How to make Firefox and Windows faster?

[Scorpion Ghost]

I have lap top where I have Windows 8.1 Pro operating system, and I only use it to run some scripts with Portable Firefox browsers.

Normally I turn on the lap top and can open 5 Firefox browsers and run my scripts. If I try and open 6 or more, the whole lap top and all the Firefox browsers I've opened get very slow and buggy.

After about 10+ hours though the lap top gets painfully slow, the Firefox profiles start getting script errors and not responding errors, and everything just slows down. I often can't even locate the mouse pointer for a few seconds at this point when I try to use the mouse as the whole lap top gets lagging. At this point what I can do is restart the lap top and turn everything on again and it works normally for another 10+ hours.

What fucks with me is that I can restart the lap top and turn everything on again within 60 seconds and it works good. It's not like I have to shut it down and give it a 10 minute resting period or anything like that.

So it's not that the lap top gets too hot. I know what a lap top getting too hot is, and that's not what's happening. The lap top is warm, but normal.

And since I only use this lap top for running scripts with Portable Firefox browsers, and on a rare occasion for Teamviewer, I figure I can do things to the Windows and perhaps to the Firefox browsers to strip them down heavily so that everything continues to work, but it lasts longer and works better.

I don't play games on the lap top, I don't listen to music or watch movies or download anything, I don't use any notepads paints microsoft offices or anything like that. It's a fucking bot lap top. I'm sure there's procesees running on windows and on the Firefox browsers that I can completely turn off that will make this work better for me.

Now, I can hit up Google and Youtube and find a million guides and tutorials on what to do, but most of them are aimed at regular users who just want to make a small change here and there. I'm looking to nuke my shit. Shit, I'll reinstall Windows XP if that's gonna make it work better. But I need someone who knows his shit and understands what I'm trying to accomplish to point me in the right direction.

Any advice, tips, tutorials?

Thanks


Note: If your advice is Mac or Linux or anything like that, I'm not interested, I want to stick with Windows. I don't need the learning curve right now of learning how to operate a completely new operating system.

 

[Gogol]

Upgrade to a SSD. That should do a lot
Btw, what is the config of your laptop?

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Upgrade to a SSD. That should do a lot
Btw, what is the config of your laptop?

Yeah I can do that. I can buy a $10,000 computer. I can contact NASA and see what they got

But no, I just want to do what I can on this lap top, as it is, no investments.

The specs are really not important. No matter HDD or SSD or Ram or anything else, at the end of the day any changes I would make would be the same no matter the specs.

But since you asked. Let's see...

System:

Windows 8.1 Pro
Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU N3520 @ 2.16GHz 2.16 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB (3.89 usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor

And the Hard drive is 512 GB HDD.

Let me know if there's anything else?

 

[Larry Igna]

Usually, more RAM never hurts Upgrading to an SSD should help as well, but I think the RAM is the one that gets filled with junk data from your bots.

 

[Gogol]

Yeah I can do that. I can buy a $10,000 computer. I can contact NASA and see what they got

But no, I just want to do what I can on this lap top, as it is, no investments.

The specs are really not important. No matter HDD or SSD or Ram or anything else, at the end of the day any changes I would make would be the same no matter the specs.

But since you asked. Let's see...

System:

Windows 8.1 Pro
Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU N3520 @ 2.16GHz 2.16 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB (3.89 usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor

And the Hard drive is 512 GB HDD.

Let me know if there's anything else?

Well lol computers do not work magically. The boot time and the performance you are talking about is achieved by a solid state drive because it has no moving parts.. and a 256gb ssd costs like $100 or something which is darn cheap if you ask me. Try it out, the difference will be huge.
edit: oh and yeah.. 4gb ram is like dinosaur lol. Try windows 98 or something j/k

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Usually, more RAM never hurts Upgrading to an SSD should help as well, but I think the RAM is the one that gets filled with junk data from your bots.

Okay, upgrade RAM and upgrade SSD. Thank you but I'm not looking to invest money.

