How to Change Content Process Limit in Firefox Browser

The latest version of Firefox, version 55, offers many new features like WebVR using which you can enjoy virtual reality enabled web apps in the Firefox web browser. Since WebVR support is already present in the Chrome and Edge browser, the new update brings Firefox close to the other web browsers in terms of the feature set. Another thing that this new update comes with is the ability to change the number of content processes from within the Firefox options. Here is how:

  1. Click on the hamburger menu icon (that looks like three horizontal icon) to pull down the Firefox menu and select Options from there.
  2. On the options screen, click on the General on the left side.
  3. Scroll down the options available on the right-side to find the settings for Performance.Firefox Content Process Limit
  4. Choose the maximum number of content processes allowed to be used by Firefox from the drop-down list.
  5. Close the Options window and you are done.

Of course, you can also leave everything on Firefox and select Use recommended performance settings.  By choosing the recommended settings, Firefox set a default value for the content processes. The default value of the maximum number of processes is half of the number of cores available in your processor. For example, if you have a computer with dual core processor, then the default value is just one. But if you have an eight core processor, then the default value will be four content processes.

While most of the Firefox users would like to accept the recommended settings, you can customize Firefox’s performance and the system resources used up by this web browser using these settings. For instance, if you are going to use Firefox to enjoy WebVR then perhaps you would want to increase the number of content processes to improve the performance. And if you want to cut down the system resources used by Firefox, then you can reduce this limit.