Switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox

I've done it. Finally! After much procrastination, yesterday I switched from IE to Firefox for oh, so many reasons. But mainly because I had added so many cool extensions to Firefox I could not put it off any longer. Now to be helpful I'm going to explain how to do it. It wouldn't suprise me that something like this has been written before, but if not here you go, a little guide to teach yourself to use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. This guide assumes you have already installed Firefox, you just havn't been bothered to use it.

Lets start by changing your regular Internet Explorer icons to Firefox ones. The trick is to get you to automatically open Firefox instead of IE, this means putting Firefox's icons where you regularly go for IE. The result is that it'll be a suprise the first couple of times, but as a result you will never open Internet Explorer unless you really mean to.

Swap Out Icons
1. Most people I see around these days has some sort of Quick Launch style bar on their desktop I have mine down the side, it's just more convenient for me that way, and IE is always at the top, but no longer! To do this find the Firefox icon and just drop it where you want to be.
2. Change your start menu pin board, to do this, find the Firefox icon in the start menu, right click it, and click on 'Pin to Start menu'. You can remove by clicking on the Pin Board IE icon and go 'Remove from This List' (notice the strange capitolisations here?)... anyway
3. I also inserted the Firefox icon here, I'm not sure why, because if I was going to that list I've already given up 2 chances to click Firefox with less clicks, but if you need to do it then find the Firefox logo, and just drag to that main menu for easy access.

Changing Associations
This is very essential to a succesful switch over, making sure every program you know, knows to use Firefox and not Internet Explorer.

1. Open Firefox
2. Click on Tools > Options
3. Then from the General tab, click on Check Now

You could also select the check box so that it checks every time you start Firefox, but these boxes can be frustraiting, so I always leave them blank. You now need to click OK, incase you didnt know.

You should also tell IE it is no longer required as the default browser, which is the same as switching that check box off, just doing it in IE. This is so that for whatever reason Internet Explorer opens instead you don't have to content with check boxes asking for re-association.

Internet Explorer 7

1. Open Internet Explorer in your favourite way
   
2. Press Alt on the keyboard to bring up the menu system
3. Click on Tools > Internet Options
4. Then go to the Programs tab
5. Then just after half way down the window un-check "Tell me if Internet Explorer is not the default web browser"

OK, that window and you are now done. I will add the instructions for IE6 soon, but I don't have access to a machine with it at the moment, and the instructions are kind of the same anyway.

Bookmarks
This process is the simplest way to import your bookmarks from Internet Explorer, it is fairly simple you can use the image on the right as a guide to this list:

1. Go to Bookmarks in Firefox
2. Select Manage Bookmarks
3. In the Manage Bookmarks window Select File
4. Then Import
5. Then select Internet Explorer
6. Then click Next

Now you are done!

Cookies
Unfortunatly there is no way to import cookies from IE in to Firefox, there is an option in the installation that will let you do it, along with the bookmarks, but none after you have installed it, maybe there is a Add-on, but I have never looked.

Make Firefox Your Own
Install some extensions, these little scripts allow you to make your web browsing more fun. It's like adding a toolbar in Internet Explorer, but without the nasty Spyware. The list I use is totally geek pimpness:

• All-In-One Sidebar - This bizare little application puts all of those popup window elements such as your download window, extension window, javascript debugging window in to a handy bar on the side of your screen, no more flicking between windows to find if your download has finished, it is already there!
  
• ErrorZilla - This very handy tool comes up when a webpage you go to doesn't exist and gives you options to change it
• FireFTP - This allows you to login and upload to an FTP server, I tried loads of FTP programs before, this is the only one I liked.
• Greasemonkey - This is such a fun utility, it's like making extensions easy, and safe, you can download scripts that modify very specific sites, such as removing ads or changing the layout so it is easier to read
• IE View Lite - If you are a web designer or you really cannot live without IE, using this extension in 2 clicks you can view any page in Internet Explorer, it's also handy for those IE only sites. I just wish they had extended it so that you could choose to open other browsers too.
• Tab Mix Plus - I cannot explain to you how useful this extension is, it has just about every option under the Sun to manage your tabs. My only wish is that it allowed you to change the order of the items in the right click menu, having close tab near the bottom, and undo close tab at the top is just insane.
• User Agent Switcher - As a webdeveloper this is a very interesting tool to see how a website copes with being told you are using a different browser, for layman this is totally and utterly useless, but for me... I'm sure I could find a use for it.
• VideoDownloader - Ever wanted to download those videos from YouTube? Google Video, or any of those other video sites? Now you can, and its easy! Just click on the icon on the bottom right of Firefox and you can quickly download the video direct to your hard disk (in flv format which you can convert in almost any converter program).
• Web Developer - This very cool extension, gives you an over whelming amount of tools for web designers, but rather than some shoddy WYSIWYG, it allows you to manipulate pages in real time, e.g. removing the CSS. If only it had a live Source editor like Opera.
  

And once you have taken your pick of those, and found your own preference, you can call Firefox your own.

Now as you may know, there is a reason I have taken this long to switch to Firefox, I believe it is a fad, let me see how long I can keep using Firefox for.

Oh, and by the way, that image is supposed to be Firefox rising from the ashes, not IE burning Firefox.