The release of Firefox 66.0 is set for today, March 19, 2019. Users of the browser will have the opportunity to enjoy new features, which include, among others, a new storage format for extensions to improve performance, support for the AV1 codec on Windows , and sound autoplay blocking.
All versions, including Firefox stable 66, Firefox Beta 67, Firefox Nightly 68, and Firefox ESR 60.6, are set to receive updates.
How to download and update Firefox 66.0
The long-awaited Firefox 66 release is launching today. Users will receive update notifications automatically when they run the web browser.
However, for those who don't want to wait for the automatic update, they can do it manually or download the stable version from official sources, to manually install it over the old version or anew.
Changes in Firefox 66.0
But let's now see what changes come with Firefox 66.0
Initially, autoplay audio is disabled by default, which means that when you visit a website that may have multimedia, the audio will be muted. Mozilla plans to further develop this feature, starting with Firefox 66.
Firefox users, however, will have the ability to create a "white list" of websites that they will allow to play their multimedia audio.
Follow the steps below to enable, disable, or select the sites you wish to have autoplay:
- Search for about:preferences#privacy in the Firefox address bar.
- Scroll down to the Permissions.
- Select or deselect “Block websites from automatically playing sound” to enable or disable the feature.
- Click Exceptionsto add websites to the exceptions list to allow them to play audio automatically.
Extensions get a new storage format
One of the biggest changes in Firefox 66 is how extension data is stored, in order to improve performance and reduce storage usage. According to Mozilla, this can be achieved by switching from JSON to IndexedDB. The switch will happen in the background, without requiring any additional action from users.
Other changes
- Support for the AV1 codec is enabled in Windows by default.
- Windows Hello support in Windows 10.
- Scroll anchoring support prevents content from moving while the page loads when the user scrolls.
- The certificate error pages have been redesigned to be more useful to Firefox browser users.
- There is a new option to search across all tabs from the menu when there are multiple tabs open in Firefox, to display them all at once.
- The number of content processes has been increased to 8 (from 4). This should improve performance and increase memory.
- Users can now override the keyboard shortcuts supported (and defined) by extensions from about:addons. To do this, go to about:addons and select “Manage extension shortcuts” from the menu on the page.
- The Private Browsing window has a search field in Firefox 66.
- Basic support for the Mac OS Touch Bar is provided.
- Pocket is included, for testing different designs and “more up-to-date content.”.
- The System title bar is hidden by default in Gnome.
So far, no problems have been observed with Firefox 66.0.
The changes affecting developers are:
- Reduced memory usage when extensions load things from storage into memory.
- Application of Scroll anchoring.
- The DevTools Inspector can be fully used if the Debugger command is paused.
- The priority of setTimeout and setInterval is reduced during page load, to improve performance.
Firefox 66.0 for Android
- Sound autoplay blocking has been implemented.
- Scroll anchoring support.
- Files from external storage can now be opened.
No vulnerabilities or patches have yet been announced for the new version of the browser.
