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My Features and Fixes Requests for Firefox

Here I list a fixes and features I would like to be implemented in Firefox. "Problems" of bigger significance can be found at the problems with Firefox page. I very much would like all of these to be implemented in Firefox. If you can help me do so, then please make sure you .

• If a page has several available CSS files, then make the user aware of this. A small notice window that is not very obtrusive would be helpful.
• INFORM PEOPLE THAT THERE IS LIBRARY OPERATION UNDO FEATURE (CTRL+Z). DISPLAY AN UNDO BUTTON IN LIBRARY MANAGER. MOVE DELETED BOOKMARKS TO PERMANENT RECYCLE BIN BOOKMARK LOCATION.
• Backup list of add-ons installed and automate their install after uninstall or for another install. A utility that generates a helpful page of installed add-ons including their descriptions can also be used by user as a reference, as well as a way to display to others what he has installed. If this is distributed as an HTML page with links for each add-on then others can also install the add-ons if they like their descriptions.
• Open background image in another tab context-menu option. There already is a feature to open images in another tab.
• Make non-selected tabs less visible, making active tabs stand out more.
• Utility to resize pop up windows automatically or by user (or ignore if this is a website-specified setting).
• Tabs context menu: close all tabs before this one.
• FBM: add # of bookmarks in category in "( )" after category name
• Firefox should force a master password for password manager.
• "copy this without line breaks" to copy things like addresses over a few lines to input to geegle maps.
• Release new extensions before Firefox is updated. I find it very unintelligent that several extensions suddenly stop working after I update Firefox.
• Extension idea: do not animate GIF files, and prevent sliding ads. Make this as an option. I am sure that it would be easy to tell whatever actually displays GIF files in Firefox can be made to only display the first frame. However, it probably would be harder to prevent the text-blocking ads.
• Problem: Firefox does not display address of a website it could not reach and does not bookmark tabs that did not reach a website. Solution: (1) Always display the address that Firefox is trying to load, (2) Log unreachable websites for future reference.
• Do not stop responding when processing things like a slow script or opening a few tens tabs. Make a new thread to respond to GUI commands?
• An option not to display ASCII text files in the browser (for .txt, .nb, and other files).
• Make a GUI editor for about:config that lists the settings by category and provide explanations.
• Do not switch focus or display download manager when opening file. Instead, display progress as an unobtrusive icon in the main window.
• A feature to easily find where the music is playing, esp if about 20 tabs are opened, and it is not that easy to find the site that is playing music as in old one website per browser ages. Either list those tabs, or put up notices on tabs themselves.
• Combine the stop and reload buttons.
• URL dropdown is not popularity based. This is one of the most idiotic things I have seen in all browsers. The entries are not listed alphabetically (a useful option), nor by how many times I have visited them (another useful option), nor how popular those URLs are with me (a most useful option). I have verified it a countless number of times that the websites I need most often are at the bottom of the list at the address bar. I would also like a utility to delete or block from showing at all some entries. For a lot of reasons the address bar is used as bookmarks/history, but it tends to collect all the unnecessary and obsolete websites that I have visited. One option would be to clear all of it, but that is an overkill.
• Printing: auto relocate images on cutoff. Also, eliminate the stupid last blank pages. I have read of efforts to do so, but you will have to do the Internet searching yourself.
• Do not download if the file is already present. The appending of files with numbers is very idiotic. Warn the user in an unobtrusive way that the file has been downloaded. In fact, the option to silently download the files in background is ill designed. As I have said elsewhere, the user must be aware of files downloading or ready, but without FDM coming into view or the need to switch to the FDM window.
• Alt-click can only download one file at a time.
• Click in empty window area must have no effect like stealing focus from the address bar when nothing has been typed in yet and no page has been loaded. I also remember a certain extension that would make it so on Firefox startup, the focus on default would not be at the address bar (like in the stupid IE). Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of that extension.
• Autoscroll horizontally when selecting text by dragging mouse. And do not do it fast like in OpenOffice.
• Frame options: close this frame only.
• Ability for root/admin to install extensions for all other users.
• Firefox can open multiple home pages on start, yet a single-line input box is provided and common users see no mentioning of this in Options.
• What sites/code cause the Firefox window to resize or move? Forbid and do not interpret all code that causes window resizes. The one where the window very quickly goes to a much smaller size, and then back to almost the size it was before is a very stupid one.
