Make Firefox my default browser

Lo and behold: the Firefox Crop Circle!

I just installed v2.0 that came out recently and it is better than ever! One of the coolest thing is the in-line spell checker: wherever you’ve got a text box, it checks spelling as you type and underlines misspelt words; highlight the offending word and right click to get suggested corrections. Another cool thing is the improved search box that now gives search terms suggestions as you type. Oh yeah, and the anti-phishing features. Nice one!

Here’s a quick install guide to Firefox.

1. Download the installation executable from Mozilla
2. Run the installation executable, choosing all defult options
3. Start Firefox and when it asks you if you want to make it your default browser, answer yes

That’s it. In case something happened and Firefox is not your default browser anymore, you can make it check. To do this, go to the menus and select Tools->Options… You should see this dialog. Click the Check Now button and answer yes when Firefox asks you if you want to make it the default browser.

If you are using Windows XP, here’s how to make sure Windows also considers Firefox the default. Right-click on your menu bar at the bottom of the screen, where you have the Start button. A popup menu will appear. Select Properties. This window will appear. Click on the Start Menu tab and then on the Customize button. This window will appear. Check the Internet check box and make sure the drop-down box next to it says “Mozilla Firefox”.

If you are working in IT and you want all the Windows computers in your organisation to use Firefox and be automatically updated, have a look at FFDeploy. We used it in my previous company and it worked a treat. Using it, you will be able to deploy Firefox, including some extensions you want everyone to have, from a central location. When there is an update, all managed machines will install it on their next restart.