Getting the Most Out of Firefox Now the Bad ... and the Workarounds Brian Livingston
Now for the Bad News — And the Workarounds
With all of Firefox's good features, it's disappointing that it's not perfect. There are several areas in which you really should take matters into your own hands, and many of these tweaks would be hard for harried IT admins to discover, including:
No Support for ActiveX or Other Microsoft-Proprietary Technologies – ActiveX and other kinds of "active Web content" that have been promoted by Microsoft are major reasons that Internet Explorer has severe security holes — at least 18 of which currently remain unpatched, according to security consulting firm Secunia. Firefox wisely doesn't allow such content to affect a PC. But this also restricts your use of some Web sites that rely on these technologies, including Windows Update. You can always run Windows Update properly from Windows' Start Menu, but before you run into other ActiveX-only sites, try installing IE View. This is a Firefox extension that allows you to right-click any page you're viewing in a Firefox window and open it instead
in an IE window.
Missing Corporate Deployment Tools – While Firefox should be fairly simple to introduce to an enterprise's end users because of its
similarity to IE, it lacks sophisticated deployment tools, such as Microsoft's IEAK (Internet Explorer Administration Kit). IT admins can finesse this using their own skills, but it's ground that the Redmond
software giant has trod for years.
Saved Passwords Aren't Encrypted By Default – Like IE and many other browsers, Firefox allows users to save the passwords that are required to log them into into various Web sites. This, of course, is a security risk if anyone else uses the same computer — but most users prefer not having to type in their passwords every time, so it's likely that this feature will remain popular. Unfortunately, if this feature is on, Firefox
doesn't automatically encrypt the saved-password file. A workaround is available by clicking Tools, Options, Privacy, and Set Master Password, although most users are unlikely to ever find that setting. Once this is set, you'll have to type the master password each time before Firefox will auto-log you into password-protected sites. Still, this does protect the PC against other users and is a lot easier than having to remember the passwords to dozens of sites.
Display Size Preference Isn't Saved – Firefox displays the size of text on Web sites following Internet standards, and it's easy to use the View, Text Size menu to make the text of any site as large or as small as you wish. Inexplicably, however, Firefox doesn't save your preferred text size. To make your preference stick, you'll need to install another downloadable extension, TextZoom. (As of this writing, TextZoom works only with beta versions of Firefox, but a version that will work with Firefox 1.0 Gold
is expected shortly.)
No Automatic Adjustment of Print Size – In IE, increasing the size of a Web page on the screen also increases the size of the page's text when you print it out — great for those with failing vision. Firefox, however, prints every page at the same magnification, no matter how large you make the type on your screen. To adjust the text size on the printout, you'll need to use the File, Page Setup dialog box. Or you can click File, Print Preview, and use the Scale widget to adjust the printed text size in real time until you're happy.
Roll Your Own Calibration. – Speaking of Print Preview, Firefox's preview function seems to get confused if Windows users configure their screens to anything other than Small Fonts. With all the high-resolution monitors companies are buying these days, many people have set their Display Properties to Large Fonts (120 dots per inch) or even higher levels of magnification. To correct for this, click Tools, Options, General, and then click the Fonts & Colors button (I kid you not). In the Display Resolution box, select Other, then tweak the little ruler that appears until you've set Firefox to 120 dpi or whatever.
No "Save as Single File" – IE gained the ability some time ago to save Web pages in a standardized file format, known as an MHT file
(MIME HTML), rather than as a collection of code and images in separate files. To do the same thing with Firefox, you'll need to install MAF (Mozilla Archive Format). This extension saves Web pages in the open-source .MAFF format, but can also read and write .MHT files, which IE users can open.
Keyboard Shortcuts – Many of Firefox's features are available using keybord shortcuts, but these shortcuts are often different that the ones used by Internet Explorer (when IE even offers the same feature). Fortunately, there's a handy chart that shows all the shortcuts for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux users.
If you need workarounds other than the ones I've described above, look in the Firefox extension list, which includes scores of add-ons.
Conclusion
Despite the small quirks involved with adjusting to Firefox, I wouldn't do without it now. Just the peace of mind I get — knowing that my
co-workers and I can't catch a virus from some devious Web site that's exploiting an obscure, unpatched vulnerability in IE — is more than
worth any minor hassles.
I think you'll like the peace of mind, too. Try Firefox and roll it out to your Windows users, if you haven't already.
I'd like to thank Josh Freedman for his help in researching the password-encryption portion of this article. Freedman will receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of his choice for being the first to send me a tip that I printed.
Brian Livingston is the editor of
WindowsSecrets.com and
the co-author of "Windows Me Secrets" and nine other books. Send
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contact page.
