Disable Firefox Prefetching: Speed Up Your Browser

Disabling Firefox Prefetching for Improved Performance

Mozilla Firefox incorporates a function known as "Prefetching," which proactively downloads webpages the browser anticipates you might visit. This can sometimes explain the appearance of pages in your browsing history that you haven't directly navigated to.

However, this feature can consume valuable system resources, specifically CPU cycles and network bandwidth, potentially leading to a noticeable slowdown in Firefox's overall performance.

How to Disable Prefetching

To deactivate this prefetching behavior, begin by entering about:config directly into the Firefox address bar.

Once the configuration page loads, utilize the Filter bar to search for the following preference:

network.prefetch-next

Locate the entry in the list and simply double-click it. This action will toggle its value to false, effectively disabling the prefetching functionality.

By modifying this setting, you can reclaim system resources and potentially experience a more responsive browsing experience within Firefox.

Disabling prefetching is a straightforward method to optimize Firefox's performance, particularly for users with limited bandwidth or older hardware.