10 Must-Have Firefox 4 Add-ons

The new released Mozilla Firefox 4 is a great improvement over the previous versions of its browser. But those improvements are not enough to make the browser perfect. So, adding some add-ons can help you get more out of Firefox 4. Not all the old add-ons are compatible with the current browser, but every add-on in the list are surely working well with Mozilla Firefox 4. These freebies can help you to power up search, better management of information you find on the internet, keep yourself safe or do various other tasks.

Power Up Search

A great part of your browsing day got only one main tasks - web searching. These three add-ons can help you make searching in Firefox even better and easier.

Apture Highlights

You might usually happen to come across some words or phrases on a Web page and feel like wanting to dig deeper then you should get Apture Highlights.

This add-on will allow you to highlight the word or phrase and click a 'Learn More' bubble to get information from Wikipedia, youtube links, search results on Google and Bing, and images related to the words.Google Maps will give you a map if you've highlighted a location. Click Here to download Apture Highlights

InstantFox

Conduction a comprehensive search often involves having to search in different places around the Web like Google and so on. If you're tired of that routine, InstantFox solves the problem, allowing you to use Firefox's address bar to perform searchs using keywords for different sites.
For examples, to seach Google for Microsoft, type g Microsoft into the address bar. You can add other letters before a search term to search other sites, such as a for Amazon, b for Bing, yh for Yahoo, and y for YouTube. Click Here to download InstantFox

KwiClick

Pretty similar to Apture Hightlights, KwiClick lets you highlights a word or phrase to get more information. But in this case highlighting shows a cloverleaf icon with four leaves - one for each search and information provider, set by default as Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Google Maps. Click any icon you like and you'll see information from that site in another window. You can customize the icon with many other providers, as well. Click Here to download KwiClick.

Since Apture Highlights and KwiClick work the same way, they conflict with each other when they are installed together. If you'd like to keep both, you'll need to use a workaround to make both add-ons work perfectly. Apture Highlights takes precedence over KwiClick; when you highlight a word or phrase and hover your mouse over it, the Apture Highlights 'Learn More' bubble appears, while the KwiClick cloverleaf remains hidden and in accessible in background. But if you highlight a word or phrase and right-click, you'll see KwiClick option on the menu. Choose that item to bring KwiClick window.

Manage Online Information

Are you suffering from information overload? Well, most people do. The following Firefox add-ons make you gather information easier and keep it organized easier once you've found it.

Feedly

With Feedly, you can create your own personalized newspapaer by gathering stories and blog posts from news soucres across the Internet. It can constantly self-update, so whenever you check it, the latest news is always available for you. Feedly uses RSS technology and starts off with a pre-built set of feeds, but you can easily customize them. It also integrates with Google Reader, so if you've already built up feeds there, it'll grab those for you as well. Click Here to download Feedly.

Read It Later

If you're looking for an excellent way to save articles and pages on the Web so that you can refer to them in the future, Read It Later is for you. This, my personal favorite, add-on will let you save the article or page you want by simply clicking a small '>' icon at the right end of the Firefox address bar while you're on a page that you want to save. You can then go back and read the saved item whenever you want, via the Firefox add-on, from the Web itself, or on another computer or mobile device with a Read It Later add-on.

To read saved articles and pages, you click a Read It Later icon that's seperate from the one you use to save the pages. There's a chance that the icon won't initailly appear, however. To make it show up in Firefox 4, click the orange Firefox button at the upper-left corner of the screen, select Options -> Toolbar Layout, and then drag the Read It Later icon to the Firefox toolbar. Click Here to download Read It Later.

Protect Yourself Online

The Internet can be dangerous, with malicious softwares and hackers trying to get your private information. But you can fight back those threats with these two Firefox add-ons.

NoScript

Many of the things that make the Web a great place to visit but JavaScript, Flash, and other interactive technologies also make it a risky place to visit. In addition to delivering useful information and services, such technologies can be vulnerable to exploits.

With NoScript, you can block them from runnng, permit them to run just once, or allow them to run every time you visit web sites that you know and trust. Click Here to download NoScript.