So if the RAM gets filled with junk data can't I set RAM to clear out every X hours or something like that? I don't need the data from my bots. They're just opening and closing webpages, that's it, that's all they do.

I think the problem is also that Firefox Browsers are quite heavy. I don't know how to put it in technical terms, but they put a heavy drain on the machine. But why do they? I'm completely open to nuking them from any unnecessary functions.

Well lol computers do not work magically. The boot time and the performance you are talking about is achieved by a solid state drive because it has no moving parts.. and a 256gb ssd costs like $100 or something which is darn cheap if you ask me. Try it out, the difference will be huge.

I'm aware they don't work magically. I have SSD on my main lap top, I'm aware it's better and faster etc. But this is my old lap top and I'm not looking to invest money, thank you. I'm just looking to make the lap top function as best as possible for my needs and with the specs it has.

For example. I remember reading that Windows does something called Indexing. And it always continuously does this in the background, draining resources and filling the computer with junk. And this can be disabled to make for a better Windows. Of course, if you disable this then you won't be able to search for anything on the lap top because no indexing. Then also Windows does regular back ups which also drain and take up space, and these can be disabled too to make it better. But then if your lap top takes a shit there's no reverting back to previous version because there's no backups created. In fact, I'm not even sure I checked to see if this indexing and backup shit is still valid for Windows 8.1. I believe I learned these relevant to Windows 7. I'm gonna look into that now.

So there you go. There's 2 things that can be done to make the computer less functional for my mom and your mom, but for my purposes I don't give a shit about indexing and I don't give a shit about backups. If the lap top takes a shit I'll format it in 2 seconds, and I don't use it so I will never search for anything on it.

I need more hacks like that. I know I can throw money at it and get anything I want, but I don't wanna throw money at it, I just wanna hack what I have as effectively as possible and call it a day

 

[nextime]

OP, the advice to use SSD is really very good no mater what we are taking about - browser or other activity on laptop, when you will try SSD you will never want return back to HDD. My advice is that need install "ublock origin" addon, you can find that here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/?src=search

ads takes too much resources and makes sites slowly and inflated.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

OP, the advice to use SSD is really very good no mater what we are taking about - browser or other activity on laptop, when you will try SSD you will never want return back to HDD. My advice is that need install "ublock origin" addon, you can find that here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/?src=search

ads takes too much resources and makes sites slowly and inflated.

I already have SSD on my main lap top. I'm aware it's better.

I'm already using uBlock origin on all the Firefox browsers I use. That's good advice, thank you. I also use Image Block on all my Firefox browsers, so the all images are blocked from loading. This makes the pages look like crap, but I don't give a shit. I don't look at the pages, the bots are just spinning, set and forget, all day every day.

---

Guys, how about we keep this thread free of cost.

Please don't give me advice on how I can spend money to improve my situation. Give me hacks (like mr uBlock just did).

 

[nextime]

@Scorpion Ghost have you tried firefox ESR version instead of usual firefox?

 

[macdonjo3]

Your thread is a bit verbose. Get rid of your FF extensions or try Chrome. Otherwise, get a Macbook lol. I'm a CS major and still can't stand dealing with tech issues like that. You bought the most basic laptop on the market - you get what you pay for.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Your thread is a bit verbose. Get rid of your FF extensions or try Chrome. Otherwise, get a Macbook lol. I'm a CS major and still can't stand dealing with tech issues like that. You bought the most basic laptop on the market - you get what you pay for.

It's not verbose. I give as much information to get the best answers possible. Like when I write that I'm not interested in getting a Mac. I write that so that no one tells me something like "get a Macbook lol." Eh...

Get rid of my FF extensions? So you're suggesting that if I get rid of uBlock and of Image Block extensions, and other extensions that prevent Youtube video pages from loading comments/sidebars/descriptions and that make the Youtube videos appear in their most basic formats, you're suggesting if I remove all those FF extensions the browsers will work better? What are you saying exactly?

