about:config tweaks to enhance Mozilla Firefox.
🆕 Now with ESR support.
A secure, blazing fast browsing experience. Without breakage.
Betterfox is an opinionated preference list inspired by the law of diminishing returns and the minimum effective dose.
- Minimalism: get what isn't needed out of the way
- Efficiency: unleash Firefox's ability to be fast and performant
- Privacy: protect your data without causing site breakage
| List | Description |
|---|---|
| Fastfox | Immensely increase Firefox's browsing speed. Give Chrome a run for its money! |
| Securefox | Global Privacy Control. HTTPS-by-Default. Total Cookie Protection with site isolation. Enhanced state and network partitioning. Telemetry disabled. |
| Peskyfox | Unclutter the new tab page. Remove Pocket. Restore compact mode as an option. Stop webpage notifications, pop-ups, and other annoyances. |
| Smoothfox | Get Edge-like smooth scrolling on your favorite browser — or choose something more your style. |
| user.js | All the essentials. None of the breakage. This is your user.js. |
Fastfox, Securefox, Peskyfox, and Smoothfox are guides to settings within Firefox.
The user.js — a configuration file that controls Firefox settings — is curated from these guides.
If you don't have it already: Get Firefox
- Create a backup profile.
- Download the user.js file here (Right click >
Save Link As…). - Review Common Overrides and make any necessary changes.
- Open Firefox. In the URL bar, type
about:profilesand press Enter. - For the profile you want to use (or use default), click Open Folder in the Root Directory section.
- Move the
user.jsfile into the folder.
After restarting Firefox:
- Get an ad blocker like uBlock Origin with our recommended filters. For a simple solution, use Ghostery.
- Enable DNS-level protection with NextDNS, and check out our configuration guide.
- See how to quickly enable secure DNS in Firefox.
Betterfox is a great balance of privacy and convenience.
See Optional Hardening for other suggestions.
- Waterfox | files (August 2023)
- Floorp 1 2 | files (April 2023)
- Pulse | files (Dec 2021)
- Ghostery Private Browser 1 2 | files (Feb 2021)
- [Ukrainian] Firefox is NOT private. I show how to fix it. (Aug 2023)
- The ULTIMATE Browser Tier List (Mar 2023)
- I Hate Firefox. But I'm Still Switching Back to It. (Nov 2022)
- [Español] Optimize and Accelerate Firefox (Nov 2022)
- How To Improve Firefox Performance (Dec 2021)
- [Italian] Digitalia.fm | 1:41:35–1:42:41 (July 2023)
- GhoSTORIES with Franz & Pete | 17:05–18:40 (Feb 2021)
- [German] Pulse Browser Review: Firefox fork with Turbo tweaks and Opera sidebar (April 2023)
- 2023 Browser Showdown: Comparing Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera (Jan 2023)
- FMHY Browser Tools: Privacy Tweaks
- Firefox-UI-Fix
- Narsil/desktop_user.js
- pyllyukko/user.js comparator
- “I use this one ... The performance is absolutely amazing. There’s definitely a huge difference when it comes to loading sites.” - DIRIKtv
- "BetterFox ... will provide good-enough privacy and help with performance." - Qdoit12Super
- "...drastically changed the experience with Firefox for me. Improved speed, security, smoothness, and removed clutter." - AppDate
- "I don't think I could use Firefox without Betterfox." - Professional_Fun4616
- "The best collection of tweaks available." - AuRiMaS
- "FF is now much snappier! Thanks a lot for the suggestions!" - whotheff
- "...the experience is so good now I don’t think I’ll go back to any of the chromium based browsers." - Mr_Compromise
If you like the project, leave a ⭐ (top right) and become a stargazer!
- This repository benefits from the ongoing research provided by arkenfox.
- Appreciation goes to the Firefox team and developers working on Bugzilla, fighting for the open web.
- A special thanks to Alex Kontos of Waterfox for his collaboration in v.116.
- Many thanks to the 2021 Ghostery team for testing Betterfox at scale in its early days.
since 23 July 2022