Firefox 3 is faster'n greased lightning!

If you want to try it, FIRST copy the following without the quotes

"%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\"

and paste it into your RUN command box, then click OK. That will open a Windows Explorer window and show your profiles folders for Firefox. Copy the folder for the profile you want to use to some other location so it will be safely stored. You are saving that profile folder in case you want to revert back to a 2.xx version after trying 3.0.

Then install 3.0. It will replace any prior version.

There is a bunch of weirdness in the new version that I've yet to encounter, but a fellow at Anandtech outlined the major annoyances people are encountering (or just things that some folks don't want).

Here is his guidance. I will add that he presumes you know to type the about:config command into Firefox's address bar, then hit enter or the right pointing arrow at the end of the address bar. You will get a warning that it might void your warranty.

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per user 13Gigatons at AT:

The suggestion to adjust in about:config is the key. This is where the real changes can be made, and avoids the need for extensions. I'll list the ones relevant with a bit about the value that will achieve your most desired behavior.

browser.urlbar.maxRichResults
This setting is only really useful if you either want to remove the autocomplete function entirely, or limit the list to a shorter length on your screen real estate, now that titles are a part of the result. Setting to 0 (zero) will just stop all autocomplete results.

browser.urlbar.matchBehavior
This setting will have the greatest impact on how your results are found, regardless of what sort of results you remove from the ones available (which will be limited in following entries). I've not seen results as I'd expect from this setting yet, but I'm not done working with it. A setting of 0 (zero) should give you a result of finding your URLs based on what you type being anywhere in the URL or page title. A setting of 1 should result in placing of what you type anywhere in the title or URL being first, followed by the URL or title beginning with what you type. A setting of 2 should result in only showing results based on what you type being at the beginning of the URL or page title.

places.frecency.unvisitedBookmarkBonus
This preference set to 0 (zero) will remove the bookmarks you haven't visited from your results.

places.frecency.bookmarkVisitBonus
This preference set to 0 (zero) will remove the bookmarks you have visited from your results.

places.frecency.unvisitedTypedBonus
This preference set to 0 (zero) will remove URLs that you haven't visited from your results, but I can't quite understand where it's getting the URLs from based on this pref's name. I don't think many of us type a URL we don't then visit. At any rate, setting this to zero should preclude some odd results you don't want from showing up.

By adjusting these values you should be able to modify the behavior of the Awful... er... 'Awesome' Bar to act more if not completely like what you were used to. You will still have the appearance issue of the page titles, but the Oldbar extension for now appears to be the only solution for that.

The Stylish Way:
Stylish Plus this: http://userstyles.org/styles/8067

Addons:
Hide Unvisited Addon: https://addons.mozilla.o.........fox/addon/7429

OldBar Addon: https://addons.mozilla.o.........fox/addon/6227

Mozilla:
How to disable the Smart Location Bar: http://support.mozilla.com/en-...the+Smart+Location+Bar

Video: Disable Firefox 3's 'awesome bar': http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9971026-2.html
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You may or may not want to make any or all the above changes. You may or may not like 3.0. If not, you can revert to whatever 2.xx version by uninstalling 3 and eliminate the programs folder for same. Then reinstall the 2.xx version and copy the contents of that profile folder you saved waaaay back there to the profile folder for the new install. Overwrite the files in the new profile folder with those from your saved folder.

If u wunna.

That works well, especially compared to Explorer.
Cheers.

except when uploading some big files on servers, sometimes.