Helpful Reply

I would disable automatic updates and get the new versions of Firefox manually and install them manually. You can get the latest release here:

• http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

To disable all updates, open about:config and set these:

app.update.auto- false
app.update.enabled - false
app.update.silent - false

Modified January 22, 2013 2:29:04 PM PST by finitarry

Helpful Reply

If there are problems with updating then best is to download the full version of the Firefox installer.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installation_directory

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

• Firefox 18.0.x: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

Uninstall your current Firefox version, if possible, to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.

• Do NOT remove personal data when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because all profile folders will be removed and you will also lose your personal data like bookmarks and passwords from profiles of other Firefox versions.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

• It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure that "remove personal data" is NOT selected when you uninstall Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

Question owner

That would probably prevent something like this in the future, it doesn't fix the problem I'm having right now.

After beating on it some more, it appears that it may be related to my user profile; I logged in as Administrator and it worked fine.

Try to run the Firefox program once as Administrator (right-click: Run as Administrator).

If files already have been downloaded then remove the files in the updates and updates\0 folder.
You can also delete active-update.xml and possibly updates.xml (this will clear the update history).

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Updates_reported_when_running_newest_version
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Software_Update (Software Update not working properly)

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)

Question owner

I'll try the "run as Administrator" next time; I got around it for now by un-installing, deleting the firefox install directory, and then installing 17.0.1

Question owner

I'm seeing more and more machines in my environment with this exact problem; it seems that with every incremental update, FireFox becomes just a little more fragile.