BetterPrivacy

If you are an intense Web-user,  your hard disk is most likely to filled with so-called supercookies, also known as Flash cookies or LSOs (Local Shared Objects), which gather information about your browsing histories to multiple sites. These flash cookies can't be cleared with normal cookies removing options embedded with the browser. BetterPrivacy can hunt them down and zaps them to erase your trail. Click Here to download BetterPrivacy.

Miscellaneous Add-Ons

Check out these three handy tools to find out about the weather, block ads, and more effectively mangae multiple Web pages.

ForecastFox Weather



You want to know which way the wind is blowing, or to learn about current conditions anywhere? ForecastFox Weather delivers weather reports staright to Firefox.

After you install it and choose your area of interest, the appropriate weather information appears at the bottom right of your browser. Just hover your mouse over the display to see even more details. Click Here to download ForecastFox Weather.

Adblock Plus

If you're tired of annoying ads that pop up whenever you surf the Web, make them disappear with Adblock Plus.

It gives you control over which one to block and which one to let through, so you can block ads on some sites and enable some ads on others. You can also fine-tune the add-on so that it only blocks ads and doesn't interfere with site functionality. Click Here to download Adblock Plus.

FoxTab

Are you bored of using same old tab switching option? If so, you can control browsers tabs through a 3D interface with the tab tamer FoxTab. In addition to being pretty, the interface gives you greater control and includes a Safari-like feature that shows your favourite sites every time you open a new tab. Click Here to download FoxTab.

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Here I come! Windows 8 Is Coming in 2012!

Microsoft's next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 8, will debut in 2012, according to the Company CEO Steve Ballmer on Monday.

Ballmer made the announcemet in Tokyo, speaking to an audience of software developers. Observers had been expecting the next version of Windows next year, but this is the first time that the company confirmed the 2012 date. Ballmer told the developers, "as we look forward to the next generation Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming," according to a transcript of his speech posted to Microsoft's website.

"As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors," he added.

This is the first time Microsoft has officially confirmed the Windows 8 name.

A 2012 release date would put Windows 8 about 3 years behind Windows 7, which came out in July 2009. Microsoft expects to have sales of more than 350 million copies of Windows 7 this year, and the company has traditionally relied on new versions of its operating system to spur sales.

The operating system is expected to have an updated user interface and will support low-power ARM chips, a move designed to give Microsoft a fighting chance in the emerging tablet computing market.

More details on the upcoming version of Windows could reveal at the upcoming D: All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, next week. Microsoft's Windows division president, Steven Sinofsky is slated to speak there.

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iPhone 5 Leak Shows New Edge-to-Edge Screen

Alibaba.com, a chinese global trade site is selling a new item in its product listing, namely "Newest design crystal case for apple iPhone 5g", gives some hints on new iPhone's big changes.

The design of the case made by Kulcase, LTD in Guangdong and offered for bulk orders on alibaba.com. If the case design is based on leaked plans from Apple, it seems the next iPhone could have a new edge-to-edge display and a new location for the rear flash. At least, that's what we can say by looking at the photos posted on alibaba.com:

iPhone 5 case (image: alibaba.com)

But it wouldn't be the first time plans for Apple products have been leaked into an ultracompetitive Chinese manufacturing market.

Employees at Foxconn, which manufactures many Apply products in China, were arrested for leaking iPad 2 plans to accessory makers in the reports earlier this year.

Lending a little bit of credence to this particular rumor is the fact that the images seem similar to an engineering mock-up leaked back in March (according to AppleInsider) that showed a bigger screen.

iPhone 5 engineering drawings
(Image: Apple Insider)

But third-part manufacturers have also been known to start production based on other rumors and leaks, only to see Apple make last-minutes changes.

If you're willing to take a risk and invest in the iPhone 5 cases, alibaba.com might be able to hook you up for as little as 10 cents a piece, as long as you want to buy at least 1,000.

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Beware of 'First Exposure: iPhone 5' Facebook scam! Don't Fall for it!

If you see this post on Facebook, don't click on it.

Facebook users are being duped into unwittingly spreading spam by clicking on what looks like a link to news entitled "First Exposure: iPhone 5."

