<![CDATA[speeding up Opera / minimizing resources - what plugins, settings, flags should be disabled]]>I don't use flash or java. I do use javascript.

I am trying to keep Opera resources to a minimum and keep Opera as fast as possible, so:

I don't use any plug ins (i was using sumatrapdf until the pdf.js was more mature, but pdf.js great now).

I minimize use of extensions to (pdf.js, https everywhere, adblock plus, and ghostery).

What flags should or could be disabled to speed things up or use less resources ?

I am also testing Opera with a ramdisk to see how that will help.

If someone can tell me where Opera's cache file or temp files are or whether it using the Windows temp directory I would appreciate it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

]]>https://forums.opera.com/topic/1521/speeding-up-opera-minimizing-resources-what-plugins-settings-flags-should-be-disabledRSS for NodeMon, 13 Apr 2026 15:39:13 GMTSun, 23 Mar 2014 07:37:48 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to speeding up Opera / minimizing resources - what plugins, settings, flags should be disabled on Sun, 23 Mar 2014 22:00:52 GMT]]>I've fed some black list of ad/counter urls to my firewall, so basically, it's the firewall that does most of the work for me. Don't know if you can afford running a firewall on your laptop, though. The only thing I still use AdBlock for is the nasty inline ads, embedded right into html like, img src="data:image/gif;base64,XXXXX". I guess it can be done by a simple css hack.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/32427https://forums.opera.com/post/32427Sun, 23 Mar 2014 22:00:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to speeding up Opera / minimizing resources - what plugins, settings, flags should be disabled on Sun, 23 Mar 2014 21:30:36 GMT]]>i actually find adblock plus to be far too heavy. i use a very weak laptop running linux (otherwise it'd be dead). i can't run adblock on it because it slows down browsing considerably. ironic, since i installed adblock to speed browsing up (thinking that loading ads slowed my browsing). on my powerful desktop, adblock is used and i don't notice any performance degradation. but it stands out on my weak system, so i know who the culprit is. it would be nice to see bluhell extension on opera - it runs wayyyy lighter. perhaps you should experiment with different adblockers. opera 20 apparently has a built in task manager that displays ram load, cpu percentages, etc to help identify heavy addons. you have to enable it to use it (i haven't done so yet, so i can't comment on it).

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/32423https://forums.opera.com/post/32423Sun, 23 Mar 2014 21:30:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to speeding up Opera / minimizing resources - what plugins, settings, flags should be disabled on Sun, 23 Mar 2014 16:51:20 GMT]]>No, I presume, if you move the profile with --user-data-dir, you move the entire contents of the profile folder, not just Cache and session.db*. Remember to make your RAM disk so that it's persisted to real disk upon system shutdown.

My config is as follows:
(1) a RAM disk (ImDisk);
(2) it mounts a saved disk image upon Windows startup;
(3) that disk contains session.db* files copied from an actual Opera installation;
(4) the profile remains in AppData, but its session.db* files are replaced with symlinks to their twins on the RAM disk;
(5) "...\launcher.exe" --disk-cache-dir=X: (X: is my RAM disk).
The contents of the RAM disk is not saved upon shutdown. This leads to sessions being lost upon shutdown, but I'm OK with that.

Don't know how plugins are (re-)loaded.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/32402https://forums.opera.com/post/32402Sun, 23 Mar 2014 16:51:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to speeding up Opera / minimizing resources - what plugins, settings, flags should be disabled on Sun, 23 Mar 2014 14:56:03 GMT]]>ok, so if I use the following, it should put both my cache and session.db* onto the ramdisk F: ?

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera\launcher.exe" --user-data-dir=F:\opera --disk-cache-dir=F:\opera

Then what about plugins and extensions ? Are they loaded into memory once at startup or each time they are needed ?

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/32391https://forums.opera.com/post/32391Sun, 23 Mar 2014 14:56:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to speeding up Opera / minimizing resources - what plugins, settings, flags should be disabled on Sun, 23 Mar 2014 10:18:21 GMT]]>Cache files are in %LocalAppData%\Opera Software\Opera Developer\Cache or where you point using the command line option --disk-cache-dir=path. Moving it to a RAM disk can decrease disk writes, which is good if you've got SSD. Move session.db* there as well. There are two ways of doing so: either use --user-data-dir to move the entire profile to a RAM partition; or use --disk-cache-dir to move cache, make session.db* symlinks, and put the actual session.db* to the RAM disk.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/32376https://forums.opera.com/post/32376Sun, 23 Mar 2014 10:18:21 GMT