user.js v.116 (beta)

🦊 Firefox Release Notes

• 116.0
  • 116.0.1 | 116.0.2 | 116.0.3

✅ Community Updates

• We have blasted off from 800 to 1700 ⭐ in a little over a month 🔥 🚀 🌔
  • Thank you for the support!
• Discussions tab is now open so that Issues will be used for... issues. 🙃
• As of April 2023, Betterfox is an optional install in the Floorp browser. 🎊

📝 Release Notes

General

• Fast, Secure, and Pesky all received a facelift to their documentation, esp. the former two.
• The README is now more streamlined, with a few more tweaks to come.
  • I created an easy 4-step guide to install the user.js file (after watching others suggest a lot of convoluted ways for mainstream users to do this).
• While still WiP, we are making more use of the wiki.

Fastfox

• commented out gfx.canvas.accelerated (default on macOS Linux but not Windows)
  • Added note in the user.js for Windows users to manually enable.
  • Caused issues for Windows users with integrated GPUs.
• improved network.dnsCacheExpiration for longer browsing sessions: set to 86400 (1 day).
  • This corrects an assumption from the 110 release about network.trr.mode (DoH) being enabled by default.
  • Note that dnsCache prefs only work for non-DoH users.
    • Recommended DoH solutions: NextDNS with Cache Boost or ControlD with TTL overrides.
• removed layout.css.animation-composition.enabled (default FF115+).
• removed ineffective or unnecessary tweaks for performance.
• added new network enhancements.
• Speculative Connections category was moved from Securefox to Fastfox.
• Prefs surrounding Firefox caches will likely change.
  • Currently investigating what is optimal for the average PC.

Securefox

• enabled security.mixed_content.block_display_content
• enabled security.ssl.require_safe_negotiation
  • See possible error codes.
• removed PROXY / SOCKS / IPv6 category from the user.js (out of scope).
• removed prefs that disabled geolocation from the user.js (out of scope).
• removed default-browser-agent.enabled as it breaks the Make Default... button in the Firefox UI.
  • It also affected FF forks that use the user.js.
  • Added this pref to our new Optional Hardening document.
• removing browser.sessionstore.privacy_level from the user.js in the next release (out of scope).

Peskyfox

• added browser.translations.enable
  • Firefox will now ask to translate pages in certain foreign languages 💬
  • Set Firefox to auto-translate pages by adding user_pref("browser.translations.autoTranslate", true); to your overrides.
    • You can disable translations for specific languages or pages in URL bar.
• disabled browser.aboutConfig.showWarning
• disabled browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled (Windows only pref)

user.js v.116

🦊 Firefox Release

• 116.0
  • 116.0.1 | 116.0.2 | 116.0.3

✅ Community Updates

• Betterfox has blasted off from 800 to 1800 ⭐ in the last two months 🔥 🚀 🌔 Thank you for the support!
• 🆕 We now have an ESR branch 🎉
• Betterfox is an optional install in the Floorp browser 🎊
• 🆕 Betterfox is now used in Waterfox, starting in G6 Beta 3 💦
  • Special thanks to Alex Kronos for helping us optimize prefs for performance and privacy 🙏

📝 Release Notes

• 116 beta changes
• 116 release changes
  • memory cache adjustment

General

• Fast, Secure, and Pesky all received a facelift to their documentation, esp. the former two
• The README is now more streamlined, with easy download instructions for new users
• While still WiP, we are making more use of the wiki

Fixes

• Added note in the user.js for Windows users to manually enable gfx.canvas.accelerated
  • Caused issues for Windows users with integrated GPUs.
• removed default-browser-agent.enabled as it breaks the Make Default... button in the Firefox UI
  • It also affected FF forks that use the user.js.
  • 🆕 Added this pref to the Optional Hardening document.
• improved network.dnsCacheExpiration for longer browsing sessions: set to 86400 (1 day)
  • This corrects an assumption from the 110 release about network.trr.mode (DoH) being enabled by default.
  • Note that dnsCache prefs only work for non-DoH users.
    • Recommended DoH solutions: NextDNS with Cache Boost or ControlD with TTL overrides.

