How-To Geek
Tweak Firefox’s "Responsiveness" Config Setting
Have you ever noticed that sometimes Firefox isn’t very responsive while loading a page? As a frequent StumbleUpon user, this behavior grates on my nerves so I went looking for a solution.
When Firefox is loading a page it uses one of two modes: There’s a high priority mode that doesn’t pay as much attention to your mouse and keyboard, but loads the page faster. There’s also a lower priority mode that interrupts the parser more often to respond to input events. It’s even documented at Mozillazine.
What we can do is tweak the amount of time before Firefox switches from lower priority mode back into high priority mode.
Type about:config into the Firefox address bar, and then filter by the following:
content.switch.threshold
Most likely the key doesn’t exist yet, so you’ll have to set it by right-clicking in the empty area and selecting New \ Integer. Use these values when prompted:
- Key Name: content.switch.threshold
- Key Value: 1000000
The default value is 750000, or 3/4 of a second. The more time that you tell Firefox to wait before resuming high priority mode, the more responsive the application will feel… but it will obviously take a little longer to load the pages. You could reverse this if you were more worried about speeding up page load time.
Note that this setting only works if you haven’t changed content.interrupt.parsing to false.
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Comments (19)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 01/22/08
Sweet! Just entered the settings, and wow! What a difference it makes. My browser is no longer freezing. Great tip! Thanks Geek!
Hi,
neither content.switch.threshold nor content.interrupt.parsing are showing in my config!!!! how can i find them or do this thing?
Am using FF 3b2
Thx
Hmm. I don’t have that entry in my about:config? Any idea why?
The key is not created by default, you will have to create it using the instructions above.
Duh. Maybe I should read the whole thing next time. Sorry guys. Great job!
Wow that is fantastic, speeds up Firefox more than I thought!
What a great site I am browsing here more often !!!
good to know info Please keep it up; any place where I can do a donation?
@Guru
No need to donate, we provide you information for free. If you feel you need to give back, then share the article or the site with your friends =)
i try to figure out why my browser is so slow, and this article really helps alot.. my browser now is doing great. thanks sir.
I’m stumbling it :) !
This is the version of firfox that I am using and it does not work.
Firefox/2.0.0.14
Also is there a way to get rid of the page that says I have been updated to the new version of foirFox?
I played around with the numbers to see if i prefered to tweak the number higher or lower. I have it set to just 100000 (one hundred thousand for those of you counting the zeros) and WOW is it ever faster!
Great find!
I did something stupid and added a new key name 750000. Is there a way to delete keynames?
I would like to load stumble in Firefox browser. Reloaded Firefox and stumbleupon numerous times.
Most current versions.
Need your help —Please
Thanks Ed
If I have a supercomputer, should I set content.switch.threshold into high priority mode to load more quickly the page?
thank u all..
now i can smile using my firefox
thanks a lot
I changed this setting before in an older browser but had forgotten about it. It really does improve download performance when it is set to a lower value.
This setting is so important Firefox should allow users to change it without having to go into “about:config.” (how many average users even know “about:config”?) Firefox should notify users of the default value and what happens when the value is increased or decreased and let users determine what’s best.
are there more tweaks? i tweaked once and had to reset. would appreciate having all the tweaks. thanks