This tweak is to make this mothafunk launch faster! Now I’ve got a pretty fast laptop and launching programs usually take a few seconds (at most), but not Firefox?! It can take up to 10 seconds on a cold start (maybe more). But with this tweak I’ve cut that time in half.. and warm starts (Firefox opened previously, then closed) can start as quick as 1 second! nice right?
Method 1: Compresses Firefox and associated files to reduce startup time.
This tweak seems to do nothing for newer versions of Firefox :/ Please comment if you disagree
All credit for this tweak goes to jballi. His original post found here.
Step 1.
- Download the program that compresses the files.
Download UPX now
- After downloading and unzipping, move the upx.exe to the C:\Windows folder.
Step 2.
- Create batch files to compress and decompress Firefox.
- Here’s jballi’s version of the batch file to compress firefox (the one i use too). Just copy the code below and save the file as firefox_compress.bat. NOT a text file (.txt)!
code:
pushd “%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox”
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx “%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v”
popd
this batch file will compress all exe’s and dll’s in the components, plugins, and the root Firefox folder.
- Here’s jballi’s version of the batch file to decompress Firefox. Save & name the file firefox_decompress.bat
code:
pushd “%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox”
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -d “%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v”
popd
Step 3.
These batch files will modify files on your computer. Please use with care and at your own risk!
- To compress Firefox, make sure Firefox is NOT running, then run your firefox_compress.bat file. please note that not all exe’s and dll’s in the Mozilla folder can be compressed. You may get messages warning you of this. don’t worry, this is normal.
- To decompress Firefox, run the firefox_decompress.bat file.
The Side Effects.
you will need to decompress Firefox in order to perform an update. If you get a message telling you that an update has been downloaded, stop Firefox, decompress, and then restart Firefox. you might need to force the update to be re-downloaded. After the update has been applied, don’t forget to stop Firefox and re-compress.
Method 2: Preload Firefox into the memory for faster startups.
This might be a better solution to those who are afraid to try method 1 because it’s a simple download, click, and install..
Download Firefox Preloader Now!
The Side Effects.
It loads Firefox regardless of using it or not. So if you don’t have the memory to spare, I wouldn’t sacrifice the system resources just to shave a few seconds of the launch time..
It doesn’t seem to work for me … can’t see any difference
i want more div layout code…!!!
please!!!
you all so hot and rawk daa…!!!!
it doesnt work mate, nothing changed, no increase in speed :(
it worked for me, i did exactly what the instructions said… maybe its because my computer is old and slow… PII with winXP !!
Well at least I learned that more extensions makes ff slower.
I’m going to get rid of some right now!
I won’t be doing this compression thing because my ff is fast enough for me.Also, it sounds too NASA for me.
tell me why exactly a UPX packer would speed up launch? UPX compresses the exe, then decompresses it at runtime, creating a *slightly* slower launch, not faster. I can’t imagine why this would work – the code is not optimised or something, merely compressed, wrapped, and decompressed when the exe is run.
that’s exactly what i thought but i tried it anyway.. i notice no difference with firefox 2.0 for some reason, but it still works with a few optimized builds (but not as much as it used to). i could post the FF preloader but.. it’s not even worth it.
I tried this and noticed a bit of different but mostly just screwed up some stuff and I don’t know why.
Problem #1
“It wouldn’t load certain features that I had on firefox”
Problem #2
“For some reason my Myspace stand alone player won’t play or load anymore”
Why couldn’t you just posted a firefox up for download with all of this already done?
For it worked just fine( though i can’t say that your batch code was any good.in fact, all it did is cause errors).
But here is what i want to say: i timed it before and after, and the difference( between launch speeds) was 30 miliseconds, and pages were loading about 10% faster.
I don’t know about you, but don’t think it’s worth all the trouble… maybe if you send an email to those at Firefox, telling them about the flaw, because it’s simply unefficient this way.
The only mistake i discovered in your coding of those batch files has been corrected, so i will submit them below.
1)to compress: pushd “%Program Files%\Mozilla Firefox”
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx “%Program Files%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v”
popd
2)to decompress: pushd “%Program Files%\Mozilla Firefox”
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -d “%Program Files%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v”
popd
The reason compressing the files helps launch time is because on many new computers, it takes much more time to read the data from the disk than it does to decompress it.
As an example, let’s say it takes me 1 second to read 1MB of data from the disk, but I can de-compress 10MB of data (once it’s in memory) in that same second.
If I have an uncompressed firefox, I have to read 10MB from the disk, which takes 10 seconds.
If I have a compressed firefox that is only 5MB on disk, I can read that in 5 seconds, then spend 1 second decompressing it in memory, for a total of 6 seconds.
Obviously these numbers vary based on the computer you have, etc. Since laptop hard drives are usually much slower than desktop drives, it often has more impact on laptops. In general, compressing with UPX makes the most difference when you have a relatively fast CPU but a relatively slow hard drive — again, this is most common today in laptops.
The newer firefox executeables are digitally signed, and the current UPX versions cannot compress these — so you don’t get any benefit. It’s very likely that this is the reason you’re not seeing any performance gains.
For me compressing Firefox shaved 4-5 seconds off the startup time. I used UPX with Firefox 2.0.0.7. I do believe that most if not all the files were compressed because UPX gives you a detailed account of the files that were compressed and by how much.
Instead of using a Batch file to execute the compression, I shelled a command prompt in the Firefox folder and entered the command that way. It was much easier for me especially since shelling a command prompt in Vista is very easy.
4-5 seconds may not seem like a lot, but it breaks down to about 20-25% on my system.
Good guide for increasing the launch time of firefox, I found another guide for increasing the page load times.. this is awsome and it makes firefox way faster. http://www.nettechguide.com/ho.....ing-times/