Making Firefox 1 extensions run on 2.0

Hi guys... today we're not talking about Microsoft products, but Firefox! Of course I have installed IE 7, but my first comment about it was: "How come it looks like Firefox, but without extensions!" Stick out tongue

The things I love the most on Firefox are the extensions. I use 32 extensions installed on my machine here. But since I installed Firefox 2.0, some of the extensions were not working anymore. One of it is ImgLikeOpera, which helps me download web pages faster because I can selectively choose which images to show.

Actually with a little hacking we can make those Firefox 1 extensions working on 2.0. This is how:

  • Download the extension.
  • Rename it into zip (e.g. imglikeopera-0.6.9-fx+mz.xpi to imglikeopera-0.6.9-fx+mz.zip). A Firefox extension is actually a zip file, like the new Office 2007 OpenXML format (docx, xlsx, pptx, etc.)
  • Open the zip file using WinZip or WinRAR. Otherwise, you can also run WinZip or WinRAR and then open the xpi file using "All files" filter.
  • Drag the install.rdf file out of the archive to your desktop.
  • Edit the install.rdf file. Find the <em:maxVersion>1.x</em:maxVersion> string and change the 1.x to something greater than or equals to 2.0.0. You can even specify version 3.0. For example:

    <em:maxVersion>3.0</em:maxVersion>

  • Drag the file back to the archive and confirm when asked to replace existing file.
  • Close WinZip or WinRAR.
  • Open the Add-ons list (Tools > Add-ons) menu and drag the xpi file to it.
  • Firefox will wait for a few seconds, and then allows you to click the Install Now button to install the extension.
  • After the extension is installed, restart Firefox.
  • That's it!
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Comments

# ronald said:

nice tutorial...

Thursday, March 08, 2007 10:13 AM