Excerpts from what I wrote for myself about Firefox:
* Start Menu > Run... >
firefox.exe -profilemanager > OK
Create Profile... > Next > Enter new profile name & Choose Folder location > Finish >
make sure the newly created profile name is selected > Start Firefox.
Repeat procedure for the other operating system, selecting the same profile name folder location.
If you've already set everything up but would like to move the existing setup to this new folder for easier backup, simply copy contents of your profile folder found in
Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\
Windows 2000/XP: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\
Windows 9x/Me: C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<Profile name>\
Windows 9x/Me: C:\Windows\Profiles\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\
Windows NT 4.x: C:\Winnt\Profiles\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\
Unix: ~/.mozilla/firefox/<Profile name>/
Mac OS X: ~/Library/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/<Profile name>/
Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/<Profile name>/
-------------------------------------
Start Firefox and type
about:config
into the address bar and press return.
Scroll down to
browser.download.manager.showAlertOnComplete
double click on it and set its value to false.
so that you don't get an extra pop-up window *every time, every file* is downloaded.
Scroll down to
keyword.URL
double click on it and change its value to
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=
so that the address bar can double as a google search bar
Then create a new entry by right clicking on an empty space > New > Integer > name it network.http.phishy-userpass-length
> OK > give it a value of 255 > OK
otherwise the phishing safeguard will disaply a message *every time* you click on a link of the type:
http://username:password@www...
The message will read: "You are about to log into the site "www...." with the username "...", but the website does not require authentication. This may be an attempt to trick you. Is "www..." the site you want to visit?"
-------------------------------------
* Open FTP links (only) with Internet Explorer since Firefox can't copy-paste into FTP pages without add-ons:
Start Menu > Run... > regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ftp\shell\open\command
Double click on Default > Value Data:
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe "%1"
-------------------------------------
Firefox allows you to prevent URLs from being saved in the pull-down menu for the Location Bar. This restriction helps protect user privacy and prevent users from "stumbling" into sites that other users had previously viewed. Simply set HISTORY.DAT (which is where your default profile is) to read only. This also disables history of visited pages.
-------------------------------------
To Make Webdings and Wingdings symbol fonts available, open this file with Notepad:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\res\fonts\fontEncoding.properties
and add the following under # Symbol font
encoding.symbol.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.wingdings.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.wingdings2.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.wingdings3.ttf = windows-1252
encoding.webdings.ttf = windows-1252
-------------------------------------
'Bookmarks Toolbar Folder' can't be deleted but you can set any folder you don't wish to delete as the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder:
Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > Select any other folder in your Bookmarks >
Edit > Set as Bookmarks Toolbar Folder
Now you can delete the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder.
-------------------------------------