How to Install Extensions in Firefox

Contributor

By eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (0 Ratings)

Firefox extensions allow you to add special tools to the browser to enhance your online experience. Extensions are usually free to download, easy to install and can be found on the Mozilla Web site. You can find extensions that are geared toward web development, blogging, privacy enhancement, search and more.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Computer with Internet access

Locate Firefox Extensions

Step 1

Go to the Mozilla Firefox extensions Web site (see Resources below).
Step 2

Browse through the selection of extensions.
Step 3

Click the category that interests you to see all available extensions for that category.

Install Firefox Extensions

Step 1

Click the name of the extension you wish to install.
Step 2

Click the 'Install now' button.
Step 3

Click the 'Install Now' button from the 'Software Installation' dialog box to begin the installation.
Step 4

Restart Firefox to complete the installation.

Tips & Warnings

To install extensions directly into Firefox, you must be using the Firefox browser when downloading the extensions.
To use Firefox, your computer needs to meet minimum hardware requirements. For Windows, the minimum requirement is a 233 Mhz processor, 64 MB of RAM, 50 MB of free space on your hard drive and Windows 98 or later. The minimum requirements for a Mac are a PowerPC G3 processor, 128 MB of RAM, 75 MB of space on your hard drive and Mac OS X 10.2.x. If you are using Linux, the minimum requirements are a 233 Mhz processor, 64MB of RAM, 50 MB of available hard drive space and Linux kernel 2.2.14 (with glibc 2.3.2, XFree86-3.3.6, gtk+2.0, fontconfig/xft and libstdc++5).
For the best Firefox experience using Windows, Mozilla recommends a 500 Mhz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 100 MB of free hard drive space and Windows XP.
Download Firefox 2 at the Mozilla Web site (see Resources below).
Not all extensions work with every version of Firefox. Verify that the extension you download will work with your version of Firefox.
These directions were written for Firefox 2.0.0.2. If you are running a prior version of Firefox, some of these steps may not work for you. Consider upgrading to Firefox 2, as it can be downloaded for free and runs on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.