Installing FireFox Extensions

One of FireFox’s best features is it’s community of developers and the third party extensions they create. While it’s always been pretty easy to install these, over time, this mechanism has grown to be more secure and less user friendly; a common trade-off. The checks it made (for example you could only install new extensions from certain sites by default) were rational they forced people to either download and install or dig around in the Options screens until they found the correct settings.

With the release of version 1.0 the process has become a lot simpler. If you try and install an extension from a site that isn’t in the current list of acceptable download sites a bar pops up under the toolbars and explains what’s happening. On the far right is an “Edit Options…” button. If you click this then the ‘Allowed Sites’ dialog box appears with the URL already entered. All you need to do is think about the consequences and either hit allow or cancel. And it doesn’t need a restart.

Well I was impressed.