Mozilla recently released the next iteration of Firefox–one that has finally caught up with, and in some cases, surpassed the competition. This means there might be a new crowd of users coming on board the open source browser bandwagon. That’s great, especially when new users start poking around to find out how flexible the Firefox browser really is.
But hold the smartphone for a moment. If you open up the Firefox Preferences window, you might find yourself thinking, “Looks like there aren’t any more configuration options than the next browser.” From the standard set of preferences, you’d be correct. However, there’s another means of configuring Firefox–one that offers a vast number of options. Before I introduce you to this, you must know the about:config window hosts a good number of options that could wind up breaking Firefox, so you have to use caution when diving in. That being said, open up Firefox and type about:config in the address bar. Hit Enter and you’ll be warned of the risks that await. Accept these risks and you’ll be presented with the under-the-hood options. Scroll through these and find the option you want to change. Right-click the option and select Toggle or Modify (depending on the option) to make a change.
You need to understand what you’re doing here. Don’t just start changing options without doing a bit of research. You get no explanation about the options in the about:config window, so you’ll need to make use of Google when you come across something you want to change.
The Firefox about:config page is a powerful way to configure your browser to behave exactly how you want. Just use caution while working with it, otherwise you might find yourself with a non-functioning browser.
