Vacuum Firefox automatically

I’ve discussed vacuuming Firefox before to make it run like new, but it’s not something everyone is exactly comfortable doing. I found an extension called Vacuum Places Improved that automates the process.

Most importantly, in the options for the add-on, you can make it run, say, every 50th time Firefox starts. That way, the vacuum process happens transparently–at the expense of every 50th load being slower, the database gains automatic maintenance. I’ll gladly trade occasional slower load times for improved performance.
Just vacuuming the places database isn’t always enough, but it makes a big difference in performance. It’s also something you might not necessarily remember to do as often as you really need, and it’s not exactly easy to remember how to do it. As such, it’s a good candidate for automation.

If you like having as few extensions loaded as possible and don’t mind going into the console and pasting in a long command, there’s nothing wrong with doing it that way, of course. The next time I’m visiting relatives and doing my typical once-a-year maintenance on their systems, though, I’m going to install this for them. It’ll keep Firefox reasonably clean and fleet of foot without any further intervention.

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by on February 13, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 13, 2012

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/vacuum-firefox-automatically/

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2 Comments

  1. farhad

     /  February 17, 2012

    I have error 8×80570018

  2. Steve Aubrey

     /  February 21, 2012

    Farhad, it looks like the trick may not work on versions of FireFox earlier than 3.5: http://mozillalinks.org/2009/08/vacuum-firefox-databases-for-better-performance-now-with-no-restart/ Not certain about later versions.

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