Sometimes tabs take long to open, with the firefox loading animation appearing for a long time

Question

Sometimes tabs take long to open. I keep seeing the loading animation firefox has for the tab but it takes long to disappear. This can sometimes be for 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes.

Disabling or enabling hardware acceleration in the Firefox Settings doesn't help.

I'm using Windows 10 and Firefox 81

Answer 1

I have fixed the problem by performing multiple tasks as the solution is to do multiple things.

• Use Windows Update to update to the latest version of Windows 10 (In my circumstances, upgrading from Windows 10 1903 to Windows 10 20H2 made my computer faster, startup windows and applications faster, and freeze and crash less.)
• Upgrade Firefox to the latest version (In my circumstances upgrading from Firefox 80.1 to 81 made Firefox faster and crash and freeze less)
• Run a DISM Restore Health scan then a SFC scan afterwards. The instructions are described here and below. The scans take hours to run but my computer froze and crashes less when DISM got to 31% so it's best to wait for it to complete. The progress bar moves in discrete increments rather than continually, so the percentage complete shown jumps numbers giving the impression that it's not running when it is. Once done restart your computer.
• Disable extensions which are causing performance problems. You can use Restart with addons disabled in the Help menu or use trial and error to figure out which extension is causing the problem. Firefox extensions that cause performance problems tend not to cause issues in the first 2-3 minutes of Firefox running, but later on, with more issues the longer Firefox is running, so you have to wait. (In my instance, the WAVE Accessibility Tool was causing performance problems.)
• If you have Intel Rapid Storage Technology pre-installed on your computer, open it, and go to the Performance tab and disable Link Power Storage then restart your computer.
• Right click Firefox, click properties, then the compatibility tab and make sure it runs as administrator.
• Check if certain websites slow down the web browser as one tab of when opened in multiple tabs. (In my experience Metro.co.uk slows down Firefox significantly)
• Go to Control Panel then Network and Sharing Centre then Change adapter settings. Right click the adapter used for your wi-fi connection and click properties. When a new window appears, click Configure. When a new window appears, go the the Power Management tab and make sure that "turn off this device to save power" is unticked.
• Change the Power Plan under Power Options under Control Panel or right clicking the battery icon in the system tray. Change the power plan to High Performance. If it's not there, then edit the current power plan under change plan settings then change advanced power settings so that turn off hard disk is not turned off when idle and the wireless adapter is set to maximum performance.
• Restart the Windows Search and Superfetch or now called Sysmain service. If that doesn't work, disable it. It will take 5-10 minutes for the effects on the hard drive usage in task manager to happen.
• Make sure that Firefox runs as administrator by changing the properties of Firefox.exe Do the same for any backup programs you have running in the background. Restart the programs.
• Under the Properties window of the Firefox.exe go to the Security tab and give the current user all the permissions. Do the same for any backup programs you have in the background. Restart the programs.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

sfc /scannow