New Firefox Setup

With every version of Firefox 1 > 2 > 3, I find myself scourging the net to keep my profile intact, or at least some of it. So this is more of a personal reference/cheat sheet, than anything else.

Here's what I go through when upgrading to Firefox.

First and foremost I got out of the habit of overwriting my existing profile, and just started from scratch, this saves me from migraine of trying to piece my profile back together in case the new version broke anything.

about:config Tweaks

This is relatively simple tweaks, From version 1.5 I've changed these settings, it's became the norm for me.
If you're inexperienced with this part, just skip it.
I go to about:config and change these settings

browser.tabs.autoHide=false this makes the tab bar always visible.
middlemouse.paste=true when you copy text, you can use the middle button to paste. I find this a really great time saver.
extensions.compatibility=false With Firefox 2.0 a new preference for extensions exist, this will tell Firefox to ignore compatibility with older extensions and install them anyways. (This doesn't exist by default so you'll have to create it.)

Extensions

These extensions below are usually the first ones I install on a fresh profile.

Security
1. NoScript Block/Whitelist Flash, Javascript,
2. AdBlock Plus - Block/Whitlist a full parade of advertisements.
3. CS Lite Block/Whitelist Cookies, similar in nature to NoScript.
All 3 extensions go hand in hand.

Functional Tweaks
KeyConfig - Configure all the hot keys used by Firefox.
Organize Statusbar - (Re)Organize cluttered status bar.
Menu Editor - (Re)Organize a cluttered menu.
These also go hand in hand.

Misc
TabMixPlus - Makes the Tab bar even more useful.
IE Tab - Switch to IE in a Firefox tab.
Greasemonkey - Customize the web - Whenever a extension would be overkill.
Stylish - Stylize the web
I think of GreaseMonkey and Stylish as kin, Greasemonkey is the brains, Stylish is the looks.
DownloadStatusBar - File downloads are in a tiny toolbar.
DownThemAll - A self contained bulk downloader.
PDFDownload - No more freezing up my firefox now will you.
SubmitToTab - Middle click on a button and BAM! it's in a new tab.

More to come!

Addons that fix Firefox bugs

Firefox 3 recently being released with over 15,00 bugs squashed, I'm impressed and disappointed at the same time.

All the Firefox geeks know of TabMixPlus, and NoScript, Adblock, CS Lite, these extensions seem like Peanut butter and Jelly to Firefox, they should be installed by default.

But! I am only going to list extensions that are overkill as extensions, which instead should be built into the Firefox core. Some of what these extensions fix such as Long Titles, have existed since the Mozilla Client days.

Long Titles
Due to Mozilla bug 45375 and Firefox bug 218223, long tooltips are broken with "...". This is especially annoying if these tooltips contain useful or important informations. Long Titles shows non-cropped tooltips for the title.
Appears to have been since fixed in Firefox 3

SubmitToTab
Allows you to submit a form to a new tab or window. Simply middle-click on a submit button, or hold down the ctrl key before clicking on the button.

FormFox
Do you know where your form information is going? This extension displays the form action (the site to which the information you've entered is being sent.) In any place where you can enter data, from search boxes to order forms, mouse over the final Submit button to reveal the destination.

more to come..