I too was having the same problem. I just now figured it out. I drug my little house icon which was on the very right side over to the left, and amazingly all of my icons are now showing. Before doing this I had no home button, no refresh button, no stop button. And I was very, very frustrated. Now all seems to be well and I am finally getting somewhat happier with FF4!! I hope this works for you just as it did for me. Good luck.

Thank you for explaining the intricacies of this new and improved system. I hate it when they try to make things "more intuitive" ...my intuition always makes me guess wrong. I didn't see the tiny house on the right hand side...sort of looks like a house. I tried dragging it over to the left side but couldn't ...no matter now that I know that it is there. I see that the arrows work too but there is no" coloration" to give me a hint as to how they are working. ..guess I'll have to use my intuition! Thanks again...you are very kind. (I'm still angry at Mozilla)

I was frustrated also and appreciate you figuring it out! But I cannot drag mine either. Why do they 'fix' things that aren't broken!? thanks...

For instructions on moving the Home button (or other buttons), see Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars

If you want to change some other parts of Firefox to look more like they did in the previous version, see Make Firefox 4 Look Like FF 3.6.

The people in the business have to try to think of things to do for job security so they periodically change something and say that they are making improvements...more often than not they only succeed in annoying people like me. You are dead right about "If it's not broke don't fix it"

I really shouldn't have to do all of this...they tricked me into updating and should have told me that substantial changes were going to be made. It would have been much better if they had offered me some kind of option or given me a preview by showing me what my home page was going to look like after it got updated. If I try to do as you suggest I will waste much of my time and will probably only become more confused and frustrated. The Help sections usually don't help. By the time I get home the chat lines are closed and it is impossible to actually talk to a real person. Why do they have to assume that their customers want change. I just started to figure out the old system! I left Facebook and I can leave Mozilla too! When I have a spare two hours I will give your suggestions a try. Thanks for the help. Too bad I didn't grow up with computers.

2 hours? Those changes could have been made very easily in the time it took you to make your last two postings here, or in the 17 minutes between those two postings.

Maybe you didn't read my last sentence about not growing up with computers. My past experience with "help" menus has not been all that good.

When I was growing up we didn't even have calculators, much less computers, we had to use a slide rule.

I had to use an abacus!

I also grew up with slide rules, and also cash registers that you could operate mechanically by a winding handle if the power failed! but have used computers a bit since then.

I hope you got it sorted if not what is the problem now?
(if not anything specific you are still needing to fix ?)

I do to some extent agree with you, in that I think Firefox when introducing the changes could have made it more obvious to users how they could reverse them if necessary, and what would disappear, not just what would 'improve'.

You also have the option to downgrade to firefox 3.6, but unless the problem is incompatible extensions this is not a good idea, one reason being that with the new rapid release cycle older versions will not remain supported for as long as they have been previously. Although you will in the future be seeing more new versions the differences between each should be less and so easier to get used to.

• see installing a previous version of firefox

Thanks!

I am no techie and my solution will probably make some people cringe, but I just updated today and noticed the entire customized tool bar area was gone. I read your thread and a few others and realized the best option for me was to run a system restore to a prior checkpoint before I did the update. So now I am back on the slightly older version of mozzilla firefox. I know it's not perfect but it was quick, easy and got my icons back. Now I'll just have to put up with the constant reminder to update.

Actually that in itself was a problem. I have been getting prompted for awhile to update and when I tried it would search and search and never do anything. Today I just went right to the website and updated, imagine my thrill *note sarcasm* to find the best parts of mozilla were gone. Good luck.

By the way I am in my 30's and don't think it is very nice to attack the original poster for stating it may take 2 hours to do something. Each of us are different with our skills and comfort levels. Change is very difficult and yes in the world of technology we often have no choice, but to change. Still it is not that easy. Even at my age I feel "old" when it comes to the level of techno skill younger generations have.

I do apologize that I didn't read the entire thread until after posting and noticed that someone else rec to go to an older version of firefox. I am wondering if that is why my system seems to be running so slowly. Yet, what can I do to get those custom icons back on the version 4 of fire fox?

Nobody forces anyone to update or upgrade to anything they don't want. All you have to do is to set up your Update Option:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Updating%20Firefox#w_configuring-update-options

And before you update or upgrade, you can also find out what new features are included. If you don't like it, then don't update/upgrade. Simple as that!

@Jonesrdh I do agree
Firefox did promote upgrades mentioning new features, but not what would be lost/changed. Only after the launch of the new version did they (from the end users perspective) start fully writing and amending help articles; in say the KB; to explain the features, and why for instance some users did not see the much hyped Firefox button.

It is probably best to start your own thread with the questions and problems that you have.

Generaly speaking

• Firefox 4 is supposed to be faster and an improvement over Firefox 3.6 but
  • there were quite a lot of changes some of these do cause problems especially with certain other software/extensions &/or sometimes on sites with video or animation
  • there are problems with memory use of Firefox 4 some of those problems may already have been fixed in Firefox 5
• There is now a fast release cycle of versions,
  that means small changes between versions but lots of versions each year
  • some problems with Firefox 4 may not get fixed in that version, but will be, or already have been fixed in version 5.
  • sometimes it could help to switch back to 3.6 or go forward to Firefox 5
  • Firefox 4 may be made to look and feel more like Firefox 3.6 relatively easily
  • with the fast release cycle do not expect Firefox 3.6 to remain fully supported as long as expected (compared to previous versions)

Lets hope the idea of small changes between versions works, and upgrades become less troublesome in future. There are new methods of using these differing versions, Firefox releases them on different "channels", and is making that more prominent to the end user, but Firefox is having teething troubles with that change

• an easy way of switching between channels was introduced,
  • but has been taken away again as it caused problems
  • however that problem and switch of policy would only have been seen by those testing the different versions, not the vast majority of users on the standard version - so it be could be considered vindication of the current strategy.

What you have here is a grand mal screwup. Firefox now sucks. Nothing was broken. What idiot decided it needed fixing? Give me back my old browser. No similar sites shown. No compatible add-ons.

With directions it would take about ten minutes to make changes to make your Firefox 5 look like 3.6, read the directions though or you might miss important things like having to right-click on the back/forward buttons to see the drop down.

You can make Firefox 4.0.1 and Firefox 5.0 look like Firefox 3.6.17, see numbered items 1-10 in the following topic Fix Firefox 4.0 toolbar user interface, problems (Make Firefox 5.0, or 4.0.1, look like 3.6). -- Picture of before/after changes.