This May Help Your Firefox Memory Leak

By +Warwagon
in Web Browser Discussion & Support

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

saw this over on Digg.com and win98centeral, I searched the forum here and didn't find it.

Basicly puts firefox on your hard drive and out of memory when you minimize it to about 10meg. I tried it and it works great.

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.

2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.

3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.

4. Now select True and then press Enter.

5. Restart Firefox.

http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/03/26/th...ox-memory-leak/

Proficient

joshpo

Posted
Posted

Yeah I saw this on digg yesterday and tried it out. It does help, and on my system there isn't any lag in maximizing and minimizing. Basically it shifts most of ff to the page file from memory when minimized. Also there is an additional edit on the page linked above,

I have also set the browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers value to 0 because that will prevent Firefox from caching pages for the back button. This is also supposed to free up some memory that gets stolen.
Grand Master

raskren

Posted
Posted (edited)

Huh?

All Windows applications page out when they are minimized. What's so new and exciting about this?

Anyway, if there truly is a memory leak, asking the application to use less memory won't do a darn thing about it.

Edited by raskren
Grand Master

funkymunky

Posted
Posted

Huh?

All Windows applications page out when they are minimized. What's so new and exciting about this?

Anyway, if there truly is a memory leak, asking the application to use less memory won't do a darn thing about it.

Well it has.

Max: 52

Min 7.5

Mentor

Catharsis

Posted
Posted

No it hasn't. Obviously, nobody understands the difference between inflated RAM usage a true RAM leak.

Some of us do, but you KNOW that people use the terms synonymously. Why argue about it?

If you're having problems with Firefox, I suggest you try this:

http://www.opera.com/

Yeah, because Opera doesn't use up a lot of memory.

:rolleyes:

Proficient

Slipdisc210

Posted
Posted

Are you kidding me? You do realize you hurt performance by offloading to the pagefile since HDD access is slower than RAM access, right? This also wouldn't solve any memory leaks.

No I don't think anyone is kidding you. This is a very serious subject of FF memory usage.

Yes I do realize you hurt performance by offloading to the pagefile since HDD access is slower than RAM access but I'm not trying to win any race or set any new benchmark records. However, I am not trying to win a slow race either. So I think this config setting helps out quite a bit. But to be honest, my browsing seems to be somewhat faster than before. It is without a doubt taken no major performance hit. I do minimize the window quite often while working.

It should be painfully obvious to someone that after applying this, their browsing has taken a performance hit.

But this is not so in my situation. I would have to assume that I speak for many others who have used this as well. Before

isthisbad.jpg

And after, I use about 10-15mb

my sys specs are in my sig.

btw, what browser do you currently use?

Veteran

planetik

Posted
Posted

@ovenmitt, bangbang makes his own nightly build for firefox. :rofl:

I have to agree with bangbang. Although it does reduce RAM usage, you're going to have to reload the info from HDD, which is slower. If firefox is eating 500MB of your RAM, restart it?

Grand Master

+Majesticmerc MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted
isthisbad.jpg

My god, how many extensions do you have??? :blink:

I'm gonna leave this one off methinks. I have RAM to spare, and I'd rather have it all in RAM for easy access than have the hard disk access delay and save myself a couple of Dozen MB when I minimize Firefox.

Collaborator

Samanthala

Posted
Posted

not mine, I tested it before I applyed the tweak, before I applyed it I had 124 ram ussage and the same when I minimized it

I don't understand: I tested before I applied it as well - at first, it looked like it was staying the same, but mine still went from 55-60 to about 10 after a second...can anyone explain?

Grand Master

Veedems Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I don't understand: I tested before I applied it as well - at first, it looked like it was staying the same, but mine still went from 55-60 to about 10 after a second...can anyone explain?

This only does something when you minimize Firefox. Windows, however, does this for all apps. Minimized apps always take up a bit less RAM when minimized because they get paged off.

Mentor

phot0nic

Posted
Posted

Are you kidding me? You do realize you hurt performance by offloading to the pagefile since HDD access is slower than RAM access, right? This also wouldn't solve any memory leaks.

You know, the second I read the post, I thought the same thing. I figured that it would slow down because you're using the HD rather than the RAM, but it doesn't.

