One of the most interesting additions in Firefox 3.6 is a new support page called about:support which can help the Firefox user, admins and technicians troubleshoot web browser issues.
The support page lists important application, extension and modified configuration settings that help you troubleshoot various issues that you may experience when using the browser.
If you run a recent version of Firefox, type about:support in the address of the browser and hit the enter key on the keyboard to load the support page.
The page divides information into groups to make it a bit easier. The first, application basics, lists important information such as Firefox’s version, channel, whether Safe Mode or multi-process is enabled.
It links to several internal pages that provide you with addiitional information about the browser, and has a handy show folder button that opens the profile folder on the computer.
Firefox about:support
The next group lists crash reports generated by Firefox in the last three days. This only works if you have not turned off crash reporting. You may click on the “all crash reports” link to open the history which lists older reports as well.
The next section lists all installed extensions. Each extension is listed with its name and version, whether it is enabled or not, and its extension ID.
Graphics, the next group, lists information about graphics processing and provides some diagnostics on top of that.
Modified Preferences is probably the most important one for troubleshooting the web browser. It lists all configuration parameters (in about:config) that have been modified by the user. These are often the cause for problems that are experienced in the browser.
You find additional groups listed at the end of the page. They cover the Places database, locked preferences, JavaScript, library versions and accessibility information.
The about:support page can be helpful in various situations but most importantly for troubleshooting the browser.
Update: About:support is now an integral part of every Firefox version released after the initial 3.6 version. Mozilla furthermore has added a link to the Help menu of the browser. Users who click on Troubleshooting Information there are taken to the about:support page in a new browser tab.
Update 2: Firefox 3.6 support will end in April 2012, and users of the 3.6 branch are asked to update their browser to the latest stable version of Firefox, currently Firefox 11, or the Firefox 10 ESR (Extended Support Release) instead. Firefox 3.6 after April will no longer be supported or maintained by Mozilla.