Mozilla Firefox 3

Firefox Icon Firefox keeps track of several settings that affect your browsing experience. This page will explain the Preferences dialog box by pointing out the location a few key settings. Only the important settings are shown. Other options within the program may be set at your discretion. In general, it is best to stick with default settings for those options.

Note About Version Differences

These instructions and screenshots pertain to version 3 of Firefox. If you are still using a beta version of this program, please upgrade to the latest version before relying on these instructions. Though these screenshots show Firefox in Mac OS X, the instructions are the same regardless of which operating system you are using.

Accessing the Options Dialog Box

  1. Launch the “Options” dialog box.
    1. Within Firefox, click the “Firefox.”
    2. Click “Options.”
  2. Options: General
    Home Page
    In this section, you can specify the website you wish to use as your home page. Simply type in the address of the page.
    • The “Use Current Page” button will set your home page to whatever page is currently showing in your browser.
    • The “Use Blank Page” button will set your home page to a blank page.
    Default Browser
    If you plan to use Firefox as your main web browser, you should enable this option.
    Download Folder
    You can tell Firefox to automatically save downloaded files to the same place so you can easily find them. We recommend you set this option to “Desktop” as shown here.
    Show Download Window...
    The Download Window is a window that appears whenever you download a file. We recommend you leave this option checked as shown here.
  3. Options: Privacy

    These section lets you control cached information such as browsing history, borwser cache, and more.

    To Erase Stored Information
    Click the “Clear Now” button
    In the box that appears, check the box next to each item you want to erase.
    Then click the “Clear Private Data Now” button.
    To Change Options Stored Information
    Click the [+] sign next to each item to display the options you can configure.
  4. Options: Web Features
    Block Popup Windows
    To enable popup blocking, turn this feature on.
    Other Options
    Other options on this page should be set at their default values as shown here.
  5. Options: Advanced
    Advanced
    This section offers options for many different browser features. Only advanced users should make changes here. All settings should be left at their default values.
  6. Changes are automatically applied. You can close the Options dialog box.