The Apheus Blog

For whatever reason, the fine people at Firefox have decided to remove the “Properties” menu item from the right-click menu of their latest version 3.6. Maybe I use the Properties menu a little more than the average person, but I just had to have this feature back

The Properties menu gives you access to all kinds of important details about various elements on a webpage. For example, if you right click on image and choose “Properties” you can view the ALT text of the image, its file location, image dimensions, and more.

As a web designer, I use the Properties menu quite frequently to examine various webpage elements. Fortunately, somebody came up with a handy add-on that puts the Properties menu back in the right-click menu.

If you’re like me, then you use social networking websites to keep in touch with your friends and family. My favorite is Facebook – that was until recently. For some reason, whenever someone started to chat with me, the browser window would “steal focus.” Well, even though I enjoy chatting with people, I want to do it my terms – meaning I’ll look at the chat window when I get a chance – not when Facebook wants me to. I experienced this problem many times while running Firefox and today, enough was enough! I started looking into the problem and discovered that I was not the only one who had experienced this problem. Fortunately, someone else had already come up with the answer – turn off the Facebook chat sound – a simple, yet effective solution. Here’s how you do it:

1. Log into Facebook.
2. Go to any page on Facebook and find the chat menu in the lower right-hand corner.
3. Open the chat menu and find the Options button.
4. Click on the Options button and uncheck the box “Play sound for new messages.”

While I prefer to have the sound enabled in Facebook chat, the stolen focus problem was just too much to bear any longer. Hopefully, Firefox or Facebook will fix the problem in the near future, but until then, this workaround is the way to go!

Check out the YouTube video I made about this subject:

There is a small feature in the new Firefox 3 called the smart location bar, but some users may find it annoying if you’re used to previous versions of Firefox. This article will describe how to disable the smart location bar in such a way that makes Firefox 3 perform similar to Firefox 2. But, be warned that this procedure should only be done if you’re comfortable making changes to your browser configuration files.

How to Find Your Browser Config Files

In order to make the changes necessary to alter your smart location bar, you need to access your Firefox browser config files. You can change your Firefox browser’s configuration files by typing about:config in the location bar.

After you hit the enter key, a warning screen will appear that tells you that “This might void your warranty!” If you really want to continue, click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button. If you never want to see this warning again, uncheck the “Show this warning next time”.

After you make the necessary changes to your browser config files (as described below), close down Firefox and restart the program to see the results of your changes. You do not need to restart your computer when making changes to the browser config file.

Stop Bookmarks From Showing Up in the Smart Location Bar

In order to remove the bookmarks from the smart location bar in Firefox, you need to change one line in your browser config file. Scroll down through the config settings until you find the “browser.urlbar.matchOnlytyped” entry or type browser.urlbar.matchOnlytyped in the filter bar. Double-click the line to change the value to true.

Completely Disable the Autocomplete List in the Smart Location Bar

If you don’t like anything to show up when you’re typing URL’s into the location bar, you can completely disable the autocomplete list in Firefox 3. Scroll down through the config settings in the Firefox browser preferences until you find the “browser.urlbar.maxRichResults” entry or type browser.urlbar.maxRichResults into the filter bar. Double-click the line to bring up an “Enter integer value” box and change the value from 12 to -1. Hit the “OK” button and you’re done.

Change Your Settings Back to Normal

If you ever want to change your configuration settings back to the original settings, just reverse the instructions above and you’ll be back to normal.

AVG 8 was recently released and it contains a lot of neat features that many users will find useful. One of those features is AVG AntiVirus Safe Search. This add-on for Firefox is inteded to help users safely stay away from websites that have been identified as potentially harmful. Unfortunately, some users may find the Safe Search feature annoying when using search engine websites such as Google or Yahoo. Some people have complained that AVG Safe Search causes Firefox to crash or perform slowly.

I tested AVG Safe Search on two different computer systems running Windows XP connected to a broadband internet connection. I had no problems except for a slight delay when loading the pages in Google and Yahoo as the AVG Safe Search examined the links on the search results pages. In the end, I decided to disable AVG Safe Search after the test period was over. This article will describe how to disable AVG Safe Search in Mozilla Firefox 2.0.

AVG and Firefox Software Versions

When describing this article, we’ll be using AVG AntiVirus 8.0 and Firefox 2.0 on PC running Windows XP. The steps should be very similar regardless of which software versions you have installed. AVG AntiVirus and Firefox are both available as free downloads by visiting the links on our downloads page.

How to Disable AVG Safe Search in Firefox

1. Open a Firebox browser window by double-clicking the Firefox icon on your desktop or by selecting Firefox from the Windows Start Menu:
2. Start > Programs > Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox
3. Find the “Tools” menu at the top of the browser window and select “Add-ons”.
4. Click on the “Extensions” icon to make sure you’re in the correct option menu.
5. Locate “AVG Safe Search” and click on the containing line to highlight and select the add-on.
6. Click the “Disable” button and close the Add-ons window.
7. Close down any Firefox windows you may have open.
8. That’s It – You’re Done!

After you restart Firefox, you should notice that the AVG Safe Search icons have now disappeared from your links in Google and Yahoo.