By default, Firefox automatically checks for updates for the web browser, installed add-ons and extensions. Further, it automatically downloads and installs the updates whenever a new version or a new update is detected. Then it requests users to restart Firefox so that the updates may take effect.

This automatic detection and installation of updates or upgrades slows down FireFox start-up and also may sometimes irritate the user by asking to quit FireFox and restart it.

This default behaviour of automatic detection and installation of updates and upgrades can be removed by following these steps:

1. Start Firefox web browser

2. Select ‘Options’ from the ‘Tools’ menu

3. Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab

4. Click on ‘Update’ sub-tab

5. Under the “Automatically check for updates to:” section, unselect the components for which you do not want the Firefox web browser to search for updates. If you do want Firefox to look for no updates you should unselect all the three options here.

6. Click OK.

I have previously mentioned about many FireFox add-ons which simplify your web experience or customize the look and feel of your FireFox web browser. However today, I have found something with more gravity. Browse for A Cause is a FireFox add-on that donates to charity for your regular use of web.

You may have a question that how you can contribute to a charity just by using web. Well, I too wasn’t able to understand that first but after going through their FAQs, I got it pretty clearly. A number of online shopping merchants like Amazon.com, etc. have affiliate programs which return a percentage (usually 3-5%) of sales to partners. The Browse for A Cause browser add-on tracks the affiliate revenue generated and allows them to donate the generated revenue to the charity of your choice.

We often shop at Amazon or other online stores. So why not install this add-on and support a cause?

Install Browse for A Cause FireFox add-on

I am a FireFox fan and I have mentioned it countless number of times. The most important reason which binds me to this web browser is the productivity through its add-ons. There are a whole lot of useful add-ons which can make your web browsing way more productive when combined with FireFox. KwiClick is another FireFox add-on which tops the list of FireFox productivity extensions.

KwiClick, in short, is a one stop destination for ‘everything web’. And the reason why I say so is quite obvious. You get to search Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, FriendFeed, Flickr, Google Maps and your favourites from one spot. This add-on simplifies web surfing and makes information finding process simple by providing you various search options.

Another very interesting thing about this app is its compactness and availability. Such a powerful add-on occupies less than a single MB of memory and is available on all OS – Windows, Mac and Linux.

Once downloaded, a KwiClick icons sits in FireFox toolbar and can be accessed by clicking the blue icon. Once clicked on the icon, a small frame appears quickly at the bottom right of your FireFox window and provides option to conduct search using eight different web sources.

Another remarking feature of the add-on is it’s ‘on-page search options’ for highlighted text. It means when you highlight a piece of text on a webpage, it provides you an option to search for the highlighted term on Google, Twitter, Wikipedia and Google Maps. This comes in very handy when trying to find location of an address on a map.

Try KwiClick | Add KwiClick to your FireFox browser

FireFox Tabs is a great feature that enhances user’s browsing experience. It lets you browse multiple webpages in the same browser window without the need to open multiple browser windows at the same time. Probably, this was an important feature that forced me to migrate from IE6 to FireFox. If you are a tabbed web-browsing lover (as I am), here is a nice and handy add-on for you.

Tabberwocky is a useful add-on for FireFox users which allows you to have more controls over your web browser tabs. It is lightweight extension and offers various options to control the tab feature. You can set the tab behaviour, modify the size of the tab to their preferred width, choose to show a progress bar on each tab instead of in the status bar, set tab clicking options, protect tab, lock tab, have multiple rows of tab, etc. using this Tabberwocky add-on.

Tabberwocky add-on is just of 25kB in size and is compatible with FireFox 3.5 and above.

Add Tabberwocky to FireFox

FaceBook is the most trafficked social community website. People widely use FaceBook Chat for chatting with their friends and family. A basic feature that FaceBook chat lacks is that it does not include ability to save chat history. The biggest drawback of this exclusion is that you need to do nice brainstorming to figure out over what point you and your friend were discussing the last time. To simplify things, here is a cool FireFox extension called Facebook Chat History Manager.

Facebook Chat History Manager is a simple yet really handy FireFox extension for avid users of FaceBook Chat functionality. The extension stores all the FaceBook conversations locally in FireFox so that you may not lose time brainstorming the topic you were last discussing on. The good thing here is that the conversion vault is protected by a password so that only persons you allow can see your chat history.