I can't use Chrome. I use iMacros for and with Firefox only. Using them with Chrome is a can of worms I don't want to open. Thank you.

I bought that lap top years ago, it was all I could afford. It's my old lap top. I said that in my verbose typings

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

I was right on the Indexing shit. Here's a tut - https://windowsreport.com/indexing-windows-8/

I just disabled it. Waiting for the lap top to restart.

Now I'll look into the backups. If my memory serves me correctly, Windows creates backups at regular intervals by default. While it's creating the backup it's gonna be using resources. Bad windows, bad, go away. I'm gonna look into that now.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Okay, I searched through my external hard drive and found a file where I wrote down that backup shit. It's called system protection, or system restore.

Here's what I wrote down:

Never liked System Restore and the first thing I do is turn it off.

The reasons are that system restore slows the system down, uses up resources (hard drive & memory), often doesn't work, and is a safe-haven for viruses and spyware.

System Restore is for when you mess up your PC not for uninstalling a normal bit of software you don't like, that’s extreme.

Have a Backup of all your Media etc to an external HDD if it all goes wrong.

If something goes terribly wrong, for example, if you use a spyware cleaner or reg cleaner and it wreaks havoc, you can always choose to reinstall the operating system totally and never need a recovery.

System Restore is like putting a band aid over a shotgun blast.

If you've damaged your pc that much then you should probably just do a clean install of windows.

There's also a capacity discussion to be had. Restore points eat up space. And for all of the value that gets heaped on System Restore, it's not always able to facilitate a clean recovery. Turning it off frees up room on the HDD.

Q. Can you boot from a Microsoft System Restore disk and reinstall your entire OS?
A. Nope.

Q. Does System Restore use a separate drive or partition for heightened data integrity?
A. Nope again.

Q. Can a virus which was incorporated into a System Restore archive resurrect itself to bite you in the a$$?
A. Yep.

I'm mostly interested in the slowing the system down and the resources bit, about hard drive & memory. So I just did this too.

 

[HoNeYBiRD]

Defragment the HDD. Also, how full is it? The less data you keep on it, the faster.
Disable indexing and visual effects (adjust for best performance).
Make sure there are no unnecessary apps running in the background.
Turn off antivirus. Although it's not the best idea generally, but if you use the laptop for the same, specific tasks day by day, the chances of getting infected are pretty low.

HDD vs SSD speed difference is one thing, in this case the amount of the RAM seems to be the bottle neck. 4GB RAM nowadays isn't much, browsers like to consume a lot. Just check the memory consumption, when you run 5 instances of FF, not idling, but while running the macros. It must be near the max available. When the hardware is limited, software hacks aren't always enough.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Defragment the HDD. Also, how full is it? The less data you keep on it, the faster.
Disable indexing and visual effects (adjust for best performance).
Make sure there are no unnecessary apps running in the background.
Turn off antivirus. Although it's not the best idea generally, but if you use the laptop for the same, specific tasks day by day, the chances of getting infected are pretty low.

HDD vs SSD speed difference is one thing, in this case the amount of the RAM seems to be the bottle neck. 4GB RAM nowadays isn't much, browsers like to consume a lot. Just check the memory consumption, when you run 5 instances of FF, not idling, but while running the macros. It must be near the max available. When the hardware is limited, software hacks aren't always enough.

Ah HoNeYBiRD, my favorite guy (don't be jelly the rest of you )

Yes I'm aware of the first point. The lap top has NOTHING on it. I did a clean OS installation on it, ran windows updates until it was up to date, and then installed Firefox and Chrome on it, and Teamviewer. And then I moved about 15 Portable Firefoxes on it and 1 Word file. That's it. Shit, I even went and deleted those few pictures and music files Windows has on it by default. The lap top is as empty as empty can be.

I just disabled indexing, and also disabled system restore/system protection. I also have Power options at "High Performance," not "Balanced".

