Mozilla has released version 67 of its Firefox browser, bringing some major improvements to its users. One of the largest is widespread support for WebRender, a technology that lets a variety of resource intensive apps and webpages run at a silky smooth 60 frames per second.
The feature is currently rolling out to Nvidia graphics cards, but it’s joined by performance improvements via other means. By lowering the priority of setTimeout during page load, suspending unused tabs, and painting sooner during page load, Mozilla has managed to make things faster.
On the usability front, Firefox 67 makes the toolbar and its overflow menu fully keyboard accessible. This should help for those with accessibility issues and generally makes browsing without using the mouse much easier. Meanwhile, users can now save passwords in private browsing and choose which extensions to use for security improvements.
Cryptomining and Full Patch Notes
Speaking of security, one of 67’s biggest additions is the ability to block crypto miners. This is available via the browser’s custom Content Blocking settings. The feature does not appear to be enabled by default, and Mozilla warns that content blocking can break some webpages.
The build also adds the following minor features:
- “We’ve added a toolbar menu for your Firefox Account to provide more transparency for when you are synced, sharing data across devices and with Firefox. Personalize the appearance of the menu with your own avatar
- Tabs can now be pinned from the Page Actions menu in the address bar
- Firefox will highlight useful features (like Pin Tabs) when users are most likely to benefit from them.
- Easier access to your list of saved logins from the main menu and login autocomplete.
- Learn about all the ways you can manage your passwords in Firefox.
- The Import Data from Another Browser feature is now also available from the File menu
- Users will be able to run different Firefox installs side by side by default so that you can run the beta and release versions simultaneously
- Enable FIDO U2F API, and permit registrations for Google Accounts.”
Finally, the browser will not utilize a higher AV1 encoder, while its high-performance JavaScript compiler will work with Windows 10 on ARM devices. Users can grab updates via the usual method or download Firefox manually via the official site.
