Hi, here are some articles that should help you - it looks quite complex, but if you take it step by step I hope you will be able to restore your data.

• Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings.

• Recovering important data from an old profile.

• Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data.

If your question is resolved by this or another answer, please take a minute to let us know. Thank you.

Questions 1. What's the difference between refreshing, resetting AND A complete uninstall/reinstall of firefox? 2. If uninstall/reinstall can I save my firefox info/folder on the Desktop, on a SD card or a CD-R Disk just in case of whatever? 3. If I can/should keep the firefox info can I simply drag the folder into one of the above and save it? 4. If I do a complete uninstall/reinstall of firefox am I just looking for trouble by keeping/using previous firefox info? 5. Exactly what are the steps to do a total uninstall so that "everything" is gone if this is a good option AND will this delete the firefox profile and all other files/folders/info? 6. MOST IMPORTANT is what others suggest that I do to start with. Thanks! Please skim over my Additional Info. Thank You!

Additional Info I'm considering the uninstall/reinstall because after refreshing firefox it was unusable right away. However; it's better today and maybe a little better than it was before the refresh? Firefox was and still is going to the desktop at times and after about 45 seconds it usually brings firefox back up and where I was before the desktop. After the refresh, I had to update Avira numerous times AND I'm now receiving a message "Your System Status, We're Sorry!, You need to update your Flash Player." I did do a System Restore, as I have done numerous times before without it causing me to update anything so I'm pretty sure those two issues were caused by firefox refresh? As I said in an earlier post, I had firefox/bookmarks/toolbars etc set-up how I wanted it. Regardless, I do have a back-up computer that is setup very close to the one that's giving me issues so I won't be totally lost. However; it will be very time consuming in whatever way it's suggested to me to move forward as my computer skills are lacking! My computer may have a few other issues, but I'd like to first get firefox up and running better before I go any further as that's where I'm guessing most of my issues are?

Thank you for the quick reply! I have NOT tried these steps YET. However: I'll have additional questions later today. Thanks again!

fireside said

I did NOT realize that firefox refresh would do what it did! I tried system restore which did not help. My old firefox data is on the desktop. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to this kind of stuff so PLEASE explain step-by-step in a manner that I can understand. My reasoning for refreshing was because firefox has been giving me "not responding" messages for a very long time and I tried dozens of fixes. I had "everything" setup exactly how I wanted it and now seeing the damage I've done, I'd much rather have those messages return! Any AND all help will be greatly appreciated as it would take me weeks of researching to get things looking/working the same. I have to research things as simple as getting rid of yahoo search. Thanks in advance!

If you get a pop-up message asking to update Firefox or plugins or scanning for malware then such a message is likely a scam and you should never respond to such an alert to avoid getting infected with malware.

• