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When I try to download Firefox for Windows, it unzips the file and says it cannot find 7-Zip file and stops download

  • 9 replies
  • 23 have this problem
  • 59 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have windows 7 on a desktop. I had firefox before which worked fine then I attached a router to my computer that may have been defective and may have damaged the computer. I took the router off. Firefox suddenly reverted back to the start up page of when you are new to firefox, e.g. here's how it works, and stopped loading my normal home page. Even though I entered the tabs I wanted for my startup home page every time I shut down my computer it went back to the beginning thinking I had only just loaded it. I did lots of system diagnostics but nothing appeared to be wrong with my computer so I uninstalled Firefox, restarted, then downloaded it again. When I download it, it says run or save and I choose run. Then it extracts the file and a message comes up that says "7-Zip. Cannot find file. Then nothing more happens. No files are downloaded to my computer and it's as though I never tried to download it.

I have windows 7 on a desktop. I had firefox before which worked fine then I attached a router to my computer that may have been defective and may have damaged the computer. I took the router off. Firefox suddenly reverted back to the start up page of when you are new to firefox, e.g. here's how it works, and stopped loading my normal home page. Even though I entered the tabs I wanted for my startup home page every time I shut down my computer it went back to the beginning thinking I had only just loaded it. I did lots of system diagnostics but nothing appeared to be wrong with my computer so I uninstalled Firefox, restarted, then downloaded it again. When I download it, it says run or save and I choose run. Then it extracts the file and a message comes up that says "7-Zip. Cannot find file. Then nothing more happens. No files are downloaded to my computer and it's as though I never tried to download it.

All Replies (9)

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I did all that you suggested - had, in fact, already done it several times. The firefox install wizard does not run because the downloaded file cannot be unzipped. I get a message stating that the system is trying to extract the file and then gives me the error message. When I had firefox installed before I never had the message showing that the system was extracting the downloaded file. I just chose "RUN" and it all happened automatically.

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Start Windows 7 in Safe mode and install Firefox. After that, restart Windows.

Check and tell if its working.

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SAVE the installer to your hard drive (do not use the "Run" option); save it to your Desktop so that you can find it. When the download is complete, close whatever browser you have open, click or double-click the file you downloaded and see if it installs without a problem.

The downloader is a self-extracting archive and should not need or use 7-zip. I have 7-zip installed on my system and it does not interfere with nor is it used in the Firefox install process. Hopefully, you have not set the downloading of .exe files to be associated with 7-zip.


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Modified by SafeBrowser

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Thanks mha007 and Safe Browser. I tried downloading in safe mode and still had a problem. What I actually did was reboot to my Windows 7 CD and did a "repair my computer". It had 1 problem which got repaired. Then since I was still having problems with downloading Firefox, I saved the file to my desktop and opened it there as Safe Browser suggested - no problems. But now I have to do that with all my downloads so I still have a problem somewhere. Thanks for your help but any suggestions on why I can only download by saving to my desktop then running the file. I did not set the downloading of .exe files to be associated with 7-zip.

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Check if its happening with only Firefox or with other softwares as well.

Try Downloading some other software from the Net and Save it in a location other than Desktop. Then try to Run the Installer(exe) file of that software.

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I tried that and it happened when I downloaded Google Chrome. But it does not happen with small downloads such as word documents.

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Seems like the problem is with Executable (exe) files.

Contact Microsoft Windows 7 Support for more assistance.

Modified by Hasan

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You should save the file to the desktop and close the browser.
Then you can start the installation with a double-click on that icon.
If you keep having problems then deactivate your anti-virus software temporarily.

See also:

Modified by cor-el