Firefox 82.0.3 TOT

AFAIK it only includes one security fix, nothing looks different here, try ctrl-F5

I've just checked and my PC has auto-updated to FF 82.0.3 at some stage. And I've not noticed any difference. Do you know what version of FF you had before the upgrade? Was it a very recent version (eg 82.0.2) or was it a lot older? I wonder if the change happened in a previous version as part of an architecture change.

This sort of thing is often caused/fixed by changing settings in userChrome.css which is stored in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\chrome. I wonder if the update has tweaked a setting in this file, or whether a default has changed and needs to be over-ridden by a setting in the file.

You're welcome to a copy of my userChrome.css, but I customised a few things such as putting the tab names *below* the menu and bookmarks bars (where they always used to be until Mozilla tinkered a year or so ago...) and I can't remember what I tweaked if you want to untweak those things while keeping the correct background and link colours.

Look out that you're not overriding the web author's colours or any other display features. Changing just one used to invoke a full set of user overrides which changed the appearance of a page dramatically.

There used to be a "Content" section within Firefox's option for this but I believe(?) there's now a "Language and Appearance" section for this.

Can't really help. Firefox is my browser of choice and auto updates. Not noticed any changes here.

What is the hardware acceleration set to ?

Non-native software, the developers like to use OpenGL as a cross-platform solution. In the case of LibreOffice at one time, LO would crash when it used OpenGL, because the windows drivers at the time lacked the routine that indicates the amount of OpenGL memory left. The drivers in Windows 10 (since the Task Manager got the GPU pane), can tell how much memory is in usage. That's an example of what happens when they don't use DirectX and become adventurous.

Paul

Thank you, I am afraid that has made no difference. I have wondered about re-installing it but I am loathe to lose all my settings and bookmarks.

Jonathan

I have always kept FF current for security reasons. Thank you for your offer but I am not sure I have the skills to replace my profile with yours.

Jonathan

I think those can be backed up and restored. Bookmarks certainly can

Bookmarks are easy to preserve: Bookmarks | Show all bookmarks | Import and Backup allows you to backup the bookmarks (including the bookmarks toolbar) to a .json file and then to restore it to the same computer (after reinstalling FF or creating a new profile - what FF calls "refreshing the profile") or another computer (I use the latter for keeping the bookmarks on all my computers etc in sync).

Passwords are a bit more difficult. I *think* you preserve/restore the logins.json file in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>

Note that although the logins.json file is a simple text file, the passwords are encrypted so they can't easily be read if anyone obtains a copy of your logins.json file. I'm sure there are tools which can decode the fields, though ;-)

Even if you change browser the new browser often offers to import your 'old' bookmarks.

I reckon it's too risky to save passwords in my browser, it means that anyone who has access to your computer has access to any/every site you use (that has a password). For the less secure ones I have a simple password generation algorithm that I can do in my head, for the more important/secure ones I have a secure password store.

I have done a refresh and that has solved the problem, now just need to get it back to how I like it.

Thanks for all the suggestions,

Jonathan

I have Firefox store data and sync so all my copies on various machines have the same address book, etc. So deleting one copy and re-installing it shouldn't matter.

I've noticed websites appear slightly differently between browsers. Chrome and FF mainly. Just a subtle overall impression. I guess it's because they use different rendering engines ?

I find I end up swithing between browsers every few months, as performance seems to degrade.

It has just updated to V83.0 64bit

FF is up to version 83.0 now. Someone advised not to alter colour settings. I have difficulty distinguishing links changing from blue to purple after being visited, so I tried forcing visited links to red. This solved my problem but many websites were ruined, so I had to revert to auto.

I'm surprised they didn't choose colours with greater contrast than that pair.

But now the spell checker isn't working!

Jonathan

Oh, they get art students to choose colours. white on white is a favourite.

plot of the play "Art"