Mozilla Performance Optimization (Windows)
Mozilla supports several options to tweak performance related options. Depending on your system and usage, the options listed below can speed up Mozilla or, if you are short on memory, your system.
Disk Caching
For faster access, web browsers can store recently visited pages on your hard drive; that way, if the page hasn't changed the next time you view it, you won't need to download it again. Furthermore, if you view several pages within a site that share common graphics (like a banner), you only need to download the file once.
In the days of modern computing with huge amount of storage space, you can generally allow your browser to store a large number of pages and files on your hard drive. To increase the amount storage space allocated to Mozilla's cache, go to Mozilla → Preferences → Advanced → Cache, then increase the number to the right of the word "cache".
Generally speaking, 50 MBs (shown) is fine, but with plenty of hard drive space there is no reason not to change it to a couple of hundred. Conversely, if you are running low on hard drive space and this number is particularly large, you may be able to free up room by decreasing it.
An important consideration when you do this is that you are storing web pages on your hard drive, which means someone with access to your machine can see where you've visited. If you'd prefer to increase your privacy (but decrease your performance), you can set this value to a very small number or zero.
Last updated: 8/30/06