A version of the scam, exploiting peoples' interest in the next-generation iPhone, went around Facebook earlier this month, and it's back today with minor changes.

The scam starts when you see someone in your social network comment on a link in a post that looks like it leads to a news story about the iPhone 5 at a Web address of "greatlakesnews.info." Clicking on the link takes you to a different Web page, which provides a captcha window where you're asked to verify a word, ostensibly to prove that you are not an automated bot.

Once you click to verify, a message is posted to your Facebook stream notifying all your friends that you commented on the item and providing them with the bogus iPhone 5 link, in a type of attack known as "clickjacking". Then you're asked to choose from a list of items that then lead to a survey which is really marketing, according to this M86 post.

Clickjacking can be a problem on any Web site, but social networks are particularly susceptible because people share so many links. Facebook's advice to not click on strange links even if they are from friends would cut out many of the legitimate links people share on Facebook.

It's good idea to try to avoid getting news from sources that aren't known news sites. But a big red flag is the captcha window--legitimate sites don't typically make you prove you're human to read a news item.

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Google revives Blogger after outage

Google got Blogger back online late this morning following a maintenance-related glitch that kept blogs dark for more than 20 hours.

"We're nearly back to normal -- you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored," Eddie Kessler, tech lead/manager at Blogger, wrote in a post on the Blogger Buzz site around 10:30 a.m. PT.

The post continues:

Here's what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger's behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that's why you haven't been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we're in the progress of restoring.

The publishing site has millions of active blogs, he said.

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Microsoft patches critical hole in Windows

Yesterday was Patch Tuesday and Microsoft fixed a critical hole in Windows and two less serious holes in Office in one of the lightest Patch Tuesdays in recent history. These patches are still important for network and computer security but these shouldn’t drag you into a false sense of security.

The security bulletin, MS11-035 is rated as Critical and fixes a vulnerability in the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) of Windows Server 2003 and 2008 that can be remotely exploited. The exploit could allow remote code execution if a user received specially crafted malware on an affected system running the WINS service according to the Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2011. WINS service is not enabled by default in both Windows Server 2003 and 2008 so IT admins, who have not enabled the service, have nothing to worry about. But, those who enabled WINS should apply the patch immediately to avoid any system compromises. However, thanks to the improved security of the more current Windows Server 2008, it has less risk than Windows Server 2003. Built-in protections such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) in Server 2008 will be likely to keep most attackers from a complete takeover but lack of the ASLR protection, Server 2003 are more likely to have a complete system compromise.
"The most important patch this month will be the WINS bulletin. Microsoft is downplaying the bug, but there is potential here for remote code execution,” and total control of the computer said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle. He also added "WINS is a network aware application that does not require authentication, and many enterprises require WINS on their networks. Taken together, these factors mean that a lot of enterprises will find their internal network servers vulnerable to a remote code bug. Initially, most attackers will probably only trigger a DoS (denial-of-service) event, but finding the remote code exploit won’t be far behind."

The second bulletin, MS11-036, fixes two vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a malicious PowerPoint file. The vulnerabilities can affect Office XP, Office 2003, Office, 2007, Office 2004 for Mac and Office 2008 for Mac.
Microsoft also changed its Exploitability Index, the guide it uses to provide customers information on how likely a vulnerability is of being exploited. The company will be publishing two ratings per vulnerability, one for the most recent platform and a second as an aggregate rating for all older versions of the software.

Last month, Microsoft released 17 bulletins to fix 64 vulnerabilities including nine critical-rated  and eight important-rated vulnerabilities.

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Get the most out of Mozilla Firefox

Do you think your Firefox browser do its jobs slow or you want some cool enhancements to have a better web surfing experiences? If you think so, I'll show you some tricks to improve its browsing speed a little bit. I guess it's worth trying, don't you think? Here we go!!

Firstly, before we start changing the configurations, we should backup the Firefox registry, also we called Settings. You might not know how to do it. It's quite simple you just need to follow this. If you've done with the backup, let's get started. Type in "about:config" in the address bar and hit Enter.

