While Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer look great in Windows 8, Mozilla Firefox looks less great on many PCs running ATI graphics hardware. Many laptops are included in that list. Text and graphics are all jumbled in Firefox, especially in the toolbars at the top of the screen, and these Firefox graphics problems make it very difficult to use.

Graphics problems abound with hardware acceleration turned on.

Until either Windows or ATI release updated drivers that fix these Firefox graphics problems, there’s an easy way around them that shouldn’t impact Firefox performance much.

To fix Firefox Graphics Problems in Windows 8:

1. Click the orange Firefox button in the upper left
2. Click Options
3. Click Advanced
4. Deselect Use Hardware Acceleration When Available

Close and reopen your browser, and the graphics problems will disappear!

Note that if you play a lot of Flash-based browser games, you may notice a hit to performance. Hopefully, an update will be forthcoming that will allow users to go back to hardware acceleration without the Firefox glitches. Or, you can use Google Chrome, which uses hardware acceleration but doesn’t suffer from any of the graphics problems as Firefox in Windows 8.

Here’s a link to the specific bug on Mozilla’s bug-tracking website, if you’d like to keep an eye on it in case Mozilla is able to reproduce the issue effectively and get it resolved.

Steve Horton