There is a possibility it is a malware problem

• see is my firefox problem a result of malware

Probably it is more likely to be a hang

• see firefox hangs

You should be able to get out of an ordinary hang without restarting the computer. Often it is sufficient to kill the firefox.exe (and sometimes any plugincontainer.exe). The article has a list of tips and troubleshooting information two parts you may need to look at in particular are

1. firefox hangs_close-firefox-completely
2. firefox hangs_delete-duplicated-session-restore-files

Try to always cease a Firefox session by using the option in the Orange Firefox Button.

It isn't a hang. the one window isn't even recognized by the task manager. you can right click the taskbar to open a new window but if you try to just open a new tab, the new tab will appear but won't load and will also be unresponsive. I don't believe it's malware because it only affects that 1 window and nothing else. Scans don't bring up any viruses, malware, or any kind of bug. The only think I've ever wondered abt is that each browser is listed twice in the task manage, 1 would be a smaller size than the other and since the first window is none responsive, there is only 1 reference to Firefox in the Processes list.

Did you do a malware check?

You can do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Microsoft Safety Scanner
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.

If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Ok, I ran the Microsoft Safety Scanner and it found nothing.

There doesn't seem to be any problems beside the fact that I have to launch 2 Firefox windows for the program to work.

New variants of malware are not always picked up by all methods. So to clarify may I ask:

• Did you only scan with MS Essentials
• OR did you try the other links and use those tools with up-to-date versions

Also did you try creating and using a new profile ? (That should not damage or prevent you using your original profile - but I suggest not renaming or deleting profiles unless you are very familiar with profile use, just modify the shortcuts instead)

If he problem is malware, there are possible risks to your personal data and system.

( X link - A possibly related thread - /questions/926020 )

I may be dense, but I haven't been able to find anything to do with a profile within the Mozilla/Firefox folder on my computer. At this point, I have run several different anti virus, worm, malware, bug, etc programs and my computer is a clean as possible at this point. Firefox runs just fine as long as I open a 2nd window and just minimize the first one and ignore it.

See the article profiles and the links that cor-el has already posted explaining how to create a new profile. (Hopefully with Firefox 13 there will be a new simplified method of doing something similar requiring only a few mouse clicks) .

It is important that you discover all your profiles:

• you may need to try to back them up.
• you may need to create new ones

ok, I was able to follow the instructions on how to search for my profile but 2 identical profile addresses pop up. Obviously that shouldn't happen because in the instructions, it shows only one.

What name did you choose for the name of the second profile?

Your old profile folder probably has a name like <8 random chars>.default.
If you accepted the name suggestion then the second profile has a name like "<8 random chars>.Default User".

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I never made a 2nd profile. Like I posted above, when I did a search following one of the instructions given on this site, there were 2 with the same name.