start>user control panel>system security>administrative tools>free up disk space then defragment your hard drive.

if you still need more space after that you can compress some files on your hard drive but i would only do that with less important files/programs.

don't save your history set privacy options marker to firefox will "never remember history ."

that is generally useful - thank you - but have done it!

done that already but thanks for your help

how big is your hard drive? you can compress some files to free up more space if defrag and free up disk space doesn't free up enough. another option is to move programs/files that you don't use everyday to a flash drive.

do you have enough room on your hard drive to download the program? because now i'm thinking its your ram that is the problem. try this: start>control panel>system and security>action center>view performance information>advance tools>adjust the appearance and performance of windows>adjust for best performance

this will chance the appearance of windows but it will use up less ram/cpu.

Yes, I do have enough room. My problem is that I am using a netbook and therefore want minimal downloads on to my hard drive (on which I store nothing) given I want Word and a printer. I have done all the above - many thanks - but was hoping there was a way to customise firefox to make it smaller.

you can compress the program after you download. but tbh i've never done that with a program that i use daily. so i don't know if you will experience performance issues after you compress. if you want to try it after you download locate the file in programs and right click>properties>advance>compress contents to save disk space>ok

might want to get info from a mod here if compressing the program will cause performance issues first.

thanks for all your hard work. i have installed it and it seems ok. have compressed everything on my hard drive.