Print
Auto-Complete information makes it easy to fill out forms quickly and easily. Third parties can access the information saved though since the information is stored in plain text. In other words, anyone can read this information at any time if the person has direct or indirect access to your computer.
It is a good idea for security reasons to disable saving of auto-complete information, no matter how inconvenient this may be.
Click on Tools, select Internet Options and click on the Content tab. Under the AutoComplete section, click on Settings and uncheck all the checkboxes. By doing this, you ensure that no personal information is retained by the browser, making it safer.
Why have a dedicated software program when your web browser can open the file you want. With PDF Download, you can view and print a PDF right from your browser. PDF Download also has the capability to save entire web pages as a PDF.
Download PDF Download from this link. Click the Add to Internet Explorer button and install the add-on.
When you need to open a PDF file on the web, you will get a prompt asking what you want to do. Since you want to open the PDF, click on Use Plug-in. If you want to download the PDF to your hard drive, then click Download.
You can also save an entire webpage as a PDF, right click anywhere on the page and select Save Page as PDF.
Mozilla Firefox is the browser of choice for many people (including us). With its high customizability with myriad add-ons, Firefox can suit almost anyone’s needs.
You might have heard of accessing Firefox's hidden preferences using the about:config command. There are tons of tweaks you can do to make Firefox load faster, browse faster, download faster, etc. How these tweaks work depends on the speed of your computer, your technical knowledge, and your connection speed.
FireTune takes this approach one-step farther. It gives you a simple graphical interface to get the most tweaking out of Firefox without spending all day trying to comprehend what the tweak is trying to do.
You can download FireTune from the author’s homepage here.
Unzip the FireTune ZIP directory and double-click on the FireTune application file. When FireTune opens, you will be presented with the main menu. Click on Create backup of configuration. This ensures that you will be able to restore your original configuration files if something goes wrong in the optimization. When backed up properly, you will get a Backup Successful message.
You are now ready to tweak Firefox. We are going to assume that you have a Fast Computer and a Fast Connection since this is Maximum PC, so select Fast Computer / Fast Connection. The program will alert you that you should have created a backup of your configuration files, if you have already click Yes.
You will get a second prompt alerting you that you need to close Firefox or the optimizations will fail. As the program suggests, close all running instances of Firefox and then click the OK button.
Close the program if the tweaks were successful. If they failed for whatever reason, click the Restore original configuration button on the main window. After restoring, perform the appropriate tweaks again.
If you don’t normally use Java or Flash, you can use NoScript to disable these scripts from running. It is a good idea to disable these since most malware comes in from exploits of one of these services. By using this tool, you can avoid getting malware from a Java or JavaScript exploit.
Download NoScript from here. NoScript is a typical Mozilla Firefox extension so add to it Firefox like you would any other add-on and restart the browser.
Click on the NoScript button in the lower right hand corner of the browser window and select Options. Since we want to disable Java, JavaScript and Flash, we need to change some options.
On the General tab, uncheck Scripts Globally Allowed, which is dangerous. When this option is enabled, this means the program will allow any website to execute a script.
Now click on the Plugins tab and put checkmarks in the Forbid Java and Forbid Adobe Flash checkboxes. This will disable Java and Flash by default. You can always create an exception later in case you want to access Java or Flash on a particular website. Click on Ok to save the changes.
If a website doesn’t work after enabling some of these options, click on the NoScript button again and allow the scripts that you want to run. This gives you much more control over what is running on your computer, rather than letting any website run any script at any time.
Comments are closed on this article
alexamica
March 15, 2011 at 12:09pm
I have been using dll file extension for a while now and I had no problems with the , like some are saying and it helped me to improve my windows and I have installed some great programs .
waleedraza
February 09, 2011 at 10:37pm
You Can Downlaod New Version Of C Cleaner at : www.mysoft101.com Or http://www.meratvforum.com
perfectpitcher22
January 30, 2011 at 3:30pm
Thanks for all your replies regarding this speedypc issue. Everybody certainly needs a faster computer. Some users may be okay with the tips and advice on this article, but there are also others who may find it erroneous. I was not so sure if WOT is actually safe, so I am still waiting for more replies on this thread.
speeddemon21
May 13, 2009 at 12:15am
Stry8993 can find help here http://home.comcast.net/~username54321/starfield/mods.html#options_picture_13
Why A Duck
May 01, 2009 at 8:30am
When I first installed IE8, it would take 5-10 seconds to start, and then 5-10 additional seconds for each new tab. Page rendering was hella fast, but the startup delay made me mad.
Finally figured it out after much Googling. If you have let SpyBot (or similar) "immunize" IE, it adds 10,000+ sites to IE's restricted site list. IE7 was cool with that, but IE8 ... not so much. After I undid SpyBots immunization and then redid it with everything but IE's domain and resitricted domain boxes checked, IE8 worked like a champ.
I don't like having to undo SpyBot's protection, but hopefully IE's built-in SmartScreen filter (or WOT) will mitigate this risk.
Bless
April 24, 2009 at 3:43pm
Need to add, disabling the auto complete and the feed seemed to make my newly installed IE works faster,
has anyone tried and felt the same thing?
I dont want to mess around further than this since anything beyond this point is irreversible, definitely dont wanna spent another 6 hours sitting on my chair to format, install and download all the windows update, flash player & java update for my vista, huh...
Bless
April 24, 2009 at 3:25pm
I tried the IE8 tweak exactly just as decribed, and the result is quite dissapointing in my opinion.
