Using Firefox On Our Public Computers
May 8th, 2008
My library is in the process of re-doing all of our public computers. One major change we’re making is to switch to Firefox for our web browser, instead of the Internet Explorer/Public Web Browser combo we’ve always used.
The reason we’re switching is a simple one - Firefox is just cooler. It lets us have more control over how the browser functions, and lets us offer more tools integrated right into the browser. Better for us, better for patrons.
Here’s a list of the customizations we’re making:
Add-Ons
- Public Fox - this is designed to make Firefox a public web browser, as opposed to being used and customized by a single, private person. We’re using it to lock down add-ons, preference, about:config, and a few other things, as well as control what file types can be downloaded
- Menu Editor - also for the control freak in us, this one lets us remove menus from the tool bar (we’re getting rid of bookmarks, help and history)
- Greasemonkey - one of my favorites, this lets us embed custom coding on webpages, such as a link from Amazon to our catalog, and helpful links on our catalog’s “no search results” page (more info on those on our Tech Tools page)
- Add To Search Bar - this fun one lets us easily add our library catalog right to Firefox’s search bar. The other searches we chose to include are Google, Yahoo, Amazon, the Internet Movie Database, Answers.com, Wikipedia, and Merriam-Webster
- IE Tab - For all of those “Best viewed in Internet Explorer” websites, this one lets you toggle back and forth between the Firefox and IE rendering engines, so IE-only pages and scripts will load in Firefox
- Image Zoom - just like what it sounds, this adds zoom controls to the right-click menu, to make images bigger and smaller. This one is most useful to patrons who get emailed digital photos at 1024 x 768 resolution, which is too big for our screens. This lets them zoom out so they can see all of their grandchild’s face at the same time
Options Settings
- Turn off all automatic updates - we use Deep Freeze, so we do our own updates
- Turn on smooth scrolling
- Turn on check spelling
- Set homepage to our Reference start page
- Always save downloads to My Documents
- Always show tab bar
- Turn off all warnings, except when redirecting from secure to an unsecure page
- Don’t remember anything, delete cookies and clear private data when Firefox closes
Other Customizations
- Disable mailto: links - one repeated tech question from patrons is “I want to send an email but I’m getting some connection wizard.” This happens when someone clicks a “mailto” link on a webpage, and Outlook launches as the default email program. Since patrons need to log into their own web email to send messages, making nothing happen when someone click a mailto link is actually an improvement
- We also took whatever steps we could think of to ensure computer security and patron privacy - this means not keeping any history, and making sure that when Firefox is started, it does not restore from a previous session
A lot of these were judgment calls, and there is no single right way to adjust your settings. Also, there’re lots of other useful Add-Ons out there too, and more at https://addons.mozilla.org. If you have any suggestions for security or usefulness that we didn’t include, please let me know in the comments.
[May 8th, 2008 at 8:54 am | permalink]
If you used Clean Slate for your system restore instead of Deep Freeze, Microsoft windows would update automatically. No need to schedule down time.
http://www.fortresgrand.com
[May 8th, 2008 at 11:17 am | permalink]
Firefox has a feature where it will restore all your state (cookies, passwords, …) after a crash. I’m not sure whether this can be disabled or not — I’m stuck in front of IE at the moment.
I noticed this when it happened to me at the local library. (Which reminds me I should tell THEM as well as you!) I think in that case the triggering event might have been the session timer going off rather than a hard crash — our library has short-term use PCs that run on a timer.
[May 9th, 2008 at 11:54 am | permalink]
To stop Firefox saving session state, set browser.sessionstate.enabled to false. You really want to do this, since otherwise next time it runs Firefox will (offer to) restore the state of the previous session (i.e., possibly the previous user) under any circumstance other than a normal exit, including if the previous user logged out without closing Firefox first.
Since you do allow some downloading, you might think about deleting the downloaded files and emptying the recycle bin on logout. You can add a script to be run on logout by editing your group policy, which in the simple case you do by running gpedit.msc. The parameter to be edited is User Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Scripts ( logon / logoff).
In a standard Windows XP system, the recycle bin can be found at C:\RECYCLER. This directory is hidden, but CD C:\RECYCLER still works. It contains a number of hidden directories, which you can see with DIR /AH. I think you can empty the recycle bin with DEL /F/Q/S C:\RECYCLER\* — but be careful!
[May 12th, 2008 at 8:44 am | permalink]
@steve: We’ve had such consistent good luck with Deep Freeze that we’re reluctant to tamper with something that works. And doing manual updates lets us make sure we get one what we want and that everything plays nice. However, speaking of Fortres Grand, we are switching our timer software from Library Geek to FG’s Time Limit Manager - more on this in a future post.
@Graeme: thanks for the tip and instructions. I know that we found a way to disable this restore feature, but I forget how we handled it. Your method sounds very reliable, though, so I’m going to double-check and make sure we’re doing it this way.
Also, another person sent me a link to Andrea Mercado’s Hacking Firefox post, which is great reading. Thanks, Rich.
[May 12th, 2008 at 9:01 am | permalink]
[…] to the lumbering beast that is IE. There’s an excellent article from the ‘Swiss Army Librarian’ Using Firefox On Our Public Computers. It gives them more control over the browser, it’s easier to use, it’s more helpful for searchers, […]
[May 12th, 2008 at 6:30 pm | permalink]
[…] Using Firefox On Our Public Computers Nice rundown of how to customize Firefox for public computing environment. (tags: libraries firefox tips tech technology) […]
[May 13th, 2008 at 6:09 am | permalink]
Good stuff! Makes me want to get my post on pushing FF into overdrive done.