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Changing All Menu Fonts In Firefox With One Line Of Code

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 03:00 AM PST

One of the lesser-known features of Firefox is the ability to specify how you want the browser to look even down to a menu-font level via the userChrome.css file.

If you use Windows Vista or 7, you may hate the fact Firefox uses the stock Segoe UI font when using a standard Windows theme and wish you could go back the XP-look of Tahoma. You can.

Step 1. Click Help, then Troubleshooting Information.

Step 2. On the web page that loads, click the Open Containing Folder button.

Step 3. Double-click the directory chrome to enter it.

Step 4. Double-click the file userChrome-example to open with Notepad (which may have .css as a file extension depending on how you have your file view set).

Step 5. Edit the file with Notepad.

You will first see a bunch of junk. Get rid of all this.

Change to this:

Copy and paste from here if you like:

* {font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:11px}

Click File then Save As

Change the file name to userChrome.css and Save as type to All Files, like this:

Click Save and close Notepad.

Step 6. Close Firefox completely, then restart.

Done! All menu fonts are now Tahoma, 11-pixel just like XP was.

Want bigger/more readable fonts and menus?

For this look:

Use this:

* {font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px}

For this look:

Use this:

* {font-family:lucida console,monospace;font-size:16px}

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Changing All Menu Fonts In Firefox With One Line Of Code

Fans-In, Fans-Out or Fans-Through?

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 03:00 AM PST

A very old debate when it comes to PC building is whether you should have the airflow of your case fans blowing air in, out or through the case; there are good points for each way of doing it, but as far as I’m concerned it depends on application.

Important note: Don’t take what I say here as "this is exactly what you must do to cool correctly", because there are a million and one ways to cool down a computer box. It depends on the case, the fans, fan size/type/speed, the cooling system should you use one, environment, the hardware you’re using and many other factors.

This is how I put together computer boxes concerning the air direction of fans:

Gamer PC: Fans-In

A gamer PC is arguably the hottest-running computer one could put together, so in this instance I will mount all fans blowing air inside the case. The reason is that during computer-intensive gameplay, you need all the cooling advantage you can get even with a cooling system installed, so fans-in knocks down a few degrees of temperature more when things get really hot under the collar inside.

I don’t do fans-through with gamer PC’s because it can literally heat up a room by as much as 5 degrees F from the hot air expelled. During winter months this is nice, but at any other time of the year it sucks.

Home Server PC: Fans-Out

Compared to a gamer PC which can jump in temperature wildly, servers are best run at even consistent temperatures to maximize longevity of the hardware. Fans-out will run the inside hotter, but more evenly and also help with keeping dust and debris out of the case.

I also choose fans-out because unless it’s a server-specific case, there is no fans-through option because the vents/ports simply don’t exist.

Note: I’m talking about ‘converted’ standard tower cases here. 1U and 2U racks concerning cooling are a completely different story and have to be done by the book according to OEM specifications exactly, else a sensor will trip and the server will shut down – by design.

Home PC: Fans-Out or Fans-Through (depending on case)

When putting together a home PC, my personal goal is to get the most life out of it possible. If it’s a lower-end CPU, I go fans-out because the system runs cool to begin, doesn’t need that much extra cooling and fans-out gives the CPU fan a slightly easier time spinning (i.e. makes it last longer). If the box is something that runs hotter, I opt for fans-through but do it in a very specific way.

If for example I have a case that has side and top fan ports, the back-mounted fans are in-fans, the top is also an in-fan and the side an out-fan; this creates a relatively good tunnel of airflow. It’s far from perfect because there are no plastic ducts like you see on Dell PC’s (those who have opened up Dell boxes are familiar with the big green plastic ducts), but it optimizes cooling in the best way short of going with a full-out cooling system.

Now of course there will be others who would do a fans-through totally different, usually with the back fans as out-fans and the rest as in-fans. I personally don’t agree with that setup, but that’s just the way I roll.