Inverse Karma

Ever found a great add-on for Firefox but then realized that it works only in an older version? Well, here’s how to hack into your add-on and force-install it. Note that this merely makes Firefox believe its looking at a new add-on and it may or may not work! (Though in my experience, most add-ons built for FF 3.0+ should work on 3.5 )

Head to the Mozilla Add-ons website and get your add-on (You might want to right-click on the ‘Get Addon’ link and select Save Link As to download the XPI file). Now the XPI file is simply a ZIP archive which you should be able to open with WinZip or WinRAR. Extract the install.rdf file inside the archive to some location. Now again, the RDF file is simply a XML text file. Open it in your text editor and look for the <maxVersion> tag. It might have some value like 3.0.* or something. Change it to 3.6.* or even better, like me, to 4.0.*

Now save the file and update the XPI file with the edited install.rdf file. Finally drag and drop it into Firefox’s window to install the add-on.

P.S.: Whats with the Firefox tip? Well, I’ve been using FF 3.5b for a while and it simply blows Opera 10 Beta out of the water. Many years ago, when I wanted to settle down with a browser, Opera was the only choice for me as only it would work well on my 256 MB memory while FF 2 was too darn slow. Well now, 3.5 is awesomely snappy even with a handful of add-ons and Javascript screams. I just might make the big jump from Opera to Firefox!

Welcome back amigo! Check out the homepage for latest posts or the archives for older posts.