How to optimise memory in Firefox

[johnny.rotton]

Firefox can use a lot of memory if you have lots of tabs open and this can make other programs slow.

Minimising Firefox won’t make any difference because it is written to hang on to the memory, unlike other software, which will offer it back to the pot. This can be changed in the Firefox Config page.

Open a new tab, type about:config and press Enter. Click on the ‘I’ll be careful, I promise’ button. Right-click in the main windows, left-click on New and then on Boolean. Type config.trim_on_minimize (note American spelling) and click on OK.

Select True and then click on OK again. Close the tab and restart Firefox to apply the change. To reverse the change open the about:config page again, find the config.trim_on_minimize option and double-click on it to change the value to false. Restart Firefox.

Source. Home PC advice in plain English - Computeractive

[HappyAndyK]

Hey, this was new to me. Thanks a ton. Effected the changes. Lets hope they work

[seti]

Nice find JR thanks

[nitinagarwal1988]

Nice find JR. also new to me...I won't use FF much but will try it....

[leofelix]

Excellent tip J.R
thank you
it is exactly what I was looking for

[joalwil1]

Thank u speed up my firefox

[MrMBerman]

Cheers

[Jal]

This seems to be a nice tut but I'm afraid it hardly works. I implemented this a few days ago (and also wrote a blogpost out of excitement) but it does not lower down the memory usage on Windows 7 64bit with Firefox 3.5.3.

However, on Windows 7 x86 with FF 3.5.3, it lowered down the mem usage by 20 MBs but tht's not so significant when the mem usage hovers at 290-300 MBs. I don't know how this trick manifests itself in Linux and Mac but thanks for the trick anyway.