I dont know maybe it's just me but it seemed that IE8 after the tweak is slower than IE7. I had to reformat my windows and reinstall it all over again. :(
Deborah
April 24, 2009 at 2:00am
Thank you, Josh, for recommending WOT to the readers of Maximum PC. I just wanted to clarify the statement about user ratings.
Our system is based on the assumption that not all users are equally reliable. New users are not very reliable, but over time their reliability increases and their ratings have more weight. Because of this, a previously unrated site will not be influenced by a single new user’s rating. And ratings may change over time and in some cases move to unrated again. This is because the confidence in the ratings falls below the visible threshold. You can see more on our blog about these two things at http://www.mywot.com/blog/anonymity-vs-democracy and http://www.mywot.com/blog/confidence
Safe surfing,
Deborah
Web of Trust
www.mywot.com
ericlaw
April 23, 2009 at 5:54pm
Reader beware: This article is full of terrible advice for IE users and it's not clear that the author did any real research.
1> IE8 uses 6 connections by default, not two. This has been true for over a year, and is documented on the IE team blog. Increasing the limit beyond 6 can result in SLOWER performance.
2> SmartScreen is significantly more effective than competitive anti-phishing/anti-malware solutions, and the claim that it "slows down browsing" is unfounded; URL reputation checks happen in a different thread and in parallel; they are non-blocking.
The idea that WOT is safe "because" it requires two votes is simply absurd.
3> Claiming that RSS support slows down browsing is also incorrect; RSS feeds aren't checked by the browser, they're checked by the Windows Feeds platform on a schedule. The browser does not block on synchronization.
4> Re-registering actxprxy.dll on Vista does nothing at best and is harmful at worst.
5> Disabling autocomplete is a great way to make your browser annoying and slow you down on the web. Anyone with physical or admin access to your computer can abuse you in other ways.
hackman2007
April 26, 2009 at 6:19pm
1. The two connection limit was a typo. Thanks for catching that.
2. It does slow down browsing, at least it did on my connection. WOT takes more than two users to rate a site as safe.
3. Turning off feed checking sped up my browser. Not all of the tweaks mentioned are going to have the same desired affect.
4. The tweak is not harmful. It just re-register's a dll. It doesn't delete or modify anything. As mentioned, it may not speed up your computer. The tests were done a Windows Vista and Windows 7 computer.
5. Autocomplete stores information about you in plain text format. That seems unsafe to me. To each their own I guess.
BizSAR
April 23, 2009 at 6:37pm
Can anyone at MaxPC answer to this comment? I'd like to know before I try any of these.
Thanks :)
smashingpumpin
April 23, 2009 at 4:00pm
I just downloaded the NASA night launch theme and expected Google's main page to be black just like the one in the picture. What am i doing wrong? I like dark themes coz it seems to delay the dimming effect of my dying CRT.
_______________________________________________
he's pwning with a trackpad? oh really? oh reheheheeally?
brainwins
April 23, 2009 at 1:32pm
No Script has been most of the time a big pain in the ass for me. It cripples most of the pages.
It´s probably a good idea for those "dangerous" pages one visits every once in a while. But for everyday browsing is just overkill.
Editorial_Response
April 23, 2009 at 3:49pm
Everyone with Firefox should install NoScript. It will keep your system safe from everything except a directed/targeted attack by a hacker. This is a no brainer.
Another added benefit to NoScript is that it blocks the Digg Bar! That rocks! You can keep the Digg Bar from getting in the way of everyday surfing and you will continue to see the actual URL when you surf. Otherwise you do no tknow where you are headed and what site has just been loaded in your browser.
Kulmanari
April 23, 2009 at 3:39pm
Just click on the NoScript icon in FF and set it to allow every webpage that you navigate to and you have deemed to be safe/legit and you'll never be bothered by it while it sits in the background keeping you safe. There are several websites I visit where NoScript is allowing the page to work just fine, but it has disabled code from places like "google-analytics.com" and "doubleclick.net" which are mostly for information gathering/advertisements and even though Ad-Block Plus keeps you from seeing them, the code would still be running without NoScript.
amacieli
April 23, 2009 at 8:37am
I actually don't find IE8 that much slower than FF3, to the point where there is no real advantage of FF3, except maybe for firebug. Chrome just "aw snaps" every 2 seconds, so I uninstalled that with prejudice (although it is quite fast when it deigns to work), and I'm still playing around with Opera (which seems pretty good, though not compatible with some sites (or vice versa)).
dethdeks
April 23, 2009 at 2:59am
i find that speed dial isn't as great as fast dial, i find with Firefox 3.x that speed dial seems to cause issues, id suggest using fast dial instead, it looks exactly the same but runs faster and is more customizable
link to fast dial
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5721
toohightocomply
April 23, 2009 at 1:38am
Lets keep in mind how many more bugs are in Firefox compared to IE. Plus, Microsoft is a bigger company and can delegate more resources to finding problems than Mozilla can. Mozilla even has on their website a claim about how much better Firefox is, by using a study from 2006!!! Come on. Stop the Fanboyism and stop following orders without significant thought.
roninnder
April 23, 2009 at 2:25am
I find the pure self defeating irony in your post too powerful to take in in a single reading. Take your IE8 love elsewhere MS fanboy troll. This website's patrons are firefox users exactly because we do discriminate in choice of software, substandard though ubiquitous browsers need not apply.
Bobinator2000
April 23, 2009 at 1:07am
It's the NASA Night Launch Theme: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4908
KNFrH2O
April 22, 2009 at 11:27pm
"The newest version of the once dominant Internet Explorer is a quantum leap above previous buggy versions, but remains slow."
People seem to forget that "quantum" doesn't mean huge. :D In this case, though, it still fits! Internet Explorer is horrible (in my opinion).