Fastfox

• removed ineffective or unnecessary tweaks for performance
  • If your machine has > 8GB, then you're welcome to go through the Fastfox and increase values.
• added new network enhancements
• 🆕 disabled HTTP request pacing
• Speculative Connections category was moved from Securefox to Fastfox

Securefox

• strengthened secure connections:
  • enabled security.mixed_content.block_display_content
  • enabled security.ssl.require_safe_negotiation
  • see possible error codes
• removed out-of-scope categories and prefs:
  • PROXY / SOCKS / IPv6 category
  • geolocation category
  • browser.sessionstore.privacy_level pref
• removed privacy.query_stripping.strip_list as the params are default in Firefox

Peskyfox

• 🆕 Firefox will now ask to translate pages in certain foreign languages 💬
  • Set Firefox to auto-translate pages by adding user_pref("browser.translations.autoTranslate", true); to your overrides.
    • You can disable translations for specific languages or pages in URL bar.
• 🆕 disabled focus indicator for links
• disabled browser.aboutConfig.showWarning
• disabled browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled (affects Windows only AFAIK)

user.js v.115

🦊 Firefox Release

• Firefox release notes: 113, 114, 115

✅ Betterfox Updates

• Thanks for helping Betterfox reach over 800 ⭐!
• Betterfox received enough word-of-mouth on r/Firefox that we have our own AutoModerator message 😆 🔥 🔥
  • This was before r/Firefox mods started throwing a fit about the API changes. (RIP Apollo and my mobile Reddit usage.)
  • Check out m/firefox (Fedia) if you'd like a return to sanity.
• There's hardly anything to tweak in the recent releases, which is why you haven't seen any user.js updates in a few months. But that's not a bad thing!
  • There are some interesting features coming down the pipeline.
  • And Firefox 115 ushered in a new ESR base.
    • FF115 migrates users of Windows 7/8 and macOS 10.12/13/14 to Firefox ESR.
• I've reported ETP Strict breaking more sites (bugs 1804486 1836071 1817656).
  • In the future, I may change Betterfox over to ETP Custom to use the more relaxed internal Disconnect blocklist.
  • You can easily modify which internal blocklist is used and change it to lvl1.
    • Unfortunately, Nightly forces the lvl2 list when using ETP Strict, even if you change the pref. No luck there.

📝 Release Notes

• enabled Cookie Banner Handling to dismiss annoying cookie pop-ups where Mozilla has created rules for them.
  • This feature still enforces Total Cookie Protection to limit cross-site cookie tracking, even if you Accept all cookies on a page.
  • Betterfox prioritizes hiding the banners since Firefox already blocks extraneous cookies unless needed.

user.js v.112

Betterfox 112

🦊 Firefox Release

• FF112 release notes
• FF112 for developers
• FF112 security advisories

✅ Betterfox Updates

• Changelog

📝 Release Notes

• Removed user_pref("layout.forms.reveal-password-context-menu", true); since it's now default in v.112.
• Completely disable "website is now full screen" message, instead of only hiding it.
  • Restore previous behavior by using user_pref("full-screen-api.warning.delay", -1); in your overrides.
• Preventing window changes sometimes breaks enterprise applications, so we've removed these prefs:
  • user_pref("browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction", 0);
  • user_pref("dom.disable_window_move_resize", true);
    • We’ll evaluate the latter pref again and possibly restore it in the future.

🖥️ Keyword Summary

• removed = change applies only to new profiles; you must manually reset the pref in your current Firefox profile
• reset = change applies to current and new profiles

user.js v.111

Betterfox 111

🦊 Firefox Release

• FF111 release notes
• FF111 for developers
• FF111 security advisories

✅ Betterfox Updates

• Changelog

📝 Release Notes

• 🎉 We're delighted to share that Betterfox reached over 500 ⭐ on Github. Thank you for your support!
• 🚀 Enabled two prefs in Fastfox. Increasing their values improves performance for some users.
• 🌎 Global Privacy Control (GPC) is enabled. It sends a signal to websites to opt you out of having your data shared or sold.
  • The Do Not Track (DNT) header was supposed to help users when it was incorporated into most browsers in 2012 (remember Gangnam Style? 🐴), but it failed because websites had no obligation to honor it. Websites ignored DNT and tracked users anyway.
  • Unlike DNT, GPC is respected by sites and enforced by the CCPA and GDPR.

