About a year ago, Ian "Gizmo" Richards published a tip about using UPX to compress Firefox and thereby speeding up the startup time. Of course I tried it and lo and behold (I always wanted to say "lo and behold") it worked! Startup time was cut almost in half. Although I understand (for the most part) how compression speeds up start time, I'm certainly don't understand why it speeds it up as much as it does. Startup time is still is not as fast as IE but it is much more tolerable.
Here's my version of the tip (customized for AHK dudes and dudettes)...
Step 1
If you don't have UPX, you can download a copy from http://upx.sourceforge.net/. Put a copy of the upx.exe file somewhere in the path. If you're not sure where to put it, the "C:\Windows" folder is a good spot. If you have AutoHotkey installed, you can also find a copy of upx.exe in the "Compiler" sub-folder. For most installations, it is located here: "C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\Compiler"
Step 2
Create batch files to compress and decompress Firefox.
Here's my version of the batch file to compress Firefox (Name it Firefox_Compress.bat):
pushd "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox" for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v" popd
This batch file will compress all exe's and dll's in the components, plugins, and the root Firefox folder.
Here's my version of the batch file to decompress Firefox (Name it Firefox_Deompress.bat):
pushd "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox" for %%v in (*.exe *.dll components\*.dll plugins\*.dll) do upx -d "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\%%v" popdThese batch files have only been tested on Windows XP. You might need to make minor modifications for older versions of Windows.
Step 3
To compress Firefox, run Firefox_Compress.bat. Please note that not all exe's and dll's in the Mozilla folder can be compressed. You may get messages warning you of this. Don't worry, this is normal.
To decompress Firefox, run Firefox_Decompress.bat.
Be sure to close Firefox before running either of these batch files.
Warning: These batch files will modify files on your computer. Please use with care and at your own risk.
Final Thoughts
Of course, everthing comes with a cost. You will need to decompress Firefox in order to perform an update. If you get a message telling you that an update has been downloaded, stop Firefox, decompress, and then restart Firefox. You might need to force the update to be re-downloaded. After the update has been applied, don't forget to stop Firefox and re-compress.
If you're interested, here's a link to original Ian "Gizmo" Richards tip:
http://www.techsuppo... ... faster.htm
Good night and good luck!