Firefox users who are used to having fifteen or more tabs open up while surfing the web, or perhaps tend to load upwards their browser with a bunch of open pages from their last session, volition surely know the bear upon this tin can have in terms of operation. It may non exist a major issue on powerful desktop PCs with processing muscle and memory to spare, but you can bet more pocket-size rigs and almost laptops volition struggle trying to pull up a huge list of pages at the same time.

Luckily, there are means heavy tab users can ease the retentiveness-guzzling consequence that their browsing habits can have on their systems – and today we'll specifically mention two: using the BarTab extension or making a quick nigh:config tweak.

The aforementioned BarTab extension lightens Firefox'southward memory load and prevents crashes by unloading tabs that you are currently not using only want to keep accessible. It can intercept when tabs are opened in the background or restored after a browser restart and will merely load the content when the tab is really visited. It as well allows you to free retentivity by unloading already loaded tabs, either manually or automatically when they haven't been used for a specified time.

Information technology'southward a pretty straightforward tool. Later on downloading the extension here, go to the add-on preferences window and y'all'll run across a handful of options where you can basically choose when to load or unload tabs, and you can likewise create rules for sites that y'all always desire to keep loaded when their corresponding tabs are open.

If you are using Firefox 4 Beta 7 y'all can enable the core function of BarTab without having to install the addition. Simply access the nigh:config bill of fare (type it in the accost bar and click through the warning message) and await for the key 'browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs'. Double click on information technology, change the value to 0 in the prompt window, and restart. Notation that this only applies to session restores, not opening tabs in the background, just it can make launching Firefox considerably faster when multiple tabs are open up, as only the one that is visible will actually load upwardly.

The feature was just introduced in the latest Firefox 4 beta and past default information technology's set up to load three concurrent tabs at a time. Then fifty-fifty if you don't tweak this option you lot'll detect faster session restores when multiple tabs are open up, but instead of loading just the one you are viewing, it volition simultaneously load three and move on to the next batch afterwards.

* Top image by Foomandoonian.