• Who in the world would think of the Session Saver abort option??? True, I was in a circumstance once where every time I attempted to restore from a crash, Firefox would crash again. I think that a very fast tab closing skill (before they would load with whatever code that was crashing Firefox) saved me that time. But never have an option to forget the tabs that the user is trying to recover!!! If necessary, make an option to postpone the restore process, or export the list elsewhere so the user can inspect and act on it.
• Forbid extensions to use the same keyboard shortcut key in the right-click menu. Right now, the letter "t" is set for two entries in that menu, and the old lighting-fast method of right-click+t no longer works as it just highlights the first menu entry using the "t".
• firefox extension bug: multiple tab handler: when installed and with several tabs open, closing the window will close all tabs without presenting the confirmation/save session window. tabs cannot be restored when firefox is opened again.
• find or make fox utility number of bookmarks for each folder in () (parentheses)
• firefox does not have a cache viewer that will allow me to recover pics in cache. Extension for this purpose is not very useful.
• option or extension to not show all one time firefox dialogs
• firefox extension: if what is typed into the address bar does not look like an address, then submit the contents to a user-specified search engine. will eliminate stupidity of constantly typing and launching a search engine page.
• need firefox utility for tabs from one site to appear as one tab group; add to myFox.
• firefox group tabs extension; redo to look like windoza task icon grouping
• firefox rip must move to bottom of alt/context/right-click menu so that it is not passed over when going thru the menu
• Absolute need for built in right click / alternate menu entries editor (because addons add entries to the menu)
• firefox extension and myFox; all pic ops like preview, view, etc must be done in a new another tab
• firefox remove it permanently stupidity; removed pics download before being removed
• firefox need option to never display sub-domains or webpages on address bar besides website; expand the box
• Download Manager: Give it a file address input box (there is an add-on lget for that)
• have a utility to make a “digital print” of a page which will save a pdf version of a page with all original information plus notes, attachments, etc to stop idiotic waste of paper. Simply saving the page is not an optimal solution since it is likely the page will end up broken or stuff like notes cannot be attached
• place all popups INSIDE the tab they originated and keep them there over on top the tab contents
• place increase and decrease text size huge buttons on top of toolbar
• for all idiotic internet pages/flash that does not span the entire width of a page, do a graphical (not text) zoom to fill. Also, place IE-7-like zoom on toolbar
• myfox when resizing or maximizing the window, scroll to the same text position
• completely replace freaking idiotic fox 3 library
• why no folder rename and no sorting in fox 3 library
• wth firefox 3 still does not save with page title
• develop an extension that will indicate whether a click on a picture would produce its larger version, or just lead to an idiotic website.
• kill all freaking install updates screens
• prevent opening of duplicate tabs, close duplicate ones (extension available)
• show picture in new tab
• number of bookmarks in parentheses after folder's name
• select extract bookmarks utility (fe, into a backup or html file)
• it is impossible for bookmarks menu to close until user clicked what he wanted
• kill library. go back to the old intuitive version.
• do not replace tabs when opening from bookmarks
• stop stupidity of no extensions working after update
• much larger scroll area in bookmarks
• kill all new features
• integrate all addons that add significant intelligence to firefox operation
• explicitly state which add-ons are no longer needed because their functionality has been written into the main firefox
• kill the need for sort/organize/duplicates, etc, etc in bookmarks
• expand previous directories in add bookmark dialog to twice the current size
• infolister: fix save without extension bug
• need selected bookmarks export or save as text utility
• utility automatically suggest addresses when typing not just from history but from bookmarks as well. But not the default address bar that came with v3 (which I have disabled due to its stupidity)
• utility: make several user specified cookies as read only and/or do not delete on regular private data wipe so no always used cookies are deleted
• wth pop up windows in browsers do not have scrollbars and menus.
• session manager: rename "backup current window only" as "backup current tab only"
• when adding multiple bookmarks, present a singe "already exists" dialog only
• when adding a tab folder where there already exists one, detect and present dialog to "duplicate name, add new tabs to existing folder, add new tabs only to another folder"
• CRITICAL NEEDED ADDON FOR FIREFOX LIMIT SAVE FILENAME LENGTH. Because with that length being doubled because of files in the html folder, it is easy to exceed NTFS absolute path length limitation, and file save errors will be shown to the user, who will not understand what the error is.

