Windows 10 reached EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. If you are on Windows 10, see this article.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Firefox suddenly shrinks to an unusable window. Why? How to fix?

  • 2 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 24 views
  • Last reply by TomZ2

TomZ2
TomZ2

Name: Firefox Version: 4.0.1

Opened a new tab (I had about a dozen tabs open) and the window shrunk to a thumbnail in the lower right corner. (Why does Firefox even have such an option?) I did a forced-close, then re-opened. Firefox was still shrunk to an unusablebox in the the lower right corner (under an "always on top" gadget). I carefully teased the window into a larger size, and then maximized the window.

Name: Firefox Version: 4.0.1 Opened a new tab (I had about a dozen tabs open) and the window shrunk to a thumbnail in the lower right corner. (Why does Firefox even have such an option?) I did a forced-close, then re-opened. Firefox was still shrunk to an unusablebox in the the lower right corner (under an "always on top" gadget). I carefully teased the window into a larger size, and then maximized the window.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el

Make sure that you close Firefox before maximizing the window to save the current setting.

Open the system menu via Alt+Space and see if you can resize that window.
If that works then close Firefox (File > Exit) to save that setting.

See also:

TomZ2
TomZ2 Question owner

I’m certain that you think you’re being helpful, but did you actually READ what I posted? I lost all of my settings. GONE! Alt + space was useless. I had to carefully tug and pull on the edges of the collapsed window (which was difficult using a laptop’s touchpad) before I could maximize the window.

I still want to know what happened, that is, why Firefox decided to collapse the window. Usually when a tab collapses to nothing, one can close it without affecting the others. This time, nothing. Complete wipe-out. WHY?