How to reduce firefox's memory (RAM) consumption and speed up firefox ?

Increase firefox speed and decrease firefox memory consumption. The ultimate guide to speeding up firefox.

Note : This expriment I have tested with Firefox 5. I have not updated my firefox because of addons compatibility. If you need to use wide range of addons (i.e older addons) you should download and install the older firefox Or you can install Aurora.

Now if you want to speed up firefox and reduce its memory consumption then you can follow these methods.

Number One : Install 'Memory Fox' addon. Its a addon which will manage firefox's memory by running an external file ,named - 'afom.exe'. This addon can also be used to reduce other application's memory consumption.

Here's the down link : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-fox/

'Memory Fox' - Tool. Form here you can enable/disable this Addon.

'Memory Fox' is running - See the memory Consumption.

Number Two : This method is little bit tricky and I'm sure no one is using it. But its the best.

The main reason of Firefox's high memory consumption is using a huge number of add-ons.

I personally use lots of addons. If you wanna know which addons Im using, then check this page : http://curious-apprentice.blogspot.com/2011/08/p-003.html

Now, to reduce memory consumption and speed up firefox what I'm doing is using different 'firefox profiles'. Firefox profiles are the main containers which contains personal settings like your preferred home page, download folder settings etc and your installed add-ons.

Addons which you install are generally stored in a folder like :

C:\Users\Your user name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Here is a screen-shot of my Firefox profiles :

I'm using this profile mechanism to distribute the load of addons in different profiles. What I meant to say is, I did not install all the addons in a single profile rather I have installed addons in two different profiles. Now I just switch profiles and uses them as I need.

By default profile switching is not supported in firefox, as in 'Sea Monkey(its a browser of mozilla like firefox)'. For this you have to install an another addon called -'ProfileSwitch'

Here's the link : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/profileswitcher

Note : Though it says this addon is for Thunderbird but it can also work just fine for firefox. I'm using it and here's a screen-shot which demonstrates how it gonna look after you install it :

After installing this addon, open its options. You need to to change its default behaviour . To do so - Select the radio button corresponding to 'Close always the current profile.'

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Now open a new Tab. Click on File menu. Now you will see a new menu item ' Open Profile Manager' under 'File' menu. Open it in 'normal-mode'. A dialouge will be opened stating ' Firefox-Choose User Profile'

Form this dialouge you can Create new profiles and switch between them.

Note : You have to install addons seperately for every profile you create. Addons installed in one profile does not appear in other. You can create hundreds of pofiles and switch between them, but you can't use addons installed in one profile in another.

Caution : While switching the profile for the first time 'Uncheck' the check box stating 'Don't ask at srartup' in the 'Choose User Profile' dialogue.

Warning : Don't delete the 'default' profile. I don't know its consequences.

'Switching Profiles' means switching the 'addons collection' you have installed in that profile. As I have installed my majority of Addons on the 'Default' profile so it takes a lots of RAM and CPU to run whereas only selected on 'Soham'.So, it takes lesser memory and Runs very fast.