Make sure that you aren't changing prefs. The defaults should always work.

If you made changes and can't remember which you've changed then delete the prefs.js file (and a possible user.js) in the Firefox Profile Folder to reset all prefs.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder

Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

Did you make sure that those programs aren't blocking content?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do not click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Thanks for responding Using Eset Security. Preferences are all in default mode. Have added Fasterfox lite 3.9.8 which seems to help for the webpage I mentioned.

Hi bob10000,

We are investigating this issue to see if there are indeed performance degradations between FF 14 and 15. Did you try Safe Mode as Cor-el suggested? Would you be willing to try some additional troubleshooting steps in order to help us identify this issue?

Firefox and the latest Adobe Flash do not play well together in Vista and, I believe, Windows 7. Disabling protected mode increased my speed from 3 Mbps to 32 Mbps. It is done by adding a line to a configuration file (mms.cfg) in windows/syswow64/macromedia/flash on a 64 bit machine or system32/macromedia/flash on a 32 bit machine.

Protected mode=0

I striped my configuration to the bare bones with minimum add-ons and plug-ins. This seems to have sped things up a little bit, but not nearly the loading speed I was getting with previous versions. Lots of us are still running XP on older machines. You might want to take this into consideration when you do the next up-date.

am having this problem original page loads quickly but then I click on a link and the link take forever to load. Most visible with cnn where screen freezes while a link at the bottom take forever to load.

I tried same connection using IE and everything loads instantly.

Just had the same problem with fox and don't know what to do. Cache and cookies have been cleared

We ran into the same slowdown issues with FireFox 17 last month and found a solution that actually works. Our profiles were several years old and I am quite convinced that over time they deteriorated thanks to conflicts between add-ons, etc. Here's the step-by-step procedure we used to bring our FireFox installations back to life, speedy and stable. (And I must report that the beta of FF18 really speeds up FF like never before).

Make a list of the add-ons (extensions and appearance) you have installed. You might want to download the latest versions of each add-on to a directory on your hard drive for installing after you rebuild your profile. With earlier versions of FireFox, you can use the extension "InfoLister" to create the list. In FF 17, go to Help, and then Troubleshooting Information which instantly gives you a list of your extensions (and Important Modified Preferences). Print the list - you'll want it later when you reinstall your add-ons.

Now, here are two alternatives from which to choose. The first one, we did not do, but I realize in retropsect that it may work for folks and save you a lot of time. The second one is what we did, albeit it is more time consuming.

First, however, take a screen shot of your FireFox window so you know where you like the various icons to be placed. Print it.

Before doing either of these, you should go into your Add-Ons Manager and export settings for all of the extensions that allow you to. This way when you recreate your profile, you can simply import the settings. There will be a lot of extensions that don't allow you to do this. You should write down the settings for each of them so you don't have to reinvent the wheel in your new profile (or take screen shots).

If you don't already have them, install the FEBE and CLEO extensions (available at http://softwarebychuck.com/ ). CLEO combines nearly all of your extensions (xpi files) into a single xpi file with which to reinstall nearly all of your extensions after you have cleaned up your profile according to the instructions that follow below. Now some extensions will not be included -- you'll have to install those separately. And I caution that the process might not work as well as the second alternative I'm about to describe. But this first alternative can save you a few hours if you have a lot of extensions installed. I must caution, however, that I didn't do this with the existing extensions in our profiles because I didn't think of it. But it might work well for you (assuming that the extension xpi files are fine and I can't think of any reason for them not to be).

The second alternative which is the one that we actually used will require you to individually reinstall each extension -- but if you exported the settings for those that allow it, you can easily import those settings and save a lot of time. In this alternative you simply don't use CLEO to create the single xpi file of extensions and you just plan to reinstall those you want one by one.

Whichever alternative you use, the remaining steps are pretty much the same:

(1) From the Help Menu, select "Troubleshoot Information." Then click (in the upper right hand corner) the "Reset FireFox" button. This brings up a small window that tells you what is saved when you reset FireFox (cookies, bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords, saved form history). Click on the "reset FireFox" button and a new profile will be created without any add-ons. This creates a new profile without an add-ons.

(2) Reinstall your add-ons one by one making sure that none of them slow down your now very speedy FireFox. Alternatively if you used the first option and created a single xpi file of extensions with CLEO, install that file. Hopefully, none of these extensions will slow down FireFox. It's a risk, but it does save hours if you have lots of extensions.

(3) Import the settings you saved for the extensions that allowed you to export them. Adjusst the settings in the other extensions.

(4) Recreate the appearance you want in FireFox by going to the View Menu and selecting the Toolbars you want and by clicking on "Customize" to place icons where you want them.

This procedure should enable you have the speedy FireFox to which you had grown accustomed.