Could you see whether either of these articles helps (individually or in combination):

• Home page with pipe character opens extra tabs when Firefox starts

• Firefox repeatedly opens empty tabs or windows after you click on a link

Maybe I can express this a different way - Firefox is not opening pages on my screen - it is sending the same page several times to my taskbar where I have to click on it to open it and then manually delete the extra pages in the taskbar - sorry I'm not more teckkie

Each button on the task bar normally represents a separate Firefox window (or other application window). The two mysteries are (1) why so many windows of the same document and (2) why are the windows minimized to the Task Bar?

What is the URL of the page that keeps opening in multiple (minimized) windows? Is it the same URL you have as your home page?

Could you try temporarily using a blank home page and see whether the multiple-window problem goes away?

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > General > "When Firefox starts"

I think I may have discovered the problem - when I blanked my home page as you suggested and opened a page from my Mail Program as I often do - I still had the problem - but when I typed into the address bar or opened from an Icon on my desktop instead everything opened normally so I put back my usual Home Page and typed into the address bar or clicked from a desktop icon and, again, everything seemed to opened as it should - no multiples - so it seems the culprit is the mail program (Incredimail) although it seems to be something entirely new as I've never had this problem before and have always used Incredimail - I'll check with them and see if it's an ongoing problem in one of their updates - Many thanks for your help