firefox

Fixing a Blank Default Web Browser Setting in OS X El Capitan

Standard

I don’t know what causes this problem but recently I discovered that the “Default web browser” setting in the General preferences tab was blank. Clicking on the drop-down showed no browser names so I could not change the use of Safari as the default browser.

The fix was relatively simple. I opened Chrome and via settings within Chrome I set it to be the default web browser. After completing this action I then had the names of the installed browsers in the “Default web browser” drop-down.

This fix may work using any browser that allows you to set it as the default from within the browser settings itself.

It’s Nothing Personal (Software Updates Changing Preferences)

Standard

I’m departing from the usual purpose of this blog to take a moment to rant about software updates changing settings, especially when previously selected options still exist in the updated software.

My annoyance of the week goes to Apple for changing the security setting that permits the installation of any third-party software. I changed this setting in Mountain Lion a long time ago so I wouldn’t be restricted to using only software developed by Apple partners.

Sure enough, on every computer we installed Mavericks on, this setting had been changed. Previously, we had it set to allow apps downloaded from “Anywhere” but after the update it was set to the second option of “Mac App Store and identified developers”.

I suppose this might be an effort to curb future malware problems though, even if that is the case, it shouldn’t be reset after any update. I realize this is a minor annoyance but it’s not uncommon to experience similar problems with iOS updates and these particular options seem, in my opinion, to be modified in order to “encourage” a specific end-user behavior.

A long-time offender includes Mozilla with Firefox updates, which is why I created a post with specific settings that I could refer back to after installing browser updates.

Firefox Settings: Always Get Newest Page, Open Tab At Far Right

Standard

I’m adding this information here mostly so I won’t have to search for these configuration options again. Every time I install a major version of Firefox I have to go back into about:config and change these settings. I know these work in Firefox 3 and 6. They should work in most other versions. To access these options just type about:config into the address bar, press enter, accept the warning, and then type the name in the search field to filter down to the individual parameter.

Always Get Newest Page

browser.cache.check_doc_frequency: 1

Open New Tab At Far Right

browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent: false

Updated 11/03/2011: I added a few more items for loading pages faster, which I found in an external article titled 18 Firefox Tweaks to Improve Speed and Performance, in addition to various other Firefox tip articles, etc.

Increase Page Load Speed

network.http.pipelining: true
network.http.proxy.pipelining: true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: 10
nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 0 (must be added by creating a new setting of the Integer type)

Improving Battery Life With A New MacBook Pro (15″, MacBookPro8,2)

Standard

The Short Version: Using gfxCardStatus to manage the graphics mode made a notable difference. Uninstalling McAfee Security made the most difference.

This week I started using a new 15″ MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,2) with OS X 10.7 (Lion). It wasn’t long before I noticed a dramatic difference between the battery life of the new MacBook Pro and that of my previous 17″ MacBook Pro, which was about two years old.

In the System Preferences I had noticed that I couldn’t configure the system to only use the integrated, low-power graphics card. Rather, I had to choose to enable “Automatic graphics switching” (in “Energy Saver”) or disable it. If it’s disabled then the computer automatically uses the high-performance, battery-draining graphics card.

Last night I began to suspect that the system wasn’t properly switching to the low-powered card. It turns out that I was almost correct.

Continue reading