Were you running the released version of Firefox (Firefox 16) or the early release of Firefox specifically designed for the Metro UI?

Were the problems specifically on sites that use Flash, or on other sites as well?

Information posted here doesn't always reach anyone on the dev or test side. You can submit feedback to developers here:

Help > Submit Feedback

There may also be a Windows 8 specific list, newsgroup, or forum. I'm not an early adopter of new operating systems and have not been following it.

I should have gone into more detail and I apologize, it happens more often then not on flash enabled websites such as YouTube, and also on basic websites such as Google or Facebook. I am running Firefox 16.0.1.

I suggest trying the standard Flash guidance for Windows 7/Vista, on the theory that the plugin behaves similarly on Windows 8.

(1) Disable protected mode (Win Vista & Win 7)

See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

(2) Disable hardware graphics acceleration in Firefox and in Flash

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here and restart:

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

(B) In Flash, see this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(3) For video issues, make sure your RealNetworks add-ons are the latest versions

(4) For display artifacts while scrolling, disable Smooth Scrolling here:

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced > General > "Use smooth scrolling"

I have the 'Firefox slow and sometimes crashes' on my main desktop computer that has windows 8 Pro on it (Upgraded from Windows 7 Pro) However I have done the same upgrade on my Asus Ultrabook and Firefox works fine! The only difference between the two computers is the main one is high spec for video editing etc. with loads of programs (but Firefox was working well before the upgrade) and the Ultrabook is the slower machine!!! Both are 64 bit . The main is i7 and the Ultra is i5 . I would expect the Ultrabook to be the slower one if any........ I have now uninstalled Firefox program and will try a reinstall. I was worried that I may have had a virus as a card account was attacked, but this does not seem the case....

Well I sorted my problems with Firefox being slow with windows 8 !!! I uninstalled Firefox but left bookmarks etc. as in the uninstal dialogue and downloaded and reinstalled. It now seems instant! Hope this helps others with the problem....

I am on firefox 19 and having this problem. It started out on facebook and you tube... now it doesn't matter what site I'm on it will crash at random.

Hi rit1234, when Firefox crashes, it stores information about the crash. If you type or paste about:crashes into the URL bar and press Enter you should get some links corresponding to your most recent crashes. If you click the links you can learn whether your crash data was uploaded and view the technical details. Some of the volunteers here are good at reading those details, so if you can post some of the recent crash IDs in a reply that might be helpful.

Thanks! In trying to fix the problem I was reading the FAQ's on possible fixes. One was to uninstall and reinstall Firefox. Well it uninstalled fine but Windows 8 or Internet explorer or who knows what will not let Firefox download again! Right now I'm at a loss on how to get it back much less working! I'm replying to this via IE 10.

Hi rit1234, what error do you get when trying to download Firefox?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/#desktop

Sometimes malware will block downloads of alternate browsers, so you may want to run some supplemental scans. These two tools are highly regarded:

Malwarebytes Anti-malware : http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

SUPERAntiSpyware : http://www.superantispyware.com/

My firefox has been crashing constantly since the update to 19, It makes me wonder if you guys even test these releases. I've tried removing plugins, removing add-ons, nothing helps. I'm surprised it hasnt crashed while I was typing this. Firefox has become pathetically unusable. Now I have to go back to either chrome or IE which both are awful browsers. Thanks for ruining the browser I've been using for so long.

Hi pezisgod, there are about 18 weeks of testing before each major release, but only a small percentage of Firefox users participate, so definitely it doesn't catch everything.

You could try the Reset feature. This duplicates certain key data from your active settings folder into a new one, bypassing some add-ons and custom settings. Your plugins will still be active.

More information in this article: Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings.

Does it make any difference?

