Firefox 78

Mozilla released Firefox 78.0 on June 30th, and followed up with Firefox 78.0.1 the next day, to fix a specific issue which “could cause installed search engines to not be visible when upgrading from a previous release.”

Changes in Firefox 78

The new Protections Dashboard, accessible from the Firefox menu or by browsing to about:protections, provides a summary of various protections provided by the browser. If Enhanced Tracking Protection is enabled, you’ll see the number of times Firefox has blocked social media trackers, cross-site tracking cookies, fingerprinters, and crypto-miners. If you’re using Firefox’s password manager, Lockwise, and you’ve signed up for breach alerts, those alerts will be shown here, along with references to exposed passwords.

The Firefox uninstaller will now offer an alternative to uninstalling Firefox when it’s not working properly: a Refresh button. “Refreshing Firefox can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state, while saving your essential information like bookmarks, and passwords.”

The new version also includes improvements to video calls and videoconferencing, as well as graphics performance.

Firefox 78 addresses thirteen security vulnerabilities in earlier versions.

Firefox updates itself automatically by default. If you’ve disabled that option, or just want to get the new version right away, navigate the browser’s ‘hamburger’ menu at the top right to Help > About Firefox. You’ll see an update button if a newer version is available.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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