One thing that has always left me puzzled is why Firefox takes so long to startup. Both Opera and Internet Explorer take just seconds to get up and running, but on all four of my computers Firefox takes between 10 and 20 seconds to start (even with no extensions installed).

If you find yourself in a similar situation then what you might need is the open source Firefox Preloader. It can be set to startup when you turn your computer on, and with it Firefox will always be at your beck and call. If there are multiple versions of Firefox installed on your computer you can decide which one you would like it to work with.

From the little I was able to find out, Preloader pre-loads various parts of your Firefox Browser into the memory (presumably the most important parts) so that when you want it to start, it is able to open much faster than normal. In fact when I clicked on the Fox logo to start the browser, it shot open like a politician being caught in a brothel with his pants down. The tabs fired open one by one as if they had drank five cups of coffee each. Firefox is now so fast it’s unnerving me.

It also minimizes Firefox to the system tray by hitting either the minimize or close buttons. Remember, it works on Microsoft Windows only.

If you feel the need, you can “unload” what Preloader has loaded into memory and tell it to “reload” Firefox (see the menu to the left). You can access this menu by a small Firefox icon which appears in your system tray. You can also tell Preloader to start up when Windows starts and you can also tell it where to find Firefox in your computer by specifying the path in your PC.

You’re probably wondering how much CPU this program uses up. Well I can tell you - virtually nothing. In fact it barely registers at all. It rarely goes above 4000k and 0% CPU.