How to Really reduce the memory usage in Firefox

Posted on July 19th, 2007 by Jason

3) Plugins:

Plugins could also be the cause of the problem. Here are some links from MozillaZine that you can refer to:

- Reducing Adobe Reader memory usage
- Shockwave memory usage
- Flash memory usage
- Java memory usage

4) Clear your Download History:

Allowing your download history to accumulate can have a huge impact on Firefox memory usage. Personally, I prefer just clicking Clean Up when I’m done with my downloads since the download history box can be very convenient when you forget where you have saved your files.
Alternatively, you can set Firefox to not keep a history of your downloads by navigating to

Tools > Options > Privacy > Uncheck Remember what I’ve downloaded

This will erase your download history each time you close the Downloads History window.

5) Additional Settings:

There are a couple of settings you can tweak in Firefox that can limit the amount of memory allocated for caching.

1. Open Firefox and type in about:config in the address bar.

2. Type browser.cache.memory.enable in the Filter Bar and make sure it is enabled. If not, just double click it to set it to enable.

3. Right-click an area of empty space in the browser and choose New > Integer. Type in browser.cache.memory.capacity and click OK.
The integer value you enter depends on the amount of RAM you have.
If you have:

256 MB of RAM, enter “4096â€
512 MB of RAM, enter “8192â€
1 GB of RAM, enter “16384â€
and so forth… Just double the number as your RAM doubles.

4. Right-click anywhere on the window and click New > Bootlean and enter:

config.trim_on_minimize

And set it to true. When you minimize an application in Windows Vista, the memory usage is supposed to go down but Firefox doesn’t do this. By setting this to true, Firefox will begin to use less memory when minimized.

5. Restart Firefox for these changes to apply.

6) Close Firefox periodically:

I know what you’re thinking, but there is an extension that can save your internet sessions so when you re-open Firefox, you can have it exactly the way it was before you closed it – the tabs, the cache, everything. You can download Extension Manager here.
Once you have downloaded the extension, we need to set it up. First, we need to get to the options window: Tools > Session Manager > Session Manager Options

Once you’re in the options window, just make sure your screen looks like the one below and you’ll be fine.

7) Get Portable Firefox:

I am actually not sure how accurate this may be, but using Portable Firefox has definitely helped minimize my memory usage. To be honest, I don’t know why or how, but it just works! You can download Portable Firefox here. For the most part, it runs the same way your regular Firefox does.
source: vistarewired.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 9:03 am and is filed under Firefox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  1. My Open Letters on 07 Aug 2007 at 9:18 pm #

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