Firefox "reformat"

Previously I said that Firefox is just like an OS (Operating System), with the add-ons like the applications. If this is the metaphor, then all the bookmarks will be the important files that we own.

Sometimes I will reformat the harddisk and reinstall Windows due to some error, registry corruption, virus infection, some unexpected performance, etc.

And recently, I found that my Firefox have some problems. When the Firefox opened for a long time, 2 or 3 hours, there will be a high CPU usage. Which hinders me to work properly. I don’t know what happened, may be add-ons. I tried to uninstall some of the add-ons, but the problem still there. So, the final solution is “reformat” it.

But unlike Windows, we no need to reinstall the Firefox. Just go to “%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles”, delete the profile, and run the Firefox, everything will be fresh.

But remember, always backup the data: bookmarks. Besides that, since I got some add-ons, I need to export some of the setting, so that I do not need to set everything after reinstall the add-ons.

Another thing I used for backup is FEBE. So that I can install all my add-ons later offline.

Once start the fresh Firefox, go to “Tools>Add-ons”, then just drag-and-drop all the add-ons backup(ed) by FEBE to the Add-ons dialog. So, all the add-ons can be installed in one go.

Restart Firefox, then setup for our own preference.

Now, my Firefox is faster than before.