Firefox is working on a fix for an unnecessary process launch in Windows 11. Once this gets fixed, it could make opening links faster. It could also speed up the process of returning to a browser that is already running.

Basically, it uses Microsoft’s accelerated app launch technology. Edge already supports it, and it eliminates an extra step when Windows sends launch requests to an existing browser window.

This issue was originally highlighted in a Bugzilla entry (2087194), filed in late October. It describes how Firefox currently starts a new “firefox.exe” process whenever users click external links or launch the browser from the Start menu/taskbar… even when the browser is already running. This temporary process creates unnecessary overhead.

Bugzilla process for the Firefox startup fix.

To address such behavior, Microsoft has developed accelerated app launch. Instead of starting another pointless intermediate process, Windows can directly notify an application that’s already running whenever a launch request arrives. It reduces latency; Microsoft has officially published a blog detailing this here.

Official blog from Microsoft/Windows.

In Mozilla’s early testing, the time to open a Firefox instance dropped from 70ms to approximately 3ms. However, this measures the launch handoff and not the exact time needed to load a webpage. The actual speed that a website loads might not change by much, but the launch itself should feel snappier.

If you’re someone who keeps Firefox open consistently, or someone who sets it to launch automatically during startup, this fix should result in theoretical speed improvements.

Microsoft Edge already benefits from accelerated app launches (as detailed by an official Windows blog), and Microsoft is also working to bring the same technology to Chromium. This could potentially benefit Chrome, Brave, and Vivaldi in the future.

Microsoft Edge description.

For now, the implementation on Firefox is still in really early/experimental stages. It’ll take a while for Mozilla to enable it for all users. It’s unclear whether the new behavior is available in the Nightly channel at the time of writing.

In other Firefox news, Mozilla is temporarily removing the data restrictions for the built-in VPN. More on that here.

 
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PiunikaWeb’s Take

Launching an entirely new Firefox process just to share a link to a browser that’s already running in the background was completely pointless memory overhead, especially at a time when memory efficiency and RAM usage concerns are at a peak.

Users expect clicking a link to be practically instantaneous, and there’s a stereotype of Gecko browsers being inferior in performance too. Using the accelerated launch API from Microsoft is an excellent solution to this problem. However, we still need a hands-on test to check whether the differences are actually significant in real-world use.

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Sudhanshu K
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I have been a consumer technology enthusiast for over 5 years. Thanks to my experience in software beta testing and product reviews, I've understood and learnt a lot about what bugs and issues bother people, and I spend time trying to simplify their solutions. I cover smartphones, software, social media, apps, AI, and most consumer tech gadgets. Actively pursuing a Computer Science bachelor’s degree. I'm mostly active on Twitter/X (@TechWhirlUlt), drop a DM or tag me if you want to share info or connect!