Once you have installed the Facebook Chat History Manager extension. Just go to the following URL – http://apps.facebook.com/firechm/ and click the “Allow” button. Now go to Tools -> Facebook Chat History Manager ->Create account in your FireFox and create an account.

Now the next time you want to see your chat conversions from the archives, just visit this page (for online viewing) or press Ctrl+Alt+F and enter username and password (for offline viewing).

Add Facebook Chat History Manager extension to your FireFox

Won’t it be cool to customize your favourite web-browser specifically for you? It will be for sure. It is really a good idea to create a custom version of FireFox or Thunderbird web browser specifically for you. A simple add-on can do this task as easily as it could have been.

Named as Rebrand, it is a FireFox add-on that lets you customize your FireFox version by allowing you to change brand name, customize logo, change logo and icons, etc.

Besides adding fun, this add-on works great if you are owner of a company or an IT firm and wants to distribute open source softwares so as to publicize your company.

Add Rebrand 1.0 FireFox add-on to your web browser

If you are one of those FireFox users who expend most of their shopping time online, here is a FireFox add-on to help you save money. Named as Invisible Hand, it helps you shop in a smarter way by showing a discrete notification when a better price is available on a product you are browsing to buy.

Invisible Hand FireFox add-on works in the background and does not interfere anywhere in your web-browsing. When you reach a product page, then it shows you notification if the same product is available at cheaper rates on other webstores.

Invisible Hand monitors websites such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, NewEgg, etc. for finding better deals. As of now, it covers over 50 retailers in US and UK with more webstores to be added in future.

Add Invisible Hand 1.7.1 extension to FireFox

About:Me is a utile FireFox add-on that lets you analyze your web browsing activities like never before. It is a simple FireFox extension that allows you to easily figure out how much of your time has been spent on web-browsing activities. Besides just enumerating the number of hours spent, it also renders other details such as most visited sites, hourly browsing activities, download stats and daily download trends.

The FireFox add-on can be downloaded from the Mozilla Addons website. Once downloaded and installed, you just need to type “about:me” (without quotes) in a new tab of your address bar and hit enter. As soon as you hit enter, your web browsing statistic will show up. The web browsing history is essentially shown into two categories – activity stats and downloads stats. The ‘activity stats’ shows most visited sites and your hourly browsing activities. The ‘download stats’ summarizes the total number of downloads in a day and also keeps record of the number and types of files downloaded.

Interested users can download this cool and handy FireFox add-on here.

Grishilde H. Johansen from Mikladalur, Denmark asked:

I do not use any extra software for managing downloads. I often download files using FireFox. Most of the download manager application provides an option for shutting down computer when download completes. Can it be achieved by using FireFox?

Aditya from TechRavings.info answers:

You probably wanted to ask if the computer can be shutdown automatically when a download in FireFox completes. To answer this, yes you can get it done. A simple FireFox add-on called Auto Shutdown can do this for you the right way.

You can get a free download of this add-on from the Addons center of Mozilla.The extension sits on the top of default download manager for FireFox and allows you to shut down your pc in many ways – one being after the download completes.

Features of Auto Shutdown FireFox extension:

1. Works with rang of operating system from Windows XP to IMB OS2 and Mac.
2. Customize after how much duration you would like to shut down machine.
3. Comes along with a Power Saving Mode to run a customized script.
4. Allows to save Firefox Session and Force Firefox shutdown.
5. For advanced users you can customize shutdown with little of shell scripting with predefined commands available.
6. Save commands with user friendly name.

Download Auto Shutdown for FireFox here.

ScreenGrab is a FireFox add-on that allows you to capture screenshots of your FireFox window. This means that you no longer need to use any extra software for capturing your web browser screenshot, if your web browser is FireFox.

For using ScreenGrab, you first need to download and add the add-on to your FireFox browser. Once installed, ScreenGrab can be accessed in bottom right of your FireFox window. Clicking on the ScreenGrab icon will give you two options – to save the screenshot to your hard disk or to copy the screenshot. On choosing one of the two, you will be further presented with four options – Complete Page/Frame, Visible portion, Selection or the entire Window. Select the appropriate option and there you are done.

The captured screenshots can be saved in either JPG or PNG format.

Add ScreenGrab to Your FireFox Web Browser