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How do I close down Firefox when it hasn't opened properly?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I got asked yesterday to update to the latest edition of Firefox & now it's refusing to open up at all, yet when I go to uninstall & reinstall it, it tells me that I need to close down Firefox's window which isn't even open in the first place & then when I do manage to get it to uninstall, it still won't open even reinstalled :-(

I got asked yesterday to update to the latest edition of Firefox & now it's refusing to open up at all, yet when I go to uninstall & reinstall it, it tells me that I need to close down Firefox's window which isn't even open in the first place & then when I do manage to get it to uninstall, it still won't open even reinstalled :-(

All Replies (4)

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Hello,

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!

Thank you.

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Thank you Feer56 but I tried that before I posted this & it's still not working properly

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Make sure you disable your Firewall and try again. You can also scan for malware.

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.


Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

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It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:


Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.