Topic: Firefox problems

[thegallery]

I don't regularly use firefox, but that's for three reasons.

1. Every time I fire it up, for years, through multiple versions, I get: "The update could not be installed. Please make sure there are no other copies of Firefox running on your computer, and then restart Firefox to try again."   I have various plugins, some of which are active, some aren't. I have no idea what the problem is. When I first saw it, maybe two years ago, Firefox wouldn't start at all. Now it always starts, but not without that message first.

2. Downloading programs. I'm soo lazy that over the next I've never looked into this. But every time I download it puts my file into a download manager of some kind. I hate that. I just want it to save to my desktop or other location I pick, not automatically sit in some folder. Plus when I do go to download that folder is full of 80 other things I downloaded before. How do I just change everything to download to my choice of location the same way IE does? I.E. Save As  ?

3. The number one reason I use I.E. is because of a instant search functionality called Searchy which is configurable at this site: http://searchy.protecus.de/en/  For I.E. users this is amazing,and you can quickly create custom search strings to any site you want. For example, from the address bar, if I want to look up "amazing" in the dictionary I just type "dic amazing". The search string is customizable. I'm sure Firefox has an extention that will do this but I want to make sure it's done from the address bar (not the search bar), and that the search string is customizable. I have so many I've used for many years in IE that I'd want to configure firefox the same way.

So it's these three issues that really stop me from using Firefox the most. Other than that it's clean and great for web development with all it's extra tools, but until I resolve these three issues I'm sticking with IE.

[Rik]

2) Go to tools > options > main. Set drive and folder there or, which you seem to prefer, 'always ask'.

1) Uninstall Firefox, then go to C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla, and delete everything in that folder, then re-install FF, that should unclog things for you.

3) There may be an addon you can get to do this, if you can resolve 1 & 2 to your satisfaction.

[Camstop]

There are other good browsers.

Why not give Google chrome a try?

It auto updates to the latest version without you even noticing, has loads of innovative features and is a very quick browser.

I haven't looked back    

[Rik]

He's behind you... 

[Camstop]

He's behind you... 

But far from in-front 

[Rik]

 

Oh no he isn't...

[thegallery]

Now I know why Rik has 8000 posts! 


Wizard! Guess what, the first two worked like a charm. Ah the download thing was so simple...!!!!!  and the 3rd, well for some reason all my IE searchys from that website are automatically working in firefox?  !!   

Plus, you can right click on any search dialog box on any page and say "add a keyword for this search"

Chrome looks slick and I have it. I wonder if it can have the same search functionality? Also, I use Roboform, which works great with Firefox and IE, but I don't think ti works with Chrome.

[Rik]

Phew.

[Camstop]

Chrome looks slick and I have it. I wonder if it can have the same search functionality? Also, I use Roboform, which works great with Firefox and IE, but I don't think ti works with Chrome.

Chrome would probably have a better search functionality

Here you go... http://www.roboformchrome.com/

[thegallery]

thanks all. chrome still has limitations, but my immediate problem is I can't import my IE bookmarks to firefox. I've tired importing from IE and importing the html file, but nothing happens at all, no message, no bookmarks; nothing.

[Rik]

Didn't FF ask if you wanted to import during installation?

[Simon]

It certainly should have.  I assume you've tried, in Firefox, File > Import, then select Internet Explorer?  You should then get another dialogue box with the options as to what to import.  If you import Favourites, they will appear in the Firefox Bookmarks list as 'From Internet Explorer', but you can move them out of that folder, into the main list, if you want to.

[thegallery]

sorry for the delayed response. Nothing was showing only because I had 10 years of book marks and it was slowly loading them all with no indicator. Long story short I ended up importing them like 5 times!   

I'm now able to switch to FF as it is pretty much running with all the features I needed (roboform, instant custom address bar search, etc..), but there is a reason I haven't made the full jump that I can't remember at the moment? It could be just the organization of the links bar which just imported alphabetically rather than the order which I use. But there was something else.... anyway I'll use it exclusively for a bit and see what I notice.

[Simon]

Windows Updates?  If you install them manually, you'd probably still need IE for that.  No harm in having Firefox as your default browser, and just use IE if needed.  If there's anything you want to know about Firefox, just ask.  

[thegallery]

OK, found my first problem:

Opening up a new tab: In IE I always open up a new tab to my default homepage. It's kind of like my dashboard where I go to the various sites I want. think of it as a glorified links bar.  But when I hit the new tab on Firefox it opens to a blank page. I have to then hit the 'home page" button.  I can't find a setting to make it automatically open to the home page?

Next, (not FF exclusive): I would like to open say 5 separate browser windows in five locations on my dual monitor setup, all with one click, each opening up a certain page and each in a certain location. Is there any program that will do that? I wouldn't mind including Outlook and a couple other programs with this functionality.