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Uninstall current Firefox from W10 Desktop PC

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There are several posts on this site regarding uninstalling Firefox. I am running current Firefox on current W10 64bit 1903 desktop PC using Ethernet with Spectrum as my ISP. I am having a couple of problems in Firefox that are not happening in current Chrome. 1. Page-not-found 2-8 times a day that resolve every time by simply clicking the "retry" (or something close to that) button. I reset my router to "factory" and installed most current router firmware but that did not help. Netgear Support has been unable to help. 2. In current LastPass addon, I have to re-login to LastPass every time I start Firefox - did not used to do that (a year ago), and in Chrome or Edge that does not happen. I have re-installed the LastPass add-on. I have upgraded Firefox many times and have cleared history/cache many times. So now I want to COMPLETELY remove Firefox, reboot, and then install Firefox from scratch. Can someone please point me to the web page that tells me how to properly remove all of Firefox so that I can re-download/install it from the beginning? I do not care about retaining my Firefox settings or other from my current Firefox install.

There are several posts on this site regarding uninstalling Firefox. I am running current Firefox on current W10 64bit 1903 desktop PC using Ethernet with Spectrum as my ISP. I am having a couple of problems in Firefox that are not happening in current Chrome. 1. Page-not-found 2-8 times a day that resolve every time by simply clicking the "retry" (or something close to that) button. I reset my router to "factory" and installed most current router firmware but that did not help. Netgear Support has been unable to help. 2. In current LastPass addon, I have to re-login to LastPass every time I start Firefox - did not used to do that (a year ago), and in Chrome or Edge that does not happen. I have re-installed the LastPass add-on. I have upgraded Firefox many times and have cleared history/cache many times. So now I want to COMPLETELY remove Firefox, reboot, and then install Firefox from scratch. Can someone please point me to the web page that tells me how to properly remove all of Firefox so that I can re-download/install it from the beginning? I do not care about retaining my Firefox settings or other from my current Firefox install.

Chosen solution

cwr64 said

12/2 - 6PM CST - Still no hits on "Server not Found" using DoH. I wonder why using DoH SEEMS to fix the problem.

DNS over HTTPS bypasses the Windows DNS resolution mechanism; that is only used if the server is not found on the real internet (for example, http://SomeLocalDevice/). So with DoH, anything that might be hooking into Windows (or wherever Windows was sending the requests) to filter or inspect your DNS queries is now blissfully unaware of them.

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All Replies (20)

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To save on time chasing files, could you first try this test if you haven't already:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to install LastPass and test some problem site(s).

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like Nov2019, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Launch profile in new browser button.

Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.) Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test.

But do activate or install LastPass since that needs further investigation.

Do the problem site(s) work any better in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, you can close the extra window without affecting your regular Firefox profile. (Nov2019 will remain available for future testing.)

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First, I used the Firefox addons screen to remove the LastPass extension. Then I recycled Firefox. Then I did as instructed, I believe to come up on the new profile. I then added LastPass, Privacy Badger, UBO, HTTPS:Everywhere, Don't F... with Paste addons to the browser. Then I clicked on the gray LastPass icon and entered my email address and password to login - which changed the icon from gray to red (like it should). Then I updated my preferences like the Home Page, etc. Then I closed the browser. Then I started Firefox. Unfortunately, the LastPass icon (upper right corner of browser window) is gray rather than red - indicating that I'm no longer logged in to LastPass. In other words, the new profile did not fix my LastPass problem. I lose my LastPass login when I shutdown and then restart Firefox.

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Do you think a complete uninstall/install of Firefox would help? If so, please reply with web link to the correct complete uninstall.

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Oh wait! I recycled Firefox again (2-3 ) times and it kept the LastPass icon RED (logged in). I THINK I have seen this before, months ago. But for the moment it is working. The 2nd problem I mentioned web ("page-not-found") is not fixed. Maybe complete Firefox uninstall might help with that? Send me url for full Firefox uninstall if you have that. Note that this problem seems to not exist when I'm running Chrome.

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Hi, I would try running in Safe Mode - which will temporarily disable your extensions, to see if that fixes your 'page not found' issue: Hold down the Shift key when you start Firefox to start in Safe Mode. More - Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

If it works in Safe Mode, restart Firefox, then disable any theme and your extensions - 3-bar menu > Add-ons > Themes/Extensions, and restart Firefox again; now if it's OK, re-enable them one by one until you find the culprit. You may need to restart Firefox each time after enabling some extensions for them to be activated.

If that fails to help, and you want to try removing Firefox, please see Uninstall Firefox from your computer.

You can reinstall from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-desktop-release

Edit: before doing any of the above, please check this: Type about:config into the address bar, press Enter, accept the warning, scroll down the alphabetical list to (if it's there) browser.tabs.remote.autostart and if it's there browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 and make sure that 'Value' is set to True. If set to False, double click the entry to change to True, then restart Firefox. (I have seen this result in intermittent failure to connect - no idea why!)

