diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 78d23c0e..de02edee 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 	* version 0.6
 	* THIS VERSION ONLY WORKS WITH FIREFOX 3.0
 	* you can edit textfields with Ctrl-i now using an external editor (thanks to Joseph Xu)
-	* :open,:bmarks,etc. filter on space seperated tokens now, so you can
+	* :open, :bmarks, etc. filter on space separated tokens now, so you can
 	  search with :open linux windows <tab> all your bookmarks/history
 	  which contain linux AND windows in the url or title
 	* tags and keyword support for :bmark
diff --git a/content/io.js b/content/io.js
index e6d5eaed..84fe8118 100644
--- a/content/io.js
+++ b/content/io.js
@@ -86,16 +86,6 @@ vimperator.io = (function()
             return path;
         },
 
-        // path can also be a filename, not limited to directories
-        pathExists: function(path)
-        {
-            var p = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/local;1"]
-                .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsILocalFile);
-            p.initWithPath(this.expandPath(path));
-
-            return p.exists();
-        },
-
         getPluginDir: function()
         {
             var plugin_dir;
@@ -105,22 +95,22 @@ vimperator.io = (function()
             else
                 plugin_dir = "~/.vimperator/plugin";
 
-            plugin_dir = this.expandPath(plugin_dir);
+            plugin_dir = this.getFile(this.expandPath(plugin_dir));
 
-            return this.pathExists(plugin_dir) ? plugin_dir : null;
+            return plugin_dir.exists() && plugin_dir.isDirectory() ? plugin_dir : null;
         },
 
         getRCFile: function()
         {
-            var rc_file1 = this.expandPath("~/.vimperatorrc");
-            var rc_file2 = this.expandPath("~/_vimperatorrc");
+            var rc_file1 = this.getFile(this.expandPath("~/.vimperatorrc"));
+            var rc_file2 = this.getFile(this.expandPath("~/_vimperatorrc"));
 
             if (navigator.platform == "Win32")
                 [rc_file1, rc_file2] = [rc_file2, rc_file1]
 
-            if (this.pathExists(rc_file1))
+            if (rc_file1.exists() && rc_file1.isFile())
                 return rc_file1;
-            else if (this.pathExists(rc_file2))
+            else if (rc_file2.exists() && rc_file2.isFile())
                 return rc_file2;
             else
                 return null;
diff --git a/content/vimperator.js b/content/vimperator.js
index 14b3c418..ee4915e2 100644
--- a/content/vimperator.js
+++ b/content/vimperator.js
@@ -636,7 +636,7 @@ const vimperator = (function() //{{{
                 var rc_file = vimperator.io.getRCFile();
 
                 if (rc_file)
-                    vimperator.source(rc_file, true);
+                    vimperator.source(rc_file.path, true);
                 else
                     vimperator.log("No user RC file found", 3);
 
@@ -648,7 +648,7 @@ const vimperator = (function() //{{{
 
                     if (plugin_dir)
                     {
-                        var files = vimperator.io.readDirectory(plugin_dir);
+                        var files = vimperator.io.readDirectory(plugin_dir.path);
                         vimperator.log("Sourcing plugin directory...", 3);
                         files.forEach(function(file) {
                             if (!file.isDirectory())