user.js v.110

🦊 Firefox Release

• FF110 release notes
• FF110 for developers
• FF110 security advisories

✅ Betterfox Updates

• Changelog

🗒️ Release Notes

• 👁️ Users can now right-click -> Reveal Password in password fields to see their passwords. This is helpful if a website doesn't provide the little eye icon.
• 🔒 Removed HTTPS-Only Mode in favor of HTTPS-First Policy. Firefox will always attempt HTTPS connections, but it will fall back to HTTP if a secure connection isn't available. While Mozilla enabled this policy in v.91 for private windows, Betterfox will now enforce it for normal windows, too.
  • In doing so, this:
    • Lowers the chance of unintended site breakage, and falls in line with Betterfox's goal of everyday use cases like school and work.
    • Matches parity with Brave and Edge.
    • Still allows users to easily toggle HTTPS-Only Mode.
  • We also enabled the URL bar to display "Not Secure" text on HTTP sites.
  • Note that HTTPS Only Mode prefs were removed but not reset, since there are big proponents of this feature.
    • Unless you’re applying this user.js to a new profile, you must manually disable it if you want these more relaxed settings.
• ⛔ Reset dom.popup_allowed_events as it caused unintended breakage. The pref did not improve protection in real world usage when compared to Firefox's default settings and pop-up blocking filters in ad blockers.
  • e.g., Out of 50 times a new window was blocked, only 1 of those times did we want this action.
• ⏩ Removed dnsCacheExpiration prefs as these are easily overridden by the DNS resolver, especially if using DoH/DoT.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Removed RFP prefs due to known issues. These prefs have low utility for Betterfox's context. See https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/issues/1618.

Keyword Summary

• removed = the change applies to new profiles; you must manually reset the pref in existing profiles
• reset = the change applies to both new and existing profiles

user.js v.109

🦊 Firefox Release

• FF109 release notes
• FF109 for developers
• FF109 security advisories

✅ Betterfox Updates

• Changelog

🗒️ Release Notes

• Safe Browsing prefs are reset. Our implementation is privacy-respecting and disables remote binary checks.
• Reset dom.push.enabled. Disabling this seems to adversely impact re-enabling Firefox Sync.
• Query Stripping expanded list is enabled to provide URL tracking protection. This is the same list Brave and Librewolf use.
  • This was enabled in earlier Betterfox versions but dropped due to these lists providing better coverage. We've added it back to provide basic coverage, acknowledging not every user will use those lists in uBlock Origin or AdGuard.
• If you don't like the new extension button (as part of Mozilla's implementation of MV3), you can remove it by adding this to your overrides.
  • Edit: This is being removed upstream: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1799009
• New defaults removed. Fastfox is moved back to the top section.

user.js v.108

🦊 Firefox Release

• FF108 release notes
• FF108 for developers
• FF108 security advisories

✅ Betterfox Updates

• Changelog → Files changed → changed files

📖 Commentary

Happy New Year! 🎆 🎉

I hope you're enjoying the significant speed boosts first introduced in Fastfox v. 107 🔥🔥🔥 I tailored the settings to mid-tier PCs, but you can bump a few of them up if you have a high-end PC. Some options are in there for Linux, too, not enabled by default. Lastly, there are a few optional settings in there if you're running Firefox Nightly (like me!). So if you like to tinker, go in and check it out!

December 2021, we had a little over 100 stars on Github. This December, we have well over 300 followers. Thank you, and welcome to all the new faces!

In personal news, my partner switched from Chrome to Firefox due to Google's upcoming changes that will cripple adblockers. If that isn't a Christmas miracle, I don't know what is 🤣

Betterfox v.107

What's Changed

links: FF107 release notes | FF107 for developers | FF107 security advisories

changes: 37181c3 | be4ab0d

issues: #105

note: Check out #87 for popular prefs that you may want to change.