Firefox Setup Guide 2021

This is what I get for using Firefox Nightly.

Recently I have had a moment where due to some update of Firefox 89, things broke and were not compatible with the extensions that I have on. Now I understand that Firefox is, for lack of a better term, byzentine web browser when it comes to setting up things for having a very secure browser (it’s this or de-Googled Chromium with its own set of extensions).

There is no real reason to use Firefox nightly unless you are of the following types of people:

  1. You’re a programmer that is contributing upstream to the Firefox browser project
  2. You are a tester that would like ti give input to programmers and other testers of the bugs.
  3. You’re a software enthusiast that loves to use the most cutting edge software technology
  4. You’re completely insane.

This guide is for all versions of Firefox so don’t worry about any incompatibility issues but understand that Nightly, Beta, and even Developer Edition builds are not as stable as Firefox’s stable releases. Also keep in mind some updates that go to the stable may sometimes make or break some extensions so sometimes updating to a beta build or nightly build helps because the updates are corrected so there are no more incompatibilties that sometimes takes months for it to get addressed in the stable versions.

1. Download the .EXE

Get yourself a copy of the Firefox installer, again no versions matters just go with whatever you wish to go with, and go through either the “Express” or “Custom” installation with the prompts that follow subsequently.

Why not get the .MSI? Typically MSI (Microsoft Installer) usually has automatic installation program to where Mozilla sets it to install on the c:\ drive but that’s not usually the case. But to stay on the safe side, I’d just make sure that it’s the .EXE installer and not the .MSI installer.

Note: if the MSI isntaller does actually allow for a “Custom” installment option, then go for the MSI then.

Click here to Download Firefox

2. Harden The Installation and Configure

Based on the guide provide by Privacy Tools, it is important to do the following configuration for your installment of Firefox because Firefox is a long way off from being the mere Netscape Navigator fork that it once was - it’s got a lot of features and components built into it that have to be taken into consideration that may leak personal information that you may not be so keen on wanting to be leaked out. It can also eat up bandwidth because of things like sending metrics of usage or particular analytical meta-data about you to other websites and services of third-parties.

Remember, it’s not just the government but corporations that are more interested in you nore more than ever so it’s important to not just install secure browser out-of-the-box, but also make sure to harden it after installation as much as you can.

2.1 Things to Harden

The things to do to harden your build can be consuled with Privacy Tool’s Firefox Configuration Guide But for the sake of convenience I’ll just list out the things to look for and type on the fields once you access Firefox’s about:config pages within the browser itself.

If you want a quick explanation of what the about:config pages are - these are the under-the-hood preferences and specific options of the operation of the Firefox browser. By default you can adjust these on the Preferences menu but for the more specific options of operation, about:config is where you want to change up things. Keep in mind the options are powerful in their changes so it is important to keep in mind to do this slowly and carefully.

No. Config Name Default Value New Value
1. privacy.firstparty.isolate true true
2. privacy.resistFingerprinting true true
3. privacy.trackingprotection.fingerprinting.enabled true true
4. privacy.trackingprotection.cryptomining.enabled true true
5. privacy.trackingprotection.enabled false true
6. browser.send_pings true false
7. browser.urlbar.speculativeConnect.enabled true false
8. dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled true false
9. media.eme.enabled true false
10. media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled true false
11. media.navigator.enabled true false
12. network.cookie.cookieBehavior 0 1
13. network.http.refer.XOriginPolicy 0 2
14. network.http.referer.XOriginTrimmingPolicy 0 2
15. webgl.disabled false true
16. browser.sessionstore.prviacy_level 0 2
17. beacon.enabled true false
18. browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.enabled true false
19. network.dns.disablePrefetch false true
20. network.dns.disablePrefetchFromHTTPS false true
21. network.predictor.enabled true false
22. network.predictor.enable-prefetch true false
23. network.prefetch-next true false
24. network.IDN_show_punycode true false

There is tools that are available on privacytools.io that you can check out to even further harden your installation of Firefox but for now, this should be enough for you to get started.

