Using Secure Login in Firefox

If you allow Firefox to store your passwords you might be worried about the recent security holes found in the password manager. The solution to these problems is to use the Secure Login extension to prevent Firefox from automatically filling in password fields, but at the same time giving you the automation that saves you time. In fact, using the hotkey means that this method is probably even quicker.

The regular Firefox password manager will automatically fill in the password fields for you, which gives malicious sites and hackers the chance to use javascript to read the password. Granted, this isn’t a common occurrence, but it’s still wise to be wary.

Using the Secure Login extension, you’ll see these gold bars around the login credentials instead, but it won’t fill in the fields automatically.

Here’s where the magic happens….  just click the Secure Login button and the form will be filled and automatically submitted.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+N (customizable) to login even faster.

The button isn’t automatically added to your toolbar after installing the extension, but it’s easy to add: just right-click over the back/forward buttons and choose Customize Toolbar. You’ll find the Secure Login button in the list.

The preferences have a lot of other options as well, like not automatically submitting the form when you click the button if you don’t like that behavior. You can even customize the highlight color around the login elements.

Download Secure Login from Mozilla Add-ons

Vista Style Popup Previews for Firefox Tabs

One of my favorite features in Windows Vista is the taskbar thumbnail previews, especially now that they can be resized. If you would like this functionality for Firefox’s tabs, you can use the Tab Scope extension to give you a similar feature.

When you hover your mouse over a tab, a popup preview window will show up with a thumbnail of the page. Note that you can actually interact with this thumbnail, links are clickable and you can use the scroll mouse button.

You can easily change the size of the popup preview as well by using the Tab Scope Options under Tools \ Addons. The default size is really quite small, but you can make the previews as large or small as you’d like.

I’d advise changing the wait time up a bit, otherwise the popups will really annoy you as you try and mouse over the interface.

Download Tab Scope from Mozilla Add-ons

Increase Size of Windows Vista Taskbar Previews

Vista Thumbnail Sizer will let you increase the size of your taskbar preview windows to any size that you’d like. You can even add a fade-in animation.

 

Installation

All you have to do is download, unzip, and launch the application, set the size that you’d like, and the effect takes place immediately.

Note: Because this utility mucks with internal stuff in explorer.exe, use this at your own risk.

There are some requirements for this software to work:

• Software must be started for it to work. (more below)
• Must be run with the same privileges as explorer.exe. (Meaning you can’t run it as administrator)
• DWM (Aero) must be running. The taskbar previews only work with Aero enabled, and so they won’t work in Vista Basic at all.

If you want this effect to happen every time you restart your computer, you’ll have to copy the utility into a permanent folder somewhere, and then create a shortcut to avethumnailresizer.exe in your startup menu with the -hide switch. To quickly get to the startup folder, open up explorer and paste the following into the address bar.

%APPDATA%MicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup

Create your shortcut however you’d like (right-click and drag works best for me). Once you’ve got your shortcut created, open up the properties page and then add the -hide to the end of the Target line, as shown here:

Now when your system restarts, you should always have the previews. If you want to change the size, just launch the utility again and change them.

There are a couple of command line parameters accepted by the Resizer as well:

-kill	Kills the application
-show	Brings up the dialog window (default)
-nohook	Starts the dialog but doesn’t add the effects
-hide	Start up but don’t display the dialog

Download Vista Thumbnail Resizer from Ave’s Vista Apps

Google Chrome Tips

Google Chrome has taken the browser market by storm ever since its release a few months ago. The only complaint that I’ve really heard about the browser is that it doesn’t support add-ons like Firefox does, but Google has already said that a future version will be covering those bases. It’s already been downloaded over 2 million times, and that number is destined to grow very rapidly once developers are able to create add-ons for it.

If you’ve decided to stick it out with Chrome then we’ve got a few tips and tricks for you that we’ve come across over the last few weeks.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can really help make you more productive when using a web browser, and as expected Google Chrome has plenty of them for you to learn. A full list of keyboard shortcuts can be found here, but these are a few handy ones:

• Ctrl+[1-8]: Switches to the tab in that position on your tab bar
• Shift+Esc: Opens the browser’s task manager
• Ctrl+Shift+N: Opens an incognito window that can be used for private browsing

About Pages

Google Chrome has several different “about” pages that can be used to access various information. For example, entering about:memory in the address bar will show you a list of running browsers along with how much memory each one is using.

One of the really interesting pages is about:stats that will show you a list of timers and counters used by the browser. It tracks things like how long it takes (in milliseconds) for your browser window to close, the load time of Google Gears, and more. Google OS has a more comprehensive list of the “about” pages available in Google Chrome.

 

More Address Bar Results

Not seeing enough results in the address bar? The browser should probably offer some simple configuration option for users to adjust this, but it doesn’t. Instead you need to modify the desktop shortcut in order to get more results. Once you open up the properties of the shortcut you’ll want to place this on the end of the “target” field:

-omnibox-popup-count=10

The How-to Geek has more detailed instructions on how to do this.

Change the User Agent

Doing something as simple as changing the user agent should be a no-brainer in Chrome, but Google wanted to make it a challenge. As Digital Inspiration points out it is very much possible to do, but will require that you use a HEX editor to modify a DLL.

Backup & Restore a Profile

Backing up your Google Chrome profile can easily be done by digging into some folders on your computer, but there’s an easier solution. The free Google Chrome Profile Backup app will let you backup and restore Google Chrome profiles as much as you want. It even comes with a nice profile manager so that storing several different profiles is a painless process.

Portable Google Chrome

Take the browser with you on a USB drive by downloading this special package that has been put together by a third-party. All of your settings will be stored within a single folder so that you don’t need to worry about your browsing history getting left behind on a different computer.

Run Google Chrome on Mac or Linux

I’m sure you’re aware that Google has yet to release a version of Chrome that runs on an operating system other than Windows. CrossOver, the creators of Wine, have taken it upon themselves to bring over the Windows version to other operating systems. There are still some quirks to using this method, like not being able to auto-update the browser, but it works pretty well.

Make Firefox Look Like Google Chrome

Do you like the looks of Google Chrome, but don’t want to give up some of your favorite Firefox extensions? This Google Chrome theme for Firefox looks great on all operating systems, and might be just enough for those of you who like Chrome’s appearance.

Overview

About 4% of our readers are using Google Chrome, and so I’m sure you’ve come up with your own tips and tricks to make the browser even better. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments, and also let us know what’s keeping you using Chrome.