1. Add more suggested URLs in the address bar drop-down lists

When you start typing in the address bar, you can see a drop-down list of suggested URLs. In some cases, you might want to have more than "12" suggestion ( Default is 12). You can easily make it by typing in "browser.urlbar.maxRichResults" in the 'Filter' box. The only one value will pop up then change the value into your desired number. (If you type in "-1", it'll be disabled).

• Preference Name - browser.urlbar.maxRichResults
Default Value       - 12
Modified Value    - any desired number (-1 will disabled the feature)

2. Show/Hide Close buttons on tabs

Sometimes, you might accidentally click Close button while you're working. So, you might wonder you can hide the button. It's easy. Type in "browser.tabs.closeButtons" and edit the value into

• 0 - To show the Close button in the tab you're currently working.
• 1 - To show the Close button in all tabs.
• 2 - To hide the Close button in all tabs. 

3. Lower the Physical Memory usage during Minimizing the browser

This one is for Windows users. When you minimize, this trick will send Firefox process to your virtual memory and free up your physical memory for process to use. During minimizing the browser, about 10 MB of your physical memory will be freed and it’ll be taken back the amount it needs when maximized. The preference name for this trick does not exist so we need to create it.

Right-Click on the search result pane and select 'New' and then 'Boolean'. Type in "config.trim_on_minimize" when the 'Enter the Preference Name' box is popped up. Then, select the value "true" when the 'Enter boolean value' box appears and press OK.

• Preference Value - config.trim_on_minimize
Preference Value - true

4. Open Search Box Results in New Tab

When you use the search box on the top right corner of the browser, the search results will be displayed in the currently active tab. So, you might want the search results not to interfere with your works. You just need to do a trick. You need to change

• Preference Name - browser.search.openintab
Default Value       - falseModified Value    - true 

5. Disable the Session Restore Function

By default, Firefox automatically save your browsing sessions so that if the browser crashes, it can restore all the tabs you've opened. That seems to be a nice feature but sometimes it might find annoying. To disable it, type in "browser.sessionstore.enabed" in the Filter box and change its value from true to false.

• Preference Name - browser.sessionstore.enabled
Default Value       - trueModified Value     - false

6. Adjust the Session Restore Saving Frequency

By default, the interval of the Session Restore Saving Frequency is 10 secs, you want to keep the session restore feature but reduce the saving frequency, you can simply change the value of "browser.sessionstore.interval" to be larger to reduce the frequency or smaller to increase the frequency of session restore frequency.

• Preference Name - browser.sessionstore.interval
Default Value - 10000(in msec, equivalent to 10 secs)
Modified Value - set it to desired value (60000 means 1 minute)

7. Speed up Your Browser

This tweaks require several changes. Firstly, we're going to modify the HTTP Pipelining setting. HTTP Pipelining is the technique that multiple requests will be sent out without waiting from the corresponding responses from the server.Change the following preference setting.

1. Preference Name - network.http.pipelining
Default Value       - falseModified Value    - true
2. Preference Name - network.http.pipelining.ssl
Default Value       - false
Modified Value    - true
3. Preference Name - network.http.proxy.pipelining
Default Value       - false
Modified Value    - true
4. Preference Name - network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Default Value       - 4Modified Value    - Greater than 4 but not more than 8

Then, we're going to increase the number of simultaneous connections to the server.

1. Preference Name - network.http.max-connections
Default Value       - 30
Modified Value    - 96
2. Preference Name - network.http.max-connections-per-server
Default Value       - 15Modified Value    - 32

And, you need to create a new integer Preference entry with

• Preference Name - nglayout.initialpaint.delay
Preference Value  - 0

This will make the browser to response immediately on the information it receives without waiting for any lapse of time. Your Firefox will be faster after those tweaks.

8. Adjust Script Execution Time

In Firefox 3, the scripts are allowed to respond in 10 seconds. After 10 secs, the browser will give an unresponsive script warning. If you normally are a user of slow internet connection, you will end up receiving those warning messages so you would want to increase the script execution time. To increase the script execution time, type in "dom.max_script_run_time" at the Filter box and increase the value.

