SpeedyFox

[plodr]

I switched to Palemoon as my daily brower (in Windows) because FF is soooo slow.
I saw this program, SpeedyFox, https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/how_to_speed_up_your_firefoxchrome_or_safari_browser.html
and I've downloaded it but haven't unzipped it.
Here is the developer's site https://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox
Has anyone tried it?
I'm one that prefers to do my own manual changes and not have a program do some unknown tweaks therefore I'm hesitant to try it.

[darksurfer]

I switched to Palemoon as my daily brower (in Windows) because FF is soooo slow.
I saw this program, SpeedyFox, https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/how_to_speed_up_your_firefoxchrome_or_safari_browser.html
and I've downloaded it but haven't unzipped it.
Here is the developer's site https://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox
Has anyone tried it?
I'm one that prefers to do my own manual changes and not have a program do some unknown tweaks therefore I'm hesitant to try it.

I use it and it seems to work well. I use Pale Moon and seems alright.

[Digerati]

I'm one that prefers to do my own manual changes and not have a program do some unknown tweaks therefore I'm hesitant to try it.

I agree. I feel program developers are probably best at tweaking their own programs. They already want their products to be quick. I feel if such tricks were beneficial over all, they would already be incorporated in the code.

Speedyfox has been around for many years. It seems to me if it worked as good as the promises suggested it did, it would not be something most FF users never heard of. And again, if as good as promised, browser developers would have incorporated those same tricks.

I do not believe it is harmful, and definitely not malicious. And it may provide noticeable improvements right after it is run. I just doubt those performance improvements last. I think a quick clutter clean-out with Windows Disk Cleanup or CCleaner is probably just as good.

Having said all that, I have not tried it. So perhaps it not fair I express my opinion. But I still see no reason to install it.

[satrow]

Looks like it strips out unnecessary code, lines, etc. from the listed database files; with the largest of those files on my main Pale Moon profile as an example, places.sqlite - the Bookmarks list of almost 1400 entries plus History, it reduced the size by close to 10%. Overall reduction (from the log) was "Optimized 7 files, new size: 17.3 MB (was 20.0 MB)". Did I notice PM loading faster - yes, pretty sure I did, at a guess ~10-15%.

Worth trying out on older/low-powered machines like Atom powered netbooks, where the actual load time would be more significant. I can't, mine was retired and the SSD moved on last month.

For most users, I doubt that it would need running more frequently than annually.

[Digerati]

Did I notice PM loading faster - yes, pretty sure I did, at a guess ~10-15%.

Pretty sure? Unless actual timed tests were done, "pretty sure" could just be what the mind was hoping to see. 10 - 15% sounds okay, but that's still less than 3MB. Not GB.

I'd be interested in seeing the results of a timed "before and after" test, then do another timed test a week later and see if still faster, or back to the "before" times.

BTW, from 2012: https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=785

[Corrine]

SpeedyFox has been around for a very long time.  DonnaB first told me about it many years ago.  I actually suggested it in 2014 (Re: Compaq Laptop Freezing Up Again).

I only use Pale Moon regularly on the device that I use posting in forums since the many of the old Athena extensions not available in Microsoft Edge still work (especially Athena and BBCodeXtra). 

On occasions when it seems that Pale Moon is slow, I'll run SpeedyFox and I do feel as though it is faster. 

(OT:  Some years ago, there was a tool that could be run that would check bookmarks and list those that no longer resolve.  I have have no idea where I got it from and with so many old bookmarks, I'd like to do a purge of the now useless ones without having to manually go through each folder.)

[Digerati]

(OT:  Some years ago, there was a tool that could be run that would check bookmarks and list those that no longer resolve.

Was it AM-Deadlink?

[satrow]

Did I notice PM loading faster - yes, pretty sure I did, at a guess ~10-15%.

Pretty sure? Unless actual timed tests were done, "pretty sure" could just be what the mind was hoping to see. 10 - 15% sounds okay, but that's still less than 3MB. Not GB.

My 'actual timed tests' would have little bearing or relevance to anyone who isn't using my machine and connection. 'Less than 3MB. Not GB' - You want GB differences, really? From less than 24MB of db files ...

[plodr]

Thanks for the info and links. I'll read what Moonchild said later.
I did see something he posted that I don't understand

Menu -> web developer -> error console (or press Strg+Shift+J).

I have no idea what Strg stands for.

[satrow]

Thanks for the info and links. I'll read what Moonchild said later.
I did see something he posted that I don't understand

Menu -> web developer -> error console (or press Strg+Shift+J).

I have no idea what Strg stands for.

DE keyboard, CTRL iirc (it's been a long time since I used one).

[Digerati]

'Less than 3MB. Not GB' - You want GB differences, really?

No. I was just suggesting loading 3MB more data shouldn't take very much extra time.

My 'actual timed tests' would have little bearing or relevance to anyone who isn't using my machine and connection.

I don't see why not. If using the same browser and the same Speedyfox program, if you see a significant improvement on your machine, it seems logical to assume others running the same browser and Speedyfox would also see a significant improvement. Not second for second, of course. And assuming the network connection is not causing a bottleneck, not sure that would matter either.

I have no idea what Strg stands for.

I had to look that up. Apparently its stands for "Steuerung" which means "Control" in German. So Strg is what we know as the Ctrl key. Makes sense now. (Opps, satrow beat me to it).

[Corrine]

(OT:  Some years ago, there was a tool that could be run that would check bookmarks and list those that no longer resolve.

Was it AM-Deadlink?

That might be it.  It has been quite a while since I used it.  No question that I would back up my bookmarks before giving it a try though.

Have you used it?

[satrow]

@Digerati

You think same browser = same browser settings/Add-ons/plugins and that CPU speed and load, drive speed, free/available memory differences are irrelevant, or minimally different across user installs. Don't assume, test for yourself, you might learn something new.

[Digerati]

Have you used it?

I used to use with IE years ago because I had several 100 saved bookmarks/favorites. But when I stopped using IE, I stopped saving bookmarks in my browser.

I have enabled the Quicklaunch toolbar in W10 and have links to the 17 forum sites I visit regularly. And for most other sites, I have links to their log in page in my password manager.

You think same browser = same browser settings/Add-ons/plugins and that CPU speed and load, drive speed, free/available memory differences are irrelevant, or minimally different across user installs. Don't assume, test for yourself, you might learn something new.

I don't understand how this line has turned sour. I sure didn't mean it too.

I never said anything was irrelevant.

But I contend if you saw improvement, chances are others will too. How much will certainly vary machine to machine and there will also certainly be some who see no change at all.

I just said I would be interested in seeing the results of a test. Sorry for causing consternation.

[Corrine]

Again OT, but Pale Moon loads 12 tabs faster on one device (same CPU speed, less memory, 13 add-ons) than Microsoft Edge DEV loads 5 tabs/5 add-ons on another device.  When I load Microsoft Edge Beta on the device that I run Pale Moon on, it takes forever to merely load Bing, the one start-up tab.  That isn't to say that I don't like Edge, I do but for "working" (forums, blog, etc.), I prefer Pale Moon.