I'm not sure what you mean by disable visual effects. I'll Google it.

I'll check out the apps running in the background. Frankly, there shouldn't be anything there, as I literally don't have anything installed on the lap top. But I'll check just to be sure. If there's anything then it runs on startup, and so I'll disable it on startup in the task manager. I think I can do it in the task manager.

I have no antivirus. I never use an antivirus. All my files are backed up/stored on external drives, and I know my way around the internet and the computer. And if shit does hit the fan (it never does), I can just format. Antivirus is an unnecessary burden, I don't have one on any of my lap tops. Good point though.

So that's it as far as Windows goes...

As far as the Firefoxes go. I have extensions: uBlock on all, and I have Image Block on all. So most ads never load and images never load. Also, on most of the browsers I also have an extension that prevents comments and related videos from loading on Yotube videos (my iMacros often open and watch Youtube videos). I also have another extension that makes sure that Youtube videos are served as Tiny, and video size is Shrink, and annotations are turned off. And I also did a few hacks in the about:config of my Firefoxes to disable sound and to disable animations and a few other things.

Though I feel like I could do A LOT MORE to strip Firefox of unnecessary shit and make it less demanding. Any ideas on that front?

See this is why I like you man. You're the real deal

 

[HoNeYBiRD]

Though I feel like I could do A LOT MORE to strip Firefox of unnecessary shit and make it less demanding. Any ideas on that front?

Well, i stopped using FF years ago, so i don't really know what's the case with it now. On Chrome i have 2 addons which makes browsing significantly faster. One is the Data Saver, which is natively built-in on mobile, can be turned on and off from the menu, it's available for desktop as an addon and although it's a thingy by Google, as i see it's available for Firefox too: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google_datasaver_for_firefox/, although it doesn't work with Quantum. The other addon called Web Boost, this i can't see for FF unfortunately.

DD shared a DNS hack some time ago, which also speeds up browsing significantly, i cannot get arsed to find the thread, but here it is on the official site: https://1.1.1.1

I'm not sure what you mean by disable visual effects.

https://wikihow.com/Adjust-Visual-Effects-in-Windows-8

 

[anup999]

Format your windows

 

[JB2302]

Your laptop might be throttling.
Download some tool to check that.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Well, i stopped using FF years ago, so i don't really know what's the case with it now. On Chrome i have 2 addons which makes browsing significantly faster. One is the Data Saver, which is natively built-in on mobile, can be turned on and off from the menu, it's available for desktop as an addon and although it's a thingy by Google, as i see it's available for Firefox too: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google_datasaver_for_firefox/, although it doesn't work with Quantum. The other addon called Web Boost, this i can't see for FF unfortunately.

DD shared a DNS hack some time ago, which also speeds up browsing significantly, i cannot get arsed to find the thread, but here it is on the official site: https://1.1.1.1

So it turns out I did have something running in the background that wasn't supposed to. Fucking Teamviewer, runs something on startup in the background, taking up 3.5 MB of memory!!!

Just disabled it - https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/TeamViewer-General/TeamViewer-Service-exe/td-p/15956

Restarted the lap top, it's good, it's gone now


I also seem to have Bluetooth that runs on startup, taking up 17.8 MB of memory!!! I'm trying to disable that too. There's no way to prevent it from running in the background (not that I found anyway) short of uninstalling it. But It's Atheros Wlan and Bluetooth suite, and I don't want to uninstall the whole thing, only the Bluetooth bit. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this.

Thanks for the extensions and the rest of it, I'll look into it.

 

[HoNeYBiRD]

I also seem to have Bluetooth that runs on startup, taking up 17.8 MB of memory!!! I'm trying to disable that too. There's no way to prevent it from running in the background (not that I found anyway) short of uninstalling it. But It's Atheros Wlan and Bluetooth suite, and I don't want to uninstall the whole thing, only the Bluetooth bit. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this.

You should be able to disable it via Device Manager: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-bluetooth-windows-10, scroll down to 3].