• Preference Name - dom.max_script_run_time
Default Value       - 10
Modified Value    - any value larger than 10

9. Adjust the Amount of Disk Cache

 When Firefox finish loading a page, it will also cache the page into the hard disk so that it will not need to be downloaded again if you ask for the page again. So, it's simple that the larger the cache size, the more pages it can cache. Before adjusting the cache size, we need to enable the browser disk caching option.

• Preference Name - browser.cache.disk.enable
Preference Value - true
• Preference Name - browser.cache.disk.capacity
Default Value       - 51200 (in KB)
Modified Value

1. 0 - disabling the Disk Cache
2. any value less than 51200 reduces the Disk Cache
3. any value greater than 51200 increases the Disk Cache

10. Adjust the Offline Cache

 If you usually don't get internet access most of the time, you might want to increase offline cache so that you can work offline. In Firefox 3, data from supported offline Web apps can be cache up to 500 MB. You can change the amount of cache to suit your works.

• Preference Name - browser.cache.offline.capacity
Default Value       - 512000
Modified Value    - any value greater than 512000 will increase the cache

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How to back up Firefox's Registry

This post is especially for those who like to mess with their Firefox's registry and fiddling with its settings. You can find some of those settings in the 'Option' tab but not all of them.

So you can do fiddling by typing 'about:config' in the address bar. After you pressed Enter, you'll see a warning message box. The registry of the Firefox is quite powerful yet it's too dangerous to mess with like 'Windows Registry'. That's why it makes you to read the warning message and press "I'll be carefull, I promise!". But still it's quite easy to back it up! You can do it in two methods. I'll show you both methods.

Here is the first method. You don't need to install anything.

Firstly, if you're using Firefox, exit the browser. Then, go to Start → Run (if you're using XP) or pressing Start+R(this will work, too). Type in "%appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles" and you will see a folder with the name ending the words ".default". Go inside that folder and find the file named "prefs.js" or "prefs". Then, copy that file to another location or copy to the same location and rename it like "prefs_backup.js" or "prefs_backup". One thing to remember is that you must not move or rename the original file.

Now, you've done backing up your Firefox registry. You can reopen the Firefox and start doing your fiddling. If you messed up with your current setting. You can copy the backup registry file and overwrite the mess-up file. If you copied the backup file in the same directory, you need to delete the current "prefs" file then, rename the backup file as "prefs".

In the second method, you need to install an Firefox extension called "FEBE".
The FEBE extension can backup your bookmarks, themes, preferences, passwords and everything else that Firefox offers. It gathers all the backup in one folder and it also can selectively restore the items you need. The good feature of this extension is the backing up of the add-ons   in the '.xpi' extension so you can flexibly copy and install the extensions between different computers.

So, this is it! Your Firefox settings are safe. You can start changing your setting without worrying of being messed up.

If you have other tech questions, you can send mail to kevin.phyoe90@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

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How to block websites without using any software?

You might have tried to access to blocked websites many times before. We all know that we can do that in many ways. But, how about trying to block one?

Have you ever been in the situation like you've to block access to certain websites from your computer for any reason? If you're a parent, you've already experienced that you've to block certain websites like porn sites so that your kids can't get them.

What would you do? Subscribe a parental control software?

Actually, you don't need to. It's quite simple if you do this trick.

1. Go to %windir%\system32\drivers\etc and open the file named hosts using notepador you can just open "Run" from start menu (or press WinKey + r) and then copy paste the following command and press Enter
   
   
   
   notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
   
   
2. When the host file is opened in Notepad, you will see something like this at the end of the file
   
   
   
   
3. Under "127.0.0.1 localhost", just add another website URL that you want to block
   For example,
   
   127.0.0.1 localhost
   127.0.0.2 www.yahoo.com
   127.0.0.3 www.google.com
   
   
4. Make sure that every time you add another website, the last digit of "127.0.0.X" should be different.
   
   
   
   
5. It's done! Save the file and exit. You may need to change the "read-only" attribute of the file since it's a system file.
   
   
6. Now, restart your browser. When the browser is opened, the changes will take place immediately. You test whether it's working or not by accessing one of those blocked webistes!
   
   

The great thing of this trick is you will have no message, no pop-ups if somebody tries to access those blocked websites from your computer. The browser will just fail to open those page without any error messages.

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