Betterfox

about:config tweaks to enhance Mozilla Firefox. Files are updated as needed for your user.js.

Made for everyday browsing

A secure, blazing fast browsing experience. Without breakage.

Betterfox is inspired by the law of diminishing returns and the minimum effective dose.

The objective is to make the browser's defaults sufficient enough for privacy-minded users, but remain trouble-free enough that my grandmother could use it. (That puts a whole new twist on being a foxy grandma!) Edit: Sorry for the dad joke 😓

Simple goals

1. Minimalism: get what isn't needed out of the way
2. Efficiency: unleash Firefox's ability to be fast and performant
3. Privacy: protect your data without causing site breakage

Simple configs

💡 Fastfox, Securefox, Peskyfox, and Smoothfox are guides to relevant prefs in Firefox. The user.js is curated from the options located in these documents. Please read the guides to understand the various options hidden in Firefox.

While Betterfox is designed to set-and-forget, it contains plenty of options for those who like to tinker.

about:Privacy

Most projects have niche concerns with no regard for speed, annoyances, or mainstream use. But for us, features like WebGL and DRM are still enabled, and you won't find a setting like privacy.resistFingerprinting mentioned here.^{^why?}

Fingerprinting is a high threat model issue that is only reasonably addressed by Tor.¹ If your context calls for anonymity and not just reasonable privacy, then please use the Tor Browser.^{^what's the difference?}

Assumptions

Apply preferences from the common overrides sticky if you want to revert the following behavior:

• Firefox Accessibility Service is disabled to improve resource utilization and security. Override this if you use assistive software.
• Embedded tweets, instagram, reddit posts, and tiktoks load on webpages, even though these requests are usually blocked when using Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection.
• The native password manager is disabled. We recommend using KeePass, Bitwarden, or 1Password.
• Firefox Sync and Firefox View are disabled.
• Location requests are rejected and site notifications are disabled.

Privacy Suggestions

After applying the user.js and restarting Firefox:

1. Change your default search engine.
   • You can also choose a different search engine for Private Windows only:
     1. Go to Settings → Search → Default Search Engine
     2. Change your default search engine to DuckDuckGo, or add a premium search engine like Kagi.
2. Enable sanitize on close (clear browsing data on shutdown).
   • You can allow exceptions if you want to stay logged in to some sites:
     1. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Manage Exceptions
     2. Check Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed.
3. Use uBlock Origin to block ads and trackers with our custom filters. For a quick and easy solution, use Ghostery.
4. Add DNS-level protection like NextDNS, and check out the configuration guide.

Recognition

User Comments

• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Browser Integration

• Floorp Browser ^{1 2} | files (April 2023)
• Pulse Browser | files (Dec 2021)
• Ghostery Private Browser ^{1 2} | files (Feb 2021)

YouTube

• Firefox is NOT private. Here's how to fix it. (April 2023)
• The ULTIMATE Browser Tier List (Mar 2023)
• I Hate Firefox. But I'm Still Switching Back to It. (Nov 2022)
• [Español] Optimize and Accelerate Firefox (Nov 2022)
• How To Improve Firefox Performance (Dec 2021)

Podcasts

• GhoSTORIES with Franz & Pete, S2|E6, 17:05-18:40 (Feb 2021)

Articles

• Full Circle Magazine (May 2023)
• [Russian] The Pulse Browser project develops an experimental fork of Firefox (May 2023)
• [German] Pulse Browser Review: Firefox fork with Turbo tweaks and Opera sidebar (April 2023)
• 2023 Browser Showdown: Comparing Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera (Jan 2023)

Guides

• FMHY Browser Tools: Privacy Hardened Firefox
• Firefox-UI-Fix
• Narsil/desktop_user.js
• pyllyukko/user.js comparator

Contributions

• Ghostery Private Browser
• Orion Browser
• Kagi Search Engine
• Various blocklists

Credit

• Many thanks to the Firefox team and to the people working on Bugzilla, fighting for the open web.
• This repository benefits from the ongoing research provided by arkenfox. They are the foundation to any worthwhile user.js.

since 23 July 2022