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Firefox betas: Get extensions working

If you love to live on the edge of browser development, one consistent ache with each new Firefox beta is that all your extensions stop working. The solution to this problem happens to be head-slappingly simple.
Written by Chris Duckett, Contributor

If you love to live on the edge of browser development, one consistent ache with each new Firefox beta is that all your extensions stop working. The solution to this problem happens to be head-slappingly simple.

The solution is to go to the about:config page in Firefox and add the following two variables in this table:

NameValueType
extensions.checkCompatibilityfalseboolean
extensions.checkUpdateSecurityfalseboolean

Restart Firefox and all your old extensions that were previously disabled will now attempt to do their thing. Naturally, the warning remains the same: if you play with beta software and make changes like the one above, don't be surprised if things break.

The older, more time-consuming way of unzipping the extension's .xpi file and changing the maxVersion value in the install.rdf file still works, but the alternative approach mentioned above is far quicker and more elegant (yes, I'm a coder).

Sidenote: Opera's retro birthday theme
Opera turned 15 yesterday and to celebrate the company changed its home page to suit a more 1994-style internet.

opera15.png

Remember when all pages had to have those flames to be cool?
(Credit: Chris Duckett/ZDNet.com.au)

Since it seems that you're only able to view this page once (and probably only for a limited time), the above screenshot should help in case you miss it.

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