The Mozilla Firefox browser is a completely free to download, install and to use. The requirements for Firefox browser are listed here Firefox Requirements, but virtually Firefox can be installed on any computer or PC using a recent versions of operating systems like Mac OS X, Windows, Linux.
Download Mozilla Firefox
To download Firefox, click the on the link below:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Non-English or International Users: To know and download the best and latest version for your OS and language, go here and click on the desired link.
Release Notes: If you’re running an older version of Mozilla Firefox or want to see the difference between different versions, you can check the Firefox Release Notes to see the specific differences in different version of Mozilla Firefox up to and including the current version.
Firefox Installation
Installing Mozilla Firefox
Once you’ve downloaded the installation package, installing Firefox is simple – just run the package. If you’ve downloaded a special build of Firefox which comes as a .zip archive and has no installer, simply create a new Firefox folder under your \Program Files directory and extract its contents there. You can then start Firefox by running the Firefox.exe file.
Note that during the initial installation of Firefox, you will be asked whether you want to import your current bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history etc. from Internet Explorer. I recommend that you select Yes to this option, as it will make the transition to using Firefox much easier. However if you say No at this point, you can still choose to import any of your IE settings later on, as well as being able to import or export your bookmarks, so it is not critical that you do so now.
Using Firefox for the First Time
If you’re not familiar with Firefox, that’s not a problem. Firefox is virtually identical to Internet Explorer in its core functionality and interface, so using it is fairly intuitive. Most everything works the way you would expect it to. The most noticeable differences are: a slightly different – and highly customizable – appearance; the lack of a ‘click’ sound when you click on hyperlinks; and the ability to use various Add-Ons called Extensions (which customize functionality) and Themes (which customize appearance). Of course Firefox has a lot more features and benefits than just these, but these are the more obvious things you may notice at first over Internet Explorer.
Since Internet Explorer is still the most popular Internet browser in the world, Firefox is designed to quickly and automatically adopt your existing Internet Explorer settings. You may have already imported a range of settings from Internet Explorer as part of the Firefox installation process. However if you haven’t yet done this, or if you want to update these again at any time, go to the File menu in Firefox and select the Import item. Select the browser you want to import settings from, and click Next. On the next screen select the components you wish to import and follow the prompts after that.
One of the major advantages of Firefox is the fact that its appearance and functionality can be altered to suit your tastes in many more ways than Internet Explorer can, and it has a range of features you may have never seen before. Once you have a handle on the basic settings, make absolutely sure you read the Firefox Settings and Features, Tips and Trick sections carefully.
Uninstalling Firefox
In any case, to completely remove all traces of Firefox from your system for whatever reason, follow these steps:
1. You can Backup your bookmarks as a Bookmarks.html file. To take backup of bookmarks in Firefox go to the Bookmarks menu, Click ‘Show All Bookmarks’, then select “Import & Backup” tab. Then click on ‘Export Bookmarks to HTML’.
2. Note down all of your saved passwords you want to keep. Click on the Tools>Options menu in Firefox, go to the Privacy & Security tab and click the ‘Saved Logins’ button. Now Click the ‘Show Passwords’ button at the bottom of box appeared and all your saved login and password details for various sites will be shown.
3. Go to Control Panel>Programs & Features in Windows Vista/7/8/10, and if a ‘Mozilla Firefox’ entry exists, select it and click the Change/Remove or Uninstall button to uninstall it. During uninstallation process, I recommend to check the ‘Remove my Firefox personal data and customizations’ box as well – this will delete all of your saved settings, passwords as well as bookmarks, so make sure you’ve taken the back up your bookmarks as covered in step 1, and also note down passwords if any, this is covered in step 2.
4. To fully delete the traces of Firefox, Go to your \Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox directory using file explorer and delete it and all of its contents if it still exists.
5. To remove all data of your Firefox profile, delete the following directories if still exists:
In Windows XP –
\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla
\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla
In Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10 –
\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Mozilla
\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\
These above steps will remove all the major Firefox-related settings and traces from your computer. Normally, you should only have to take Steps 1 – 3 of the above listed steps. On the other hand keep in mind, if you want to upgrade Firefox to latest version, then you do not need to uninstall Firefox, just use the built-in updater to update and install the latest version instead via Help menu then About Firefox.