Modified by Scribe

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Thanks for the info - I will try that. Unfortunately the "page-not-found" problem is somewhat sporadic - not something I can bring about on demand. Happens 2-5 times a day maybe - and unpredictably.

browser.tabs.remote.autostart - was already set to "true" browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 - I do not have that

Safe mode - I do understand that will disable my extensions, but I do want to run the LastPass extension. As to the others, I guess I can live with the ads for a time (although I did install all extensions new under the new profile). I have never set any themes in Firefox.

For whatever reason the LastPass extension is keeping me logged in as it should under the new nov2019 profile - so that's good and thanks for that.

I assume that you want me to try safe mode because of the "page-not-found" problem, right?

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See previous comment. I wanted to enable LastPass extension but I see that in safe mode I cannot do that. What about not using safe mode but instead I disable all addons except LastPass? Not sufficient?

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cwr64 said

What about not using safe mode but instead I disable all addons except LastPass? Not sufficient?

This was the original idea of the new profile test, that the only installed extension would be LastPass.

You can disable individual extensions on the Add-ons page using their little ••• menu that appears when you hover over their title. Either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
  • type or paste about:addons in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the left column of the Add-ons page, click Extensions.

On the right side, enabled extensions are listed first, then disabled extensions.

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Well, LastPass extension is doing fine so far under the new profile. All other extensions that I installed - Don't F... with Paste, UBO, Privacy Badger, and HTTPS Everywhere, are disabled. I have not set any themes. So I assume that I can continue running this way, (without safe mode), with all my extensions disabled except LastPass.. I hope this fixes the "page-not-found" problem but only time will tell. I do not recall ever having the page-not-found problem before replacing the Spectrum router with my own new 6700V3 Netgear router but with Netgear Support I have changed a couple of router settings, installed the most current router firmware, and set the router to "factory" and, of course, rebooted both the router and the Spectrum cablemodem. Those changes did not fix the problem. Problem occurs both on Ethernet and wi-fi, btw.

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Update. No problems using LastPass with my new profile. As to page-not-found problem - no ocurrances of that again today as yet, so I am going to enable the HTTPS Everywhere and Don't F... with Paste extensions (in addition to the LastPass extension which has been happy for 2 days). MAYBE the new profile fixed BOTH problems.

If today is all good I will enable extension UBO tomorrow.

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Update. No problems so far using new profile. I have now enabled extension UBO. Hopeful Only extension Privacy Badger has not yet been enabled.

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Update. Got my first "page-not-found" since enabling UBO. Only 1 so far. Now I do not know whether UBO is causing the pnf problem or whether it was coincidence.

btw - the Firefox setting that Netgear Support had me change was to set network to "No Proxy".

Update 3PM CST 15 November P-N-F happened again. Disabled UBO and enabled Privacy Badger just now.

Update 5PM CST Netgear Support person "AJ" had me change router to use Google's DNS - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 instead of automatic DNS

Update 21 November 8:10AM CST - more page-not-found happening when clicking on link to web pages in hotmail emails. Actually, the error page tab says "Server Not Found". Clicking to retry button always works.

Modified by cwr64

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See updates in previous post.

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Unfortunately, no fix - even with add-ons disabled.

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Hi cwr64, the message "Server not found" suggests that the initial DNS lookup either failed or returned "no match" even though there is a match.

Do you know whether your requests are filtered by a DNS-based service such as OpenDNS or parental control software?

Or have you turned on the "DNS over HTTPS" feature? More info on that feature: Firefox DNS-over-HTTPS.

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I do use addon HTTPS Everywhere, but setting it to Disabled had no effect on the problem. I do not use DNS over HTTPS. I do not use any type of parental controls. I have nothing in Firefox set special as to DNS. On the Firefox Connections Settings panel, the radio button for "No Proxy" is checked as well as the radio button for "SOCKS v5" - nothing else. Netgear support had me change to use Google's DNS 8.8.8.8 in the router settings but that has made no difference. My ISP is Spectrum. I am using Spectrum-furnished Technicolor cablemodem with a Netgear AC1750 R6700V3 router (using current firmware), connected to my Dell W10 64bit desktop PC via Ethernet cable. I THINK I never saw this problem prior to the Netgear router, but I am not positive. I THINK I have never seen this problem in Chrome. I THINK have not seen this problem on wi-fi.

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If you enable DNS-over-HTTPS, does that make any difference?

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I have turned on DNS over HTTPS. addon HTTPS Everywhere is still enabled - if that matters. I will reply if that problem arises - it happened once already before I turned on DoH.

Update 11/27 9:30PM - no problem hits so far. But some of my internet time I've spent trying/testing the Brave browser.

Modified by cwr64

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Someone called raziqofficial emailed me "Same happened with me. Nothing seems to work."

And another question... I am in the Firefox Support Forum and I can see no way to do a search on a specific user/contributor - there is no search box showing that I can see. I did find (with a bunch of clicking around) an advanced search that did not find user "raziqofficial" so I don't know how to do it. Anyone know how to search for a specific user/poster?

Modified by cwr64

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cwr64 said

I am in the Firefox Support Forum and I can see no way to do a search on a specific user/contributor - there is no search box showing that I can see. I did find (with a bunch of clicking around) an advanced search that did not find user "raziqofficial" so I don't know how to do it. Anyone know how to search for a specific user/poster?

I don't think that is a forum username.

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