slow firefox, multiple windows

Factual Questions
1

I have the latest version of Firefox, it’s set to update automatically. My laptop has 4 gigs RAM. Yet, it slows to a crawl after my windows have been open for a while. Now, I know I’m violating a best practice rule, but I have many windows open, and some of them have multiple tabs, because I use my browsers to hold the place of the urls that I’m going to visit. Most of them I don’t use frequently, but I’d rather have the windows open than just bookmark them & close (especially in the case of tabs, which have related info - like, CNN news, breakingnews.com, cbsnews.com, etc.).
OK, so I’ve done the usual checklist of things that can slow a computer, but none of the ones that came up in a google search seem to apply. Assuming my video card is ok, and I want to keep Facebook open (which I know is a heavy Flash user), there’s the problem of convenience of open windows & tabs vs. slowness.
1 scheme I thought of is to have the windows open, but ‘disconnect’ from the internet the specific windows & tabs that I don’t need every day. My theory was this would stop them from hogging the cpu & memory.
So 1st of all, is that true? Is having a window open something that eats up cpu & memory?
2nd of all, is this possible? Is there a way to individually keep a window open but not actively using the internet (or, not use cpu & memory)? Firefox has an option to ‘work offline’, but it goes for ALL windows, not individually settable.
Finally, if individual window connection isn’t possible, how can I keep a list of websites open in 1 window; like, a website that’ll just have a blank box of clickable url to fetch windows & tabs?

2

  1. Yes, having a window open will use up (some) memory and (minimal) CPU resources if it’s a static page. If it’s playing a Flash animation or otherwise doing something in the background, it’ll use more.

  2. Most pages only load once and stop using your internet connection after that, unless it keeps updating by itself (a la Facebook). But Firefox won’t let you turn off the Internet connection to specific pages, at least not by default… there might be addons that do so, I don’t know.

  3. You can just add all open pages to a bookmark folder, then open all items in that bookmark folder at once whenever you want to see them again. There are also plugins that facilitate tab group management and such.

  4. It’s probably not you. In my experience Firefox just gets progressively slower the more windows you have open and the longer you have it open, regardless of window count. Having a faster computer buys you more time, but it’ll sooner or later slow to a churn especially if any pages use Flash. Flash likes to invisibly crash in the background quite often…

3

Thank u for the fast reply. Flash seems to be a major culprit from what I’ve read. Is it possible to turn off Flash on individual pages, rather than en masse? If not, what’s the consequence of turning Flash off, besides no Youtube videos? WIll Facebook still update Newsfeed and enable chat?

4

Yes, you can use Flashblock to turn it on or off on a per-site basis.

I believe Facebook uses JavaScript instead of Flash for its basic functions (updates, chat, etc.) and Flash for games and videos, bu I’m not 100% sure of this.

5

You won’t encounter Flash on Facebook if you do not play games.

6

My issue with FF (2 mo old computer - Windows 7) is page freezing and lagging with multiple tabs open. Usually, this occurs while trying to scroll down in a page and it freezes or locks. I’ve tried running in safe mode but this has no affect.

I now use Chrome with similar add-ons and it’s trouble free.

7

Feedback - thx I ran Flashblock, & so far so good - performance is better on day 1 of the reboot - let’s see how it goes after a few days - but I can second Reply’s suggestion

8

scripts are a pain

i use chrome now
scriptno+flashblock

and more importantly tab snooze and toomanytabs

chrome also isolates tabs, and has a task manager to see which tab is being obnoxious with resources.

firefox has a few things, i remember no script and flashblock, not sure if the have oto many tabs/tabs snooze. i used to use firefox with bartab, but i stopped using firefox because of the bloat/slowness, and only keep it around as a secondary browser, the new update 11 killed bartab for me last i checked as well, it was the kinda thing that made me quit using it as my primary browser.