2.2 The Extensions

There is a plethora of extensions that you can install on Firefox but the first things you should always look for in the initial extensions are extensions that will provide the further security and ease of web surfing in not just the most popular websites but also int he regular websites that you often times go to that are not very popular around the web at the moment.

This list is not set in stone - you don’t have to install every single one, this is all just a configuration that I have set for myself for pure overkill and fidgeting around.

No. Extension Name
1. UblockOrigin12
2. UMatrix1
3. NoScript1
4. HTTPS Everywhere1
5. Privacy Badger
6. Decentraleyes1
7. Tree Style Tab1
8. Tab Session Manager
9. ClearURLs1
10. Clear Cache1
11. Clear Browsing Data
12. Imagus
13. TamperMonkey1
14. Link Gopher
15. Notes By Firefox
16. Default Bookmark Folder
17. Firefox Mutli-Account Containers
18. Markdown Viewer13
19. Kee - Password Manager
20. KeePassXC - Browser1
21. Audio Equalizer
21. Offline QR Code Generator

1 - Highly Recommended.
2 - There are lot of custom, user-made adblock lists and tracker blockers that can be added to UblockOrigin that can help but that’s for antoher post
3 - I will write a post of recommended Userscripts and userscript websites to check out later.

2.2 UI Configuration

Unlike the days of old, Firefox doesn’t allow full themeing anymore in favor of decreasing the memory and CPU resource footprint out of concerns for the environment and electrical use.

There is some legitimacy for the concern for more practical, and less ideological, benefits such as it makes for less likely for the browser to have broken components to not work as they should due to theming conflicts as it was the case in older versions of Firefox.

But there are some practical UI solutions as far as space saving.

In the bottom bar you can see the option for “Density”, select “Compact” from the drop-down menu and then you’ll see the buttons and tabs to become more fitted for allowing for the browser window to have the most screen real estate as possible.

For “Themes” I recommend, so as to not strain your eyes, to set the theme to “Dark”.

After this all other components are a question if you want to remove some buttons in thge UI or note and then you have a choice to re-arrange things as you see fit although minimal changes are something I personally opt for as the default layout is generally fine as it is.

2.3 Extension setups

Among these extensions, such as Default Bookmark Folder extension, you have to follow the instructions on how to have it setup. So follow the instructions and if I should have time, or upon request, I’ll be happy to provide a follow up post to this one for how to setup some of these extensions and what their operations entail.

If you’re in a hurry, a quick search on the web should provide you with resources on how to setup any of these extensions on the fly.

3. Backup Everything.

So you’ve installed Firefox and hardened along with adding your extensions and are ready to go. What’s next? Well its time to backup the profile!

And to do this we will be using something called MozDevBackup. MozDevBackup is a utility for Windows that allows you to effectively backup a Firefox Browser’s profile and this includes bookmarks, extensions, misc files - everything and aneything that is related to the particular setup that you have of your installation of Firefox.

Though this program is mostly just now useful to just Firefox and has not been updated in years, the basic functions work to make it useful for you to use this for both backup and restoring Firefox web browser profiles.

The program is self explanatory on how to use.

4. You’re Done.

And that’s about it. Firefox is not a bad browser nor is it a very difficult browser to use - although you can find much easier ones to use such as Vivaldi that has a lot of things that you can use to manage bookmarks and lookup statistics (website visited, number of vists and time spent looking around and surfing the web, etc). But Firefox still is the only non-Chromium (Blink/V8 engine) based web browser around and it’s a good idea to use or have it installed just in case something happens with Chromium based browsers as therea re times when, because of the problems with a base Chromium build, can translate into a lot of problems in the third-party browsers down the line and that’s when you need Firefox.

The other thing about Firefox is though it’s usually comparatively janky than Chormium based browsers, Firefox can sometimes “just work” where in other times Chromium is having “a bad day at the office” when it comes to rendering or running certain websites that utilize certain cutting edge technology that Chromium developers have not tackled yet that Mozilla’s have.

I’ll further expand this when writing a guide on how to setup Chromium, Vivaldi, and Brave respectively in another post but for now, that’s it, and I hope that you find yourself enjoying surfing the web with Firefox~!

The Young Pope