Firefox Bookmark Manager

Firefox Bookmarks Manager holds the record on being the worst component of Firefox, mainly because it deals with so many items (in my case it is 10,000 bookmarks). Several items related to FBM are listed here:

• Remove the stupidity of having two ordering types by ascending and descending to prevent the need to click the column header many times (sometimes passing over the needed one again and again) and to prevent LimeWire--like inverse as well as stupid use of the ascending and descending features.
• The extension to detect bookmark duplicates should be built in to Firefox, and run automatically. It would be safe for it to delete duplicates in the same directory.
• Duplicate detection on add to bookmarks: scan for ALL entries first and then present a list of conflicts instead of separate dialogs for each one. This is so often in Operating Systems that I laugh hysterically. It is very easy to bog down a user with a few dozen of these little dialogs when a little thinking up front would eliminate the problem altogether.
• Top portion of the bookmarks menu should not scroll with the bottom portion. This is an even problem where I scroll down to verify something, and afterwards need to scroll all the way back when I decide to bookmark the page.
• Prevent all non-user movements of entries when reorganizing (going to the top, bottom, being stuck at the bottom with wrong type of ordering, etc).
• Add a "Create New Folder" to the Move feature (the icon on the FBM toolbar).
• WTH if I group entries by address (by clicking on that column), the folders go to stupid places in the list? Always keep the folders on top, including when ordering by link name.
• Remove the difference between using columns to group items, and using the menu option to group by name. it seems like the menu option can do something the column ones do not.
• Since the user can scroll instead of using inverted ordering (ascending vs. descending orders), the option is not needed. It can be offloaded to an advanced option item. It will also eliminate the very high number of times I have to click on a column to get what I want.
• A setting for always to group entries by name, and keep folders on top. Also to automatically refresh on every action to prevent windoza folders--like stupidity of user repeatedly having to select the same action over and over again.
• Bookmarks do not obey settings. Double click in bookmarks manager rewrites the current tab by default. Shortcuts are different. New tab is w, not t. Change.
• Firefox has a utility to import bookmarks from IE. But it does not have a utility to let those bookmarks go. Why???
• Do not close bookmarks menu on delete (or any other action other than bookmark opening).
• Add "Move To" to the right-click menu.
• I thought (or read) that pages saved by firefox contain the original address in and HTML comment field. I have just tested this, but it does not appear to be true. Then why not do it??? It is very often necessary to find out the original address of the page that you have saved.
• fix infolister to only take to firefox addons links, not any other sites to prevent idiotic notice bar
• remove the notice bar and present the notice instead during the same time as the extension download confirmation is presented
• stupidity: addons.mozdev : every sub-domain for every new extension has to be allowed separately
• in address drop down list, do not display any http: and useless stuff like that, including elsewhere in firefox like bookmarks to save space, esp when not fully maximized
• instead of presenting idiotic site license dialog which no one understands and just dismisses, just present it as a yellow caution bar on top of page like for pop-ups

Firefox Download Manager

Firefox Download Manager is the second worst component of Firefox, mainly because the default options make it so stupid and obtrusive, and also because it drops so many files.

• FDM cancels and removes a download, wth??? Never delete unfinished or canceled downloads. Log all uncompleted downloads (instead of the stupid logging of all completed downloads).
• FDM more often than not cannot continue a download after it has been paused.
• Do not log completed downloads, especially by default. If you are trying to fix a problem of users not knowing that they downloaded a file, when they did so, and where the file went, then it is a bad solution for a badly formulated problem.
• Roll up a good open source download manager and an FTP solution into the FDM, so that we will get at least some more functionality from it. The window itself is overly simplistic. A few good options that are found in all download managers would turn it from a problem into a good download solution.

Firefox many tabs issue: refuse to open more than 30 tabs at the same time without the solutions below. possible solutions:

1.quotas on how much resources each tab can take away from firefox performance
2.a queue system where initially only a limited number or requested tabs are opened, and other ones are opened as user closes down other tabs
3.splitting of tabs loading to separate processes, and spreading these among the processors in the system. this would eliminate the need to kill the whole firefox if it cannot respond in a timely manner.

fox multiple tab utility:

1.a screen to list all tabs with small preview pics
2.delete duplicate, blank, etc tabs
3.drag-select a tab group and bookmark all (alternative is only to bookmark all to folder, and then work on that folder)

need for firefox sync extension. problems with current firefox sync solutions.

• a number of extensions that utilize a separate website exist, but I do not trust that website, and I also be in control and access my storage on server.
• bookmark sync and sort is too slow on opening and closing.
• bookmark sync and sort leaves my bookmarks saved on the computer after I close the window and log off. I want no bookmarks to be left.
• there are backup extensions, but none can fully backup, clone, and restore the main profile without asking the user to do all the work.
• there is currently no solution for local server synchronization. like in a thin client, this server would hold the entire profile that would be streamed as it is used, but nothing would be left on that computer after log off.
• change firefox sync extension to just upload changes, not clone all bookmarks
• email diff for bookmarks instead of sync
• there is still the need to actually install a number of extensions before some of this functionality can be used. this is a problem with other's computers. therefore, firefox should come with "remote" profiles and other critical functionality enabled by default.

Firefox SessionSaver:

• do not allow dialog window closing with the x button
• reword the dialog so even people who did not install it would understand what it is saying (fe, “several tabs were left when this program was forced to close, would you like to reload those pages again?”)
• list tabs and windows in session in the dialog so it is known at a glance whether to do a restore or not
• even if user says no, make several previous sessions recoverable and label that user has decided not to resume
• combine with session manager

Feature: temporary clean profile for someone asking can i use your browser to do something.

• will not show user history, bookmarks, private data, etc.
• will not allow closing user windows or accessing data without password
• poss lock computer in full screen browser kiosk mode and do not allow access to the system itself.

fox history stupidity:

• history - even set at 90 days, it will remember all crap sites i visited, but not the good ones that i always visit, or will suggest crap sites from my bookmarks
• even more important, no results in the direct dropdown box, but millions when start typing in first letters of address
• should be - always remember relevant ones, store all sites visited as domain (not full pathname) only

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IMPORTANT: if you are sure a problem I have listed here has been fixed, has been documented, or is being worked on, then I would like to know. I would also like to know if you are a Firefox or an extension/Open Source developer.

˅˅˅ Additional valuable information is available at one of the links below: ˅˅˅