Firefox

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Firefox

Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/) is an open source browser. It's steadily growing in popularity as an alternative to Internet Explorer. The benefits of using Firefox over IE are many, but what they all come down to is with Firefox you have a lot of freedom to customize your browser so that it acts like you want it to act.

1. Go to Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/) and download it. It's a big program, so it might take a bit of time, if you have a slow connection. You will also have to have administrative access to your computer.
2. Add more buttons to your Browser Toolbar;
   • Click on "View" in the Command Menu, choose "Toolbars" then "Customize."
   • Add the "New Tab" icon and the "Print" icon by dragging and dropping them into the toolbar.
3. Modify your browser theme - In your browser, go to Tools, then Add-Ons.
   • There are two kinds of Add-Ons, Themes and Extensions. Start with Themes.
   • Browse the different themes and choose a look that fits your personality. Don't worry, you can always go back and change it.
   • You will have to restart your Firefox browser to see the new theme you've chosen.
4. Check out some Extensions. Read about each one, and what it does. Add ones that you like. New extensions won't go into effect until you restart your Firefox browser.
   • Adblock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) - Blocks ads of all kinds from sites that you view. To get rid of an ad that you're looking at, right click on it and select "Adblock this image."
   • Flashblock (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433) - Automatically blocks all flash animation and replaces the box with a "play" button. If you want to watch the flash, click the "play" button and there you go.
   • Tab Mix Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1122) - Adds some extra capabilities with tabs.
   • IE View Lite (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1429) - Some sites only behave properly in Internet Explorer. You can right click on a page and there will be an option in the right click menu to "View This Page In IE." If there are pages you visit regularly that you know only open properly in IE, you can add them to a list, and when you go to those pages they will automatically open in IE.

Things To Do

1. Create a folder for places you go often. Right click on the task bar below the buttons, select "New Folder" and name the folder something like "Favorites." Go to each page that you open all the time, and drag and drop the URL into the folder. To drag and drop a URL, click and hold down on the icon at the front of the address bar, then drag the URL to your folder.
2. Open your folder In Tabs: Click on the folder, select Open In Tabs, and watch the magic!
3. There is a search box on your browser, probably set to 'Google.' Click on the down arrow next to the box - there are many different search engines that you can select. At the bottom, there is a link to get more search engines - try this out, and add more search engines that you might use.

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