Even though Firefox is behaving memory-wise over here, I figured I'd give it a shot. My RAM drops big time when I minimize, and it doesn't hurt my performance at all.

I understand that you're a wiz when it comes to Firefox, but give it a shot. Do you notice any performance drops, either in the program or when browsing?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Microsoft about to radically change how often your Edge browser updates

      By testman · Posted

      Everyone else has said it. I'm gonna say it - you don't know what you're talking about. I do. I have two laptops. One work, one personal. I have access to two more laptops - both personal. At home I manually update my personal laptop when I see on Neowin that there is an update - I carry on and only apply the updates when I am ready. My work one only updates when my workplace decides to send it - I carry on and only apply the updates (when they actually arrive, which is usually days after the release) when I switch off the laptop at the end of the day as usual. The two other personal laptops only get updated when I get to it which is rarely - the people who own them carry on using them until I get to it and update them. All of the browsers on all laptops are configured to restore the tabs when launched. Google and Microsoft have changed from 6 weeks to 4, and it looks like it's going to move to 2. None of these changes affect how any of these browsers on the laptops are used. Not one jot. My advice to you is stop panicking whenever you see an update. Just carry on with what you're doing. This even benefits you in a way - from your comment you sound like you don't like the changes or the frivolous new features - great - then carry on as before!
    • Lethal fake phone chargers are still being sold on Amazon and eBay, UK watchdog warns

      By Brian Miller · Posted

      AMAZON needs to take total accountability for this.
    • Windows Server gets DNS over HTTPS (DoH) support

      By binaryzero · Posted

      Server Summit had a heap of announcements, ADCS changes are baller.
    • Linux 7.1 arrives with an NTFS overhaul and major hardware performance boosts

      By Max Norris · Posted

      Nice, hope they *finally* fixed the issue with the NTFS driver where the system would completely brick during large file copies using the built in driver. It's been broken for years requiring me to use the older, slower, NTFS-3G FUSE driver.
    • Windows 11 KB5094126 BSODing, freezing, forcing BitLocker lockout, breaks OneDrive, and more

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      Windows 11 KB5094126 BSODing, freezing, forcing BitLocker lockout, breaks OneDrive, and more by Sayan Sen Microsoft released Windows 11 KB5094126 and KB5093998 last week as the latest Patch Tuesday updates. Following that the company also published the accompanying dynamic updates under KB5094149, KB5095971, and KB5094156. While Microsoft has so far not acknowledged any major problems with the release, some users online are running into problems. These range from OneDrive and Dropbox access issues, BitLocker recovery lockouts, to blue screens and BSODs. The most common one seems to be happening with HP systems wherein affected users say they hit 0xc0430001 BSOD (blue screen of death) error code after the KB5094126 update. We wonder if this could be related to the recent bug we covered on HP devices wherein the ongoing Secure Boot certificate updates are leading to similar issues. While we are not certain, users affected by this issue likely need to ensure that the boot.stl file is included on the installation media (such as a USB installer or ISO), if the above-mentioned dynamic updates are deployed. If this file is missing, computers may fail to boot from the installation media and could display the error 0xc0430001. This STL file is used by Secure Boot to verify that the boot files are trusted, so it must match the same Windows version and system architecture. To ensure the file is included, Microsoft recommends using the Update WinPE script, which automatically updates the image and handles the required files. Alternatively, you can manually copy the boot.stl file from the Windows\Boot\EFI folder on a Windows device and place it in the matching folder on your installation media before deploying the updated image. Aside from blue screening some users also note their systems have been freezing following the update. This could be happening to Lenovo PCs specifically. In the case of the OneDrive and Dropbox access issues, a user figured out that there could be a conflict with UAC. He explained: "Okay, so I did some digging, and in our environment KB5094126 breaks OneDrive and Dropbox in Explorer. I went through all our GPOs and found out that the combination of disabling UAC and having my user being a local admin breaks OneDrive in Explorer. ... If I enable UAC again, then it works, even with KB5094126 still installed." Hopefully, Microsoft will look into these issues. Source: Microsoft forum (link1, link2, link3, link4), Reddit (link1, link2, link3, link4)

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Jeroen Wilms earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      508
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      197
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      138
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      90
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      80
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!