I install a lot of Firefox add-ons every week. First, add-ons that I may use personally and then add-ons for review here on Ghacks or other sites.
One of the things that bothered me for some time now is the artificial delay that Mozilla added to the installation process of extensions in the web browser.
When you click on install on the Mozilla add-on repository or a third party site, you will get a notification about the download of the add-on first.
Firefox displays the remaining time to download the extension. The browser then opens an installation prompt to give you the option to go ahead with the installation or cancel it.
You need to wait until the countdown ends and the Install Now button is displayed. A click outside of the Firefox window will reset that countdown, if you switch windows the installation dialog prompt vanishes completely.
I do not really see a need for the delay during add-on installations. The majority of users have selected to install the add-on and the countdown does not really add to the security of the process. The only relevant information displayed in the installation window is the add-on name and version, and that’s something that you can verify in less than a second.
If you are like me you’d like to get rid of the countdown to speed up add-on installations in the Firefox browser. For that you need to enter about:config into the Firefox address bar and hit enter. First time users need to confirm that they will be careful before they can proceed.
Enter the parameter security.dialog_enable_delay into the filter form at the top of the screen. Only one parameter should now be listed in the window. It has a value of 2000 which is the time in milliseconds that add-on installations get delayed. Double-click the parameter and change the value to 0 to disable the delay completely.
The value should now be 0. The change is effective immediately. The Install Now button should be enabled directly on all future add-on installations saving you at least two seconds per installation.
You can reset the setting by right-clicking the parameter in about:config and selecting reset from the context menu.
Update: It makes even more sense now to get rid of the delay during add-on installations as Mozilla implemented protective measures to block installations on third-party sites by default.