Test Hardware & Environment Information
Hardware
A 15' MacBookPro.
Operating system
Windows Vista Ultimate. Build 1000+2000+3000. Running via Parallels in OS X.
User Account Information
Tested using an Administrator account as well as a Standard user account. Screen resolution of 1440 x 900 and 1024x780. The default font DPI used was 96.
Installing Firefox
The Firefox build used was downloaded from [1].
Steps followed during installation
- Chose the option to perform a custom installation.
- Installed the DOM Inspector.
- Installed Firefox in the default directory "C:\Program Files\Bon Echo".
- Selected the options to create Firefo shortcuts on *Desktop *Programs folder and *Quick Lunch Bar.
- Programs folder name in the Program Files folder is "Bon Echo - Asta La' Vista Edition".
Internet Explorer History and Bookmark Import Wizard
For this experiment I added a few bookmarks using Internet Explorer 7 and visited a few pages in order to build up a history list.
Internet Explorer Favorites Organizer
Internet Explorer History
The bookmarks and browser history were both imported correctly into Firefox.
Bookmarks pane in Firefox
Firefox History
Default Browser Behavior testing
- Made Firefox the default browser when it prompted me with the option on its first run.
- Opened a link from the Windows Explorer window and it opened Firefox as it should.
- Clicked on the "Get new programs online at Windows Marketplace" link on the Programs and Features and it also opened the web page in Firefox.
Start menu with Firefox as the default browser
Firefox listed under Installed Applications
Windows Explorer
Vista Themes and Firefox
I was unable to test Firefox with the Glass Aero theme. However Firefox looked fine with both the classic and the new Vista theme.
Firefox running under the default non-aero Vista theme.
Firefox running under the Windows Classic theme.
Firefox Behavior at different DPI levels
For this test case I used the 120 DPI preset. All the main drop down menus were checked for rendering issues. Firefox options window was checked for rendering issues. Add-ons, Downloads and Bookmark organizer were also checked.
DPI scaling in Windows Vista.
Firefox & 120 DPI.
Firefox & Helper applications
The helper applications used for this test case were:
- Skype
- mIRC
- Windows Mail [ I also had Outlook installed but had set Windows Mail as my default mail client ]
I created a HTML document with the following source code:
<a href="irc://irc.mozilla.org">irc://irc.mozilla.org</a><br> <a href="skype://abcd">skype://abcd</a><br> <a href="callto://abcd">callto://abcd</a><br> <a href="callto:abcd">callto:abcd</a> <a href="callto:abcd">mailto:abcd@abcd.com</a>
Skype and Windows Mail opened just fine. mIRC however did not launch.
Firefox was unable to launch mIRC.
skype:// Skype opened.
callto:// Skype opened.
callto: Skype opened.
mailto: Windows Mail opened.
Firefox & Plugins
Testing Adobe Flash
- Checked a youtube video in order to see whether or not Flash is already installed.
- Visited ESPN.com
- Was prompted to install Flash in order to view some of the elements in the page.
- The Plugin Finder Service found the plugin i needed.
- The plugin was installed successfully and I was able to view the Flash elements.
Flash plugin not installed.
Prompted to install Flash.
Adobe Agreement thing.
Flash is successfully installed.
The Flash player works!
- Attempted to play a streaming video on CNN.com.
- Windows media player was not detected even though it was installed.
Windows Media Player not detected. Even though it is installed.
Firefox & Printing
For this exercise I attempted to print CNN.com's main page. Since I didn't want to actually print the document on paper I printed the webpage to a MS Office XPS document.
How the page looks like.
How the page looks after it's printed.
Firefox & Saving files
The same file "mirc.exe622.exe" was saved to the following two directories
- C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
- C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Credentials
With an Administrator account no problems were encountered while saving this file to the two directories. Things changed when I used a Standard user account:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Credentials
