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Firefox memory leak fix

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Name: IronMan
Date: December 3, 2004 at 06:23:54 Pacific
OS: XP Pro
CPU/Ram: P4 512MB
Comment:


Published in today's newsletter by Mike Livingston, a way to fix a memory leak and speed up Firefox.
_________________________________

Fix a memory leak in Firefox 1.0

By Mike Livingston

Firefox is supposed to dynamically release memory from its RAM cache to other Windows applications as needed. Unfortunately, Firefox 1.0 seems to consume more memory than it should, which hurts performance, when set to the default of 51200 KB (51 MB).

To solve this, Firefox power users recommend limiting the memory cache using the Configuration Console. This frees up memory for other apps, speeding up everything to a greater or a lesser extent, depending on your machine and the applications you run. Here's how the trick works:

Step 1. Type about:config into Firefox's Address Bar and press Enter.

Step 2. Right-click any row, then click New, Integer. Type or paste the following preference name into the dialog box that appears (this is a hidden preference that doesn't exist in the Configuration Console until you create it):

browser.cache.memory.capacity

Step 3. Click OK, then enter the following integer number into the next dialog box, representing 16 MB of RAM for the cache:

16000

Step 4. Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart it.



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Response Number 1
Name: Jude Walker
Date: December 3, 2004 at 10:17:08 Pacific
Reply:

Thanks IronMan. Would this slowdown affect web pages opening? It has seemed to me that some pages were loading more slowly since I've been using Firefox. I will try your fix when I get home tonightand see if that makes a difference.

tenacity, patience, and perseverance because…... I AM THE HUMAN


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Response Number 2
Name: Wombat
Date: December 3, 2004 at 11:08:44 Pacific
Reply:

Thanks IronMan, it works. That has given me a bit of practise editing about:config...

Ignis vulpes impero


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Response Number 3
Name: GregS
Date: December 3, 2004 at 18:21:22 Pacific
Reply:

"(this is a hidden preference that doesn't exist in the Configuration Console until you create it):

browser.cache.memory.capacity"

That entry is already in my about:config and has 65536 for an entry. Should it be 16000?


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