paste into IE for that lol.
 
The only time I've seen this happen with any version of Firefox is with anti-phishing plugins/extensions. Those things seem to cause massive system slowdown and memory leaks. Dump any of those you may have and make sure you have the latest version of Firefox (either 1.5.0.7 or 2.0RC1).
 
[quote name='Nogib']The only time I've seen this happen with any version of Firefox is with anti-phishing plugins/extensions. Those things seem to cause massive system slowdown and memory leaks. Dump any of those you may have and make sure you have the latest version of Firefox (either 1.5.0.7 or 2.0RC1).[/quote]
Hmm, it could be the TargetAlert extension. It creates a small icon based on what type of link I scroll over (secure page, media, pdf, etc.). And I'm gonna try the tabbed browsing when I need to open new windows. Maybe it will help cut back on memory usage.
 
It's probably due to one of your extensions, but I have no idea which one.

I don't think using tabs rather than new windows will help with the mem problem as FF saves a full page history, etc. for every tab just like it would for a new window. Having a lot of tabs open (something I do all the time) will cause it to really grab a lot of memory.

And yeah, give tabs a shot, you'll wonder how you got on without them.

If Opera had something like Adblock and Filterset G I'd consider switching as my main browser, but those two extensions are just too good to abandon.
 
The only extension I'm using is Google Toolbar and I don't see why that would cause any memory leaks. If it is, then there's no way I'll continue to use FF without it. Google Toolbar is a huge time saver for me (searching, price comparing, maps, image search, spell checking, auto-fill, and search highlighting).
 
Yeah you might be right about just basic FF leaking memory then. I have a minor problem with this but I assumed it was mostly due to my habit of always having a few dozen tabs open.

Oh, and you really should try the adblock w/ the Fliterset.G extensions. They are amazingly useful.
 
The Adblock extension is the key reason I use Firefox. A godsend when you're on dialup like myself but still want some pictures when browsing. However, my FF does suffer from massive memory leaks, though.
 
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