8. Geek Out Firefox
Firefox is our
PC Magazine Editors'
Choice Web browser for good reason. It's fast,
friendly, and infinitely configurable. Sure, you
could go your whole life using Firefox and never
change a thing, but once you install a few key
extensions, you'll wonder how you ever lived
with Internet Explorer or how Google's Chrome
will ever measure up.
Here are some
key add-ons worth trying (in the Firefox menu
bar, go to Tools, then
Add-ons, and search for
them in the Get Add-ons
tab):
|
• Cooliris: Turns browsing into a
full-screen 3D experience.
• DownThemAll!: Download manager
handles multiple downloads at once.
• FireFTP: If you need an FTP
client, get one that stays within
Firefox.
• Foxmarks: If you use multiple PCs,
you can synchronize the bookmarks on
each one.
• Greasemonkey: Using scripts from
UserScripts.org, it can change the
look and feel of almost any site.
• IE Tab: If you absolutely must
view a site in Internet Explorer, do
it within a Firefox tab.
• ScribeFire: If you blog,
ScribeFire makes it easier.
• Tab Mix Plus: Take complete
control of the tabs in Firefox.
• Update Notifier: Never let your
Firefox extensions go un-updated
again. |
If you used
Firefox on your old computer, you probably want
the same settings, bookmarks, and extensions.
Back up the old Firefox using freeware MozBackup
(mozbackup.jasnapaka.com),
save the file to your new PC, and use MozBackup
to restore. It also works with Thunderbird to
back up e-mail.
You have your
own list of favorite utilities, but we recommend
installing these programs no matter what browser
you use: QuickTime, Adobe Flash, Microsoft
Silverlight, Windows Media Player, and a PDF
reader (try the free Foxit Reader from
www.foxitsoftware.com;
it's faster and smaller than Adobe Reade
