Firemin

Firemin is a small utility to reduce the amount of memory Firefox or other browsers use. Although Firefox’s memory usage improved a little over the last few years, it still uses a lot of memory; a little more than we feel comfortable with.

Programs on my computer can stay open and run for days or even weeks, and Firefox is no exception. Because of this Firefox was using over 3 GB of memory after a few days. It’s quite normal for Firefox to be sucking up over 250 MB of memory right off the bat. In a memory leak, you’ll see the memory usage keeps increasing the longer the program is open/in use and this is exactly what happens with Firefox.

Simply put, Firemin will attempt to eliminate Firefox memory leaks and decrease the amount of memory Firefox uses. All I did was tweak our Memory Booster a little and applied it to Firefox and this solved the memory leak issues.

Firemin vs. Windows Memory Management

Windows will also periodically scan running processes and tell them to release their unused memory. You could argue that this makes Firemin unnecessary, and you would be spot on. However, It is our opinion that Windows does not clean out memory as often as we would like it to. Firemin runs the clean memory API call a few times per second.

The method Firemin uses to decrease Firefox memory usage is not proven and the debate over if it works or not will go on until the end of time, but the logic remains; if it works for you, use it and if it does not, don’t use it. It is really that simple.

Using Firemin

Even though we created the new Firemin to be easy to use, we realized that some users still do not know how to use Firemin efficiently. In this article, I show how to select your preferred browser and use Firemin to stop those pesky memory leaks. I will be using Google Chrome as an example, but Firemin can be used with literally any executable.

To start, if you have not done so, install Firemin and open it by double-clicking on the tray icon, or right-clicking on the tray icon and choosing Open Firemin.

Select your browser

Firemin will work with any browser, in fact, it will work with any program. For example, to configure it for Firefox; on the main Firemin screen, press the Browse button and navigate to the Firefox directory (normally C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox) and select the Firefox.exe executable. Press the Save button to store the setting.

Configuring Firemin

Still on the main screen; set Firemin to Reduce memory every 500 milliseconds. Although 1000 is the default here, we found that sometimes a lower setting yields better results. Play around with this setting to find your ideal configuration.

The Only reduce memory if usage over x setting allows you to allocate a certain amount of memory to your browser. If you are experiencing issues with YouTube audio clipping or your browser seems sluggish, set this to 80MB or higher.

Extended processes

The extended processes feature allows you to specify additional executables to optimize. On the main screen, press the Extended Processes button to open the Preferences window.

If you are experiencing the YouTube audio clipping issue while optimizing Firefox, try removing the plugin-container.exe executable from the list. Remember to press the Save button to store extended processes.

Extended Processes

Other options

Other settings worth mentioning are the Start Chrome when Firemin starts and Start Firemin when Windows starts. We do not recommend using these settings together unless you want your browser to also start when Windows starts.

The first mentioned option is useful for when you would like to start Firemin from a shortcut and have your browser automatically open with it. This way you can automatically optimize your browser when opening it.

Download Firemin

Please read before downloading Firemin!

If your Browser or Antivirus program warns you about possible malware, do not worry, Firemin is 100% clean. Click on the VirusTotal link next to each download to view the online malware scan before downloading. Because Firemin uses low-level commands to perform certain functions some overeager malware detection engines will flag it as malicious, but this does not mean it is. Read more here

What happened to Firemin Server?

We are pleased to announce that starting with version 9.5.3, Firemin Server functionality is now built into Firemin. This means that there is no need for two separate versions because Firemin will now run and function on desktop computers and servers. So, simply download Firemin below and use it everywhere.

Version 11.8.3.8398 (3.37 MB)

Firemin_8398_Setup.exe (2826477 downloads )

Portable version 11.8.3.8398 (2.51 MB)



Privacy Statement

At Rizonesoft we take privacy and security seriously. This is why we do not collect or store personally identifiable information when you download a file from Rizonesoft.com. The download counter is just incremented. Furthermore, when Firemin performs an update check, it simply compares the locally installed software version with the one available online.

Translate

You can translate Firemin into your native language. We tried to make the translation process as painless as possible. To start, download the portable version and look for the en.ini in the Language\Firemin\ folder. It is this file you need to translate.

Please head over to the Translate from Scratch page for a full tutorial on how to translate our programs.

Resources

Firemin uses the exceptional Firefox 2005 icons by Jairo Boudewyn (weboso).

Firefox 2005 icons
Firefox 2005 Icons by Jairo Boudewyn

Source code and support

Firemin is now built with the Rizonesoft SDK and forms part of the Resolute software suite. Please navigate to the Resolute GitHub repository to clone or download the source code. The source code is located in the SDK\Concrete\Firemin folder.

Furthermore, if you are experiencing issues with Firemin or you have a suggestion, navigate to the Resolute GitHub repository issues section and leave us a note.

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