If this does not happen in safe mode, please see troubleshooting extensions and themes.

This still happens while in safe mode.

Which Firefox version do you have ?

You posted with a Firefox 3.0.13 user agent that looks corrupted

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.13; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; ffco7) Gecko/2009073022 Firefox/3.0.13

You can see the Firefox version at the top and the user agent at bottom of the "Help > About" window (Mac: Firefox > About Mozilla Firefox).

You can check the general.useragent prefs on the about:config page.
You can open the about:config page via the location bar, just like you open a website.
Filter: general.useragent
If general.useragent prefs are bold (user set) then you can right-click that pref and choose Reset.

See Web sites or add-ons incorrectly report incompatible browser and Find what version of Firefox you are using

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_your_useragent_string_to_its_compiled-in_default

i have firefox 3.6.10-- the general:useragent reset worked!! although another problem is, that my browser doesnt always display a news site I use. I cant scroll through set of picture they display for some stories.

• "Clear the Cache": Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Offline Storage (Cache): "Clear Now"
• "Remove the Cookies" from sites that cause problems: Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of your add-ons is causing your problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).

See Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems and Troubleshoot issues with plugins like Flash or Java to fix common Firefox problems

I figured out it was a section that I was blocking with Adblock plus. I just had to reset it and got it to work. Many thanks for the help!!

I have this problem too. I'm using a standard one year old macbook with Firefox 3.6.10. Until recently I had no problems with inserting attachments to hotmail emails. Now the attachment function is inoperable- grayed out, no hand to select. Thank you for your help in achieving a resolution to this problem.

Been searching how to fix for days...finally fixed it!! The "inset" links are controlled by Microsoft Silverlight, http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/. I uninstalled the plugin then reinstalled it and it fixed the problem.

I am on a mac so im not sure if this would also work for windows.

I have also found that it is the Silverlight plug-in that disables the emoticon and attachments functions in hotmail when using the Firefox browser. I tried dancer's solution of uninstalling and then reinstalling Silverlight, but it didn't solve the problem. The only way I am able to use all the functions in hotmail is to disable the Silverlight plug-in whenever I use hotmail.

Having exact same problem; I simply uninstalled Silverlight, problem solved. The attachment bar now active in hotmail along with those 'orrible emoticons etc... YouTube videos still play, so no worries...

Bingo! I also uninstalled Silverlight to solve this exact problem. Did this following a long online chat with Bell support tech who concluded that the problem was 'my computer'(Acer Aspire 5738 Windows 7 less than a yr old). I can't understand why MicroSoft isn't aware of this: it's all their software - Silverlight, Windows Live/Hotmail and Internet Explorer(FF showed the symptoms when in Hotmail; IE and Safari actually fail when attempting to create a new message!)

I have a mac and after reading this I uninstalled Silverlight AND deleted all the Silverlight plugs in. This made all the attachment buttons "clickable". I use Safari. See below from mac help.

To remove a plug-in:

Quit Safari.

Locate the plug-in. Plug-ins are usually installed in one of these folders:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

(To find this folder, open the hard disk icon, and then open the Library folder.)

~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

(This folder is in your home folder (represented by the tilde ~). To find it, open the hard disk icon, open your home folder, and then open the Library folder.)

Remove any plug-ins you’ve added. You may need to enter the account name and password for an administrator account on your computer.

IMPORTANT:Removing a plug-in might prevent Safari from doing certain tasks, such as playing movies.

Reopen Safari. If the problem is fixed, contact the developer of the plug-in to report the problem and to see if there is a newer version of the plug-in.

Thanks for al these posts. I have disabled Silverlight in 'Manage add ons' in Firefox 4 and the problem has vanished :-) Was only getting this issue in ver 4 since updating from 3.6, reverting to 3.6 also got things working again. Maybe it's ver 4 that doesn't like something in Silverlight? I had previously un/re installed silverlight, cleared cache and cookies and tried running Firefox in safe mode to no avail.

Okay, disabling silverlight will do it, I had similar problems, but this is not a solution! Mozilla should update this so that it would work. Because silverlight is needed in places and it's quite irritating to go to always enable/disable it. I'm running firefox 7, had this problem already on ff4 and 5.

Or could this be the cause? *HUOH* if i turn off the silverlight anyway hotmail shouldn't work because it needs silverlight and that's why it works for a while but soon starts laggin if i turn off silverlight. But what is THE CAUSE of this kind of annoying bug..? :/ Thanks, Matias i know i know thread is half a year old..