How to Clean Unnecessary Files in Firefox

Every Web browser stores data regarding your Internet preferences and history.

After you use any Web browser for a long time, settings data builds up for your browser and for the websites you visit. These are usually helpful since they tailor your browsing experience to your preferences, but you may want to clear out the files that are no longer necessary. On one hand, you could clean out all the files possible from Firefox and it will still work properly. However, if you delete these files, saved data such as usernames, passwords and website preferences are gone; it will be like you installed and updated Firefox from scratch.

Instructions

1. Open Firefox if it's not open already.

2. Click the "Tools" option at the top of the window and select "Clear Recent History..."

3. Select the options you wish to delete in the "Clear Recent History" window. In a sense all of these options are for unnecessary files -- Firefox can delete all of them and operate just fine. If you feel any are necessary, only remove the ones you don't want.

4. Select the timeframe from which you want to delete the files. This is the timeframe during which the files were created and your options are the "Last Hour," the "Last Two Hours," the "Last Four Hours," "Today" and "Everything."

5. Click the "Clear Now" button to begin deleting the Firefox data files.

Tips & Warnings

• There are six options in the "Clear Recent History" window. The first is "Browsing & Download History," which is the record of your web browsing and downloading. The next is "Form & Search History;" the information you've typed into forms and search boxes. The next options are "Cookies" and "Cache," which control the settings websites saved on your computer and files stored from websites to make them load faster. The last two are "Active Logins" and "Site Preferences;" the first is data that keeps you logged into websites and the second is website preferences such as site permissions you've given and website zoom levels you've chosen.

References

• Firefox Help: Clear Recent History