ReactOS is an open-source operating system that is designed to be binary compatible with Microsoft Windows. What this means that you can run all the Windows applications directly in ReactOS without any emulators. We have posted about how you can run ReactOS on any PC without installing it on the hard drive. But if you use ReactOS for a few minutes, you will quickly realize that it comes without any web browser. Fortunately, you can install Firefox web browser in ReactOS very easily. Here is how:
- Switch to ReactOS desktop and then double-click on Applications Manager and wait for it to automatically fetch the latest repository data from the internet.
- In the search text box type firefox and it will display all the available Firefox versions. You can install Firefox version 3.6, Firefox version 28 and Firefox version 48. If your computer has 512MB or more RAM, only then you should install Firefox version 28 or version 48.
- After selecting the Firefox version from the list, click on the Install button. This will make it download the Firefox setup from the Mozilla FTP servers. After the download is finished, the familiar Firefox setup will be launched and you can go ahead to complete the installation.
- After the installation is complete, you can launch Firefox from the desktop shortcut just like in Windows.
Usually people install ReactOS on older computers with very little RAM. If you are trying to use Firefox on such a system, make sure that disable Firefox updates. Because Firefox will auto-update itself and the newer versions that will demand too much RAM causing the computer to hang. Furthermore, since Firefox versions 53.0 and later demand Windows 7 or newer versions of Windows, you cannot install Firefox 53 or any later versions in ReactOS. A stable and fully supported Firefox version to be used in ReactOS is Firefox 48.