Speedup Firefox - How to make Firefox load much Faster using UPX?

**Strider** · 22-02-2008, 09:06 PM

As you know, loads of tutorials are out there to make the browsing experience in firefox faster. But ever thought of improving the Firefox's load times? Even if it looks sleek on comparing with IE, it took a few seconds to open in any normal computers.

I just found a trick to reduce the firefox load times dramatically, at lest in low-end computers. This is not a new trick, but out there for over two years; I feel ashamed that I didn't notice it till tonight. So here you go!

OS Requirements: Windows All
UpX: Any Version
Firefox : Any version

Idea

The idea behind this tweak is to compress the Firefox's executable and dll files with a Windows PE Packer. More info on EXE packers here. Whenever a developer look for a free exe packer, the first choice will be UPX (Details).

Quote:

UPX is a free, portable, extendable, high-performance executable packer for several different executable formats. It achieves an excellent compression ratio and offers very fast decompression. Your executables suffer no memory overhead or other drawbacks for most of the formats supported, because of in-place decompression.

So Let's Boost Firefox!

Download latest version of UPX from here and unzip it to the Firefox's installation folder ( Default path: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox ). The main upx executable is enough, ie. upx.exe .
After closing all Firefox windows, Open Command Prompt ( Start > Run > CMD for Pre-WinXP and Start>CMD in WinVista.) and CD to the Firefox install folder ( Default path: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox ).
Type in the following command and press Enter.

Code:

for %v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%v"

4. Wait till the command windows closes and you're done!

If you want to switch back to the decompressed state just run the following command instead of the above mentioned one:

Code:

for %v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -d "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%v"

Alternate Method using a Batch file

Download latest version of UPX from here and unzip it to the Firefox's installation folder ( Default path: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox ). The main upx executable is enough, ie. upx.exe .
Open Notepad Copy-Paste the following and save it in your desktop as Compress.bat ( or any name! ).

Code:

pushd "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox"
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v"
popd

3. Make sure Firefox is not running and just run this Bat File. Wait till the command windows closes and Bingo!

If you want to switch back to the decompressed state modify the content of the Bat file with the following and run it.

Code:

pushd "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox"
for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -d "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v"
popd

Notes

If FireFox is installed in a directory other than %ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox modify the command and batch files accordingly.
The fFirst ever mention of this method can be viewed here.
A Compress.bat and DeCompress.bat files can be found in the attached Zip file for a Default Firefox installation.

**bakuryu** · 22-02-2008, 09:48 PM

did u notice any increase in speed ? I didn't see any increase in startup speed.

However the beta v3 -- showed some improvements.

**Strider** · 23-02-2008, 01:40 AM

Quote:

did u notice any increase in speed ? I didn't see any increase in startup speed.

Off course yes. It's more noticeable is PCs with less than 512 MB of RAM.

**bakuryu** · 23-02-2008, 12:34 PM

hmm --- one side effect I noticed was that after compressing the firefox.exe file, in Vista if my Desktop icons refresh, then html and htm files loose the icon and turns to the default type no-icon. Happens only in the desktop. i will see if auto-updater works after compressing the files tonight.

**bakuryu** · 23-02-2008, 06:54 PM

hmm --- I was right -- compressing them breaks the partial update pattern of Firefox and one needs to download the entire package.

**Strider** · 24-02-2008, 01:33 PM

Quote:

compressing them breaks the partial update pattern of Firefox and one needs to download the entire package.

Interesting. May be the update is checking for file checksums.

**bakuryu** · 24-02-2008, 03:11 PM

yes, exactly that is what it does. The interesting thing is that, even if one manually changes the default search provider scripts or the default theme partial update fails.

22-02-2008, 09:48 PM	#2
bakuryu ƒ(ψ)=Θº×φ Join Date: May 2006 Location: India Age: 22 Posts: 4,679 Thanks: 12 Thanked 356 Times in 327 Posts Rep Power: 65	Re: Speedup Firefox - How to make Firefox load much Faster using UPX? did u notice any increase in speed ? I didn't see any increase in startup speed. However the beta v3 -- showed some improvements. __________________ Please don't click here

23-02-2008, 12:34 PM	#4
bakuryu ƒ(ψ)=Θº×φ Join Date: May 2006 Location: India Age: 22 Posts: 4,679 Thanks: 12 Thanked 356 Times in 327 Posts Rep Power: 65	Re: Speedup Firefox - How to make Firefox load much Faster using UPX? hmm --- one side effect I noticed was that after compressing the firefox.exe file, in Vista if my Desktop icons refresh, then html and htm files loose the icon and turns to the default type no-icon. Happens only in the desktop. i will see if auto-updater works after compressing the files tonight.

23-02-2008, 06:54 PM	#5
bakuryu ƒ(ψ)=Θº×φ Join Date: May 2006 Location: India Age: 22 Posts: 4,679 Thanks: 12 Thanked 356 Times in 327 Posts Rep Power: 65	Re: Speedup Firefox - How to make Firefox load much Faster using UPX? hmm --- I was right -- compressing them breaks the partial update pattern of Firefox and one needs to download the entire package.

24-02-2008, 03:11 PM	#7
bakuryu ƒ(ψ)=Θº×φ Join Date: May 2006 Location: India Age: 22 Posts: 4,679 Thanks: 12 Thanked 356 Times in 327 Posts Rep Power: 65	Re: Speedup Firefox - How to make Firefox load much Faster using UPX? yes, exactly that is what it does. The interesting thing is that, even if one manually changes the default search provider scripts or the default theme partial update fails.

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