I received no error message when trying to re-download Firefox. IE attempts to download it from the website and once it completes it comes back as "unable to download". No other error no other message you just can't download the exe file to install it. I'm running AVG AND Windows Defender for anti-virus and malware. I've been on IE since last night when I posted and no problems at all with crashing, FB or you tube. I was using Firefox since the Win 98 days through Vista and Win 7. Version 19 just will not run on Windows 8.

I did the reset, still crashing, maybe you should go for 19 weeks because this browser is not even close to compatible with Windows 8, which is odd because I had no problem with the previous version.

Hi rit1234, I don't have access to Windows 8.

If you want to try reinstalling Firefox 18.0.2, the installer is still up on this site at the moment:

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/18.0.2/win32/en-US/

You can adjust your automatic update preferences to ask you before downloading.

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced > Update

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/advanced-settings-browsing-network-updates-encryption#w_update-tab

Well for whatever reason, today my firefox started to crash. Over and Over again. I have Explorer! But that works..so whats going on?

I have an All in One, Windows 8, new dec 2012, been using Firefox ever since, until today and it is crashing. I try to look at details when the pop up comes up to say it crashed..and I cant..

suggestions?

Hi firerunner1965, can you open the about:crashes page or does Firefox not stay open long enough for that? If you can, please post some of the crash IDs in a reply. Also, since Windows 8 users seem to be having more problems with Firefox 19, you might consider re-installing Firefox 18.0.2 per the above link.

UUID 3a1cca12-f00e-4c34-b944-a8f352130220 Date Processed 2013-02-20 21:44:57 Uptime 4 Last Crash 2.0 minutes before submission Install Age 6.6 hours since version was first installed. Install Time 2013-02-20 15:09:29 Product Firefox Version 19.0 Build ID 20130215130331 Release Channel release OS Windows NT OS Version 6.2.9200 Build Architecture x86 Build Architecture Info AuthenticAMD family 20 model 2 stepping 0 Crash Reason EXCEPTION_BREAKPOINT Crash Address 0x7540be06 User Comments App Notes

AdapterVendorID: 0x1002, AdapterDeviceID: 0x9808, AdapterSubsysID: 2af0103c, AdapterDriverVersion: 8.982.10.1300

D3D10 Layers? D3D10 Layers-

Processor Notes sp-processor07.phx1.mozilla.com_8627:2008; Priority Job EMCheckCompatibility True Winsock LSP

MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP] : 2 : 1 :

MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP] : 2 : 2 : %SystemRoot%\system32\mswsock.dll 
MSAFD Tcpip [RAW/IP] : 2 : 3 :  
MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IPv6] : 2 : 1 : %SystemRoot%\system32\mswsock.dll 
MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IPv6] : 2 : 2 :  
MSAFD Tcpip [RAW/IPv6] : 2 : 3 : %SystemRoot%\system32\mswsock.dll 
RSVP TCPv6 Service Provider : 2 : 1 :  
RSVP TCP Service Provider : 2 : 1 : %SystemRoot%\system32\mswsock.dll 
RSVP UDPv6 Service Provider : 2 : 2 :  
RSVP UDP Service Provider : 2 : 2 : %SystemRoot%\system32\mswsock.dll

Adapter Vendor ID 0x1002 Adapter Device ID 0x9808 Total Virtual Memory 4294836224 Available Virtual Memory 4048629760 System Memory Use Percentage 27 Available Page File 9693782016 Available Physical Memory 4372348928

OK here is what one says this morning..do I un-install and then re-install?

I uninstalled 19 and was unable to re-download it. jscher2000 has suggested we redownload version 18.02 and turn off the auto updater.

yep, just run the 18.0.2 installer and it will overwrite 19. Before you do change tools>options>advanced>update from automatic to 'check for updates' and don't do anything until you see 19.0.1 available for install.

Then check below to see that the Radeon HD graphics bug is fixed in that release before you install it, that is the main reason for the 19.0 crashed.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/releases/

Thanks, I was going mental for the last 40min...

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/185b2862-c302-4a15-8f2e-ec80a2130224