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Firefox install won't finish, hangs at "A Little Housekeeping..." with the green bar about 90% complete

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  • Last reply by dazza555

dazza555
dazza555
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I downloaded Firefox 11.0, saved it to my desktop and double clicked it to start the install process. Everything seemed to work fine however when the install status bar reached about 90% and displayed "A Little Housekeeping..." the install froze. However I was able to open and use Firefox while the install was frozen. But since I was swapping from Chrome to Firefox I thought maybe there was a software conflict so I killed the install process uninstalled both Firefox and Chrome, ensured their program folders were deleted, ran a registry cleaner, cleared windows prefetch and rebooted the computer to a squeaky clean state. I then reattempted the Firefox install but the same thing happened. My question is: Is this install of Firefox going to be stable in the long run since the install never successfully finished? Everything seems to work fine and I've had no problems but it's only been several hours.

I downloaded Firefox 11.0, saved it to my desktop and double clicked it to start the install process. Everything seemed to work fine however when the install status bar reached about 90% and displayed "A Little Housekeeping..." the install froze. However I was able to open and use Firefox while the install was frozen. But since I was swapping from Chrome to Firefox I thought maybe there was a software conflict so I killed the install process uninstalled both Firefox and Chrome, ensured their program folders were deleted, ran a registry cleaner, cleared windows prefetch and rebooted the computer to a squeaky clean state. I then reattempted the Firefox install but the same thing happened. My question is: Is this install of Firefox going to be stable in the long run since the install never successfully finished? Everything seems to work fine and I've had no problems but it's only been several hours.

Chosen solution

Hi dazza555,

Usually the only reason it will hang like that is if there is a file that must be modified that the updater doesn't currently have access to. You can run the installer again just to be sure everything was installed correctly. You should try running the Firefox program once as Administrator:

  • Right-click the icon and choose Run as Administrator

If that doesn't help then do a clean reinstall.

  1. Download a fresh copy of Firefox from the Mozilla download page and save the file to the desktop.
  2. Uninstall your current version of Firefox and remove the Firefox program folder before running the new installer.
  3. Run installer

Remember that you don't want to remove personal data when uninstalling. You should take a look at Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles before you get started. That way you'll still have your personal information.

Hopefully this helps!

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All Replies (2)

Matt_G
Matt_G
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Chosen Solution

Hi dazza555,

Usually the only reason it will hang like that is if there is a file that must be modified that the updater doesn't currently have access to. You can run the installer again just to be sure everything was installed correctly. You should try running the Firefox program once as Administrator:

  • Right-click the icon and choose Run as Administrator

If that doesn't help then do a clean reinstall.

  1. Download a fresh copy of Firefox from the Mozilla download page and save the file to the desktop.
  2. Uninstall your current version of Firefox and remove the Firefox program folder before running the new installer.
  3. Run installer

Remember that you don't want to remove personal data when uninstalling. You should take a look at Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles before you get started. That way you'll still have your personal information.

Hopefully this helps!

Modified by Matt_G

dazza555
dazza555 Question owner
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Thanks Matt_G, that worked perfectly. Nice seeing that little bar finally scoot all the way to the end.