I am still in the process of restoring back my laptop to its optimum operating condition. After about a year of operation, the performance had decreased a little bit where the memory usage was always high and drive C was almost full. The internet browsing speed had also slowed down giving a clear notice that the laptop required a maintenance. The were no hardware problem yet and I’m very thankful for that because the warranty period is very close to expiring. All I did was formatting the drive C and reinstall Windows Vista 64bit that I liked better than the 32bit version. Later I’ll discuss about the OS. As usual after a new installation we would have to reinstall every software we need to use. The most important for me is of course the Mozilla Firefox. For me, installing Firefox is not as simple as running the installer and run the application. There are some ‘must-have’ addons that I will always use with Firefox and here is the list:
1. Transparent Firefox addons
Transparent Firefox
Some addons that will make my Firefox windows transparent and suit the Vista Aero Theme. You’ll love this.
Read more about the transparent windows.
2. Alexa Sparky
Alexa Sparky
I’m a blogger so I will always want to know about my blog ranking. This addons allow me to view the ranking of every website I’m surfing and it can also help boost my blog ranking. This addon can also suggest websites related to the one I’m viewing.
3. All-in-One Sidebar
All-in-One Sidebar
This addon combines all the tools you always use in Firefox into one sidebar. The sidebar in default will have the Bookmarks, History, Downloads, Addons and Themes, and Information buttons. Users can customize the sidebar to add any other Firefox buttons including those from Google Toolbar.
4. ColorZilla
ColorZilla
Before using this addon, I will always print screen the page and then use Photoshop to know the color code. With this addon, I can just click on the Eyedropper icon and point it to any color on the page and it will directly tell the color code in both RGB and Hexadecimal.
5. Screengrab
Screengrab
This addon give a new dimension to screenshots. With this addon, I can have a regular print screen, grab the visible portion of the webpage or grab the whole page of the website in image form just by clicking mouse buttons. Images can be copied or directly saved as PNGs or JPEGs. Thanks to Chokilala for introducing Screengrab and ColorZilla to me.
6. FlashGot
FlashGot
This is a ‘must-have’ addon for a downloader. I have always prefer FlashGet as my download accelerator and this addon allow great integration between FlashGet and Firefox.
7. SeoQuake
SeoQuake
This addon will show website statistics on either toolbar or a bar on top of every pages. Statistics shown are Google PageRank, Google index, Google links, Yahoo! index, Yahoo links, MSN index, Alexa rank, Delicious, Technorati, Digg, and a lot more with customizable selections.
8. Google Toolbar
Google Toolbar
I like this because of the autofill option, PageRank status, and the ability to replace the Firefox search box with Google Search. When replacing the Firefox search, the toolbar is minimized therefore will not affect viewing space especially to those using widescreen as I am.
9. Yahoo! Toolbar
Yahoo! Toolbar
The only reason I like this toolbar is because I can customize and put my favorite links on it such as Yahoo! Mail, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, and MySpace. The toolbar will also notify me if there are unread emails in my inbox.
10. StumbleUpon Toolbar
StumbleUpon Toolbar
I love StumbleUpon toolbar because with it I can stumble upon websites, blogs, photos, or videos whenever I’m bored or out of idea. To use the toolbar users will have to open a StumbleUpon account where users can add websites or photo links into favourite.
11. Digg Toolbar
Digg Toolbar
Digg is a social bookmarking site where users can add bookmarks of their favourite pages. The toolbar just ease the process of saving the links into Digg. Digg account is required to use the toolbar.
As for now those are the only addons I’m using with my Firefox. There are several other addons that I had tried and liked but not as essential as those listed. By the way using too many addons will increase the memory usage and slow down my laptop. If you have other addons that you would like to recommend please share them in the comments.
Related Posts Related Websites
I use most of these FireFox add-ons too.