When you download any file from the Internet in your Mozilla Firefox browser, it will automatically scan the downloaded file to check whether it contains any viruses. This is the default setting in Firefox. This anti-virus scan is done with the help of your default anti-virus program. This may considerably delay the download process, especially in case you’re downloading a large size file. At times, you may have one or more anti-virus programs installed on your computer that may also be auto-scanning a downloaded file. Therefore, there may a duplication of anti-virus scan and it may slow down your download process and the use of your browser. If you feel that you don’t need auto-scanning for viruses in Firefox (though it is desirable to have it) due to the above reasons or otherwise, you may consider disabling this feature. However, Firefox does not display any option in the Options dialog box under the Tools menu to disable this automatic anti-virus scan. But, it is still possible to disable (or enable it if required later) this auto-scan feature using a simple trick.
To disable the automatic anti-virus scanning of downloaded files in Firefox, proceed as under:
(1) Type about:config in the location bar of Firefox and press Enter.
(2) Firefox will warn you that “Changing these advanced settings can be harmful to the stability, security and performance of this application. You should only continue if you are sure of what you are doing.”
Click on “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button to proceed further. However, please note that you should not change any values in the configurations unless you’re sure about them, otherwise Firefox may start malfunctioning and there may be some security considerations too.
(3) Now, in the Filter text-box, type browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone and you’ll see the following results (in fact, as you start typing in the Filter text-box, the results of the Filter start narrowing down, therefore, you may not even have to type this full expression):
The default value of the above browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone key is “True”, which means that automatic anti-virus scan of downloaded files is enabled. If you want to disable this feature, then double-click on the “True” value, and it changes into “False” value. Now, this feature is disabled. That’s it!
At a later stage, if you again want to enable the automatic anti-virus scanning of downloaded files, set the value of the above browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone to “True” again using the above procedure.
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