Switch to the Firefox Web Browser

I will be breaking this article down into a few different sections. I will try my best to make this how-to quick and painless.

Why switch? Here are the benefits

My first reason to switch is the most obvious. Websites are written in code. After being around for so long this code adopted what we call ’standards’. This means code should be both written and read in a certain way. If this is not read correctly by the web browser, what you will see will either be placed in the wrong place or throws the entire site off all together. Since Microsoft was the only big player in the Web Browsing market, they felt like they didn’t need to follow these rules or update their software like they should. So why use a web browser(internet explorer) when it doesn’t read the code and process it the way standards say it should be processed.

Reason #2 has to go to security. Because 80% of the people that browse the web uses Internet Explorer, hackers target this browser more than any other. Think about it. You’re putting your time into programming a virus. You want to get the most out of this virus right? Why would you want to spend your time when it will not target the most people possible. They know people believe they have no reason to switch, so they use that to their advantage. I am in no way saying if you switch to firefox you will never be targeted again. However you will fly under the radar of 99% of web browser exploits.

Customize your web browser the way you want it to be. Want those instant stock quote updates? Maybe you need to know the current weather. Firefox uses extensions that allow you to build the web browser you’ve always wanted. Not only do you get feature enhancing extensions but you also get to choose a theme/skin to change the entire appearance of the browser. From buttons to the color, you get to pick which theme/skin best suits you.

How to switch

First you will need to download firefox. If you do not know where to go to download firefox, simply scroll down to the bottom of this page. There is a banner here for Firefox, simple click that banner and it will take you to a page to download Firefox. Once you click this banner you will see a blue banner on the right that says ‘Download Firefox. . .’. After clicking this it will take you to a page that asks you to agree and install or cancel. Click agree and install and it will asks you what you want to do. I recommend opening it from it’s current location. . .if you know how to save it to your desktop this will work as well.

Go through the install process, clicking next all the way through. Once you finish you should see an icon on your desktop with the Firefox logo. Double click this to start Firefox, it will then ask you if you want to import your bookmarks/favorites from IE/Internet Explorer into Firefox. Pick yes or no, it is your choice. . .and let Firefox start up.

Customize Firefox

First lets start with picking a Theme for Firefox. click the ‘Tools’ menu at the top of Firefox, then click ‘Add-ons’. This will open up your addons window for Firefox. You will see two icons at the top of this new window. Extensions and Themes. For now lets go with Themes. Click themes and then at the bottom right of this window click ‘get themes’. This will open up a new tab with categories of themes hosted by Mozilla. Each theme has a preview screen shot so you can see what it will look like. When you find one you think you’ll like click the green ‘install now’ button and follow the install process for the theme.

Now lets build on Firefox with Extensions. Click the ‘Tools’ menu at the top of Firefox again, and then click ‘Add-ons’ again. Now click ‘Extensions’ in the new addon window, and click ‘get extensions’ at the bottom right of the addon window. This will open up another tab with categories for Extensions hosted by Mozilla. Just like with the themes, find something you like, click the green ‘install now’ button for the extension, and follow the install process for that extension.

Now before any extension works, you need to restart Firefox. Before any themes ’start’, you have to pick the theme in the addons window. So after you install a theme you like. Click ‘tools’ at the top, and then click ‘addons’. Here click the ‘themes’ icon at the top, and then click the theme you wish to use. Here click ‘use theme’ and it will as you to restart Firefox. Once it has been restarted, your theme will start working.

Conclusion

To sum things up. Firefox reads websites faster than Internet Explorer. It loads the websites faster than internet explorer. Firefox read the websites the way they were meant to be read. Since Firefox is less of a target, you will get a LOT less adware, spyware, and virus/trojan attempts. And to top it all off you can change how Firefox looks, and build on the feature firefox comes with ‘out of the box’.

Misc. Firefox Links

Switching to Firefox 101
General Information
Kill Bill’s Browser
Top 10 reaons to switch

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