Make old Firefox Add-ons Compatible with version 4.0

Soon we are going to have a major update of Mozilla Firefox. Recently Mozilla release beta version two of the popular web browser. The visual experience with Firefox 4 is going to be great with polished look. hidden menu bar and a revamped add-ons section. Most of us face a problem with every major release of Mozilla Firefox. That is compatibility of old add-ons with the newer version of Firefox. So some of our existing add-ons might not work with Firefox version 4 since they are written for previous versions of Firefox browser. The developers of add-ons takes time to update them to the newer version. So, if you don’t want to wait for the updates, Here are some ways to make your old add-ons work with newer version.

1 ) Install Compatibility Reporter add-on developed by Mozilla. It is created to test and report the compatibility of add-ons with the various versions of Mozilla Firefox. This add-on automatically configures your browser to install and use add-ons which are incompatible with your latest version of Firefox

2) Type about:config in your Firefox address bar and agree the warning message. Now, right-click inside the browser and choose New –> Boolean, type the preference name as xtensions.checkCompatibility.4.0b and set it to False. This way by replacing 4.0b by future versions, you can make add-ons compatible in future versions too.(more about it at mozillaZine entry)

3) Edit the Firefox add-on file. Download the add-on file to your computer and unzip/extract it ( double-click the .xpi file and open it with winzip/winrar application to unzip ) and edit the install.rdf file. Change the value of em:maxVersion to 4.0.* , Now compress it folder and change the extension of the compressed file to .xpi, then drag and drop the file in your browser to install the add-on. If you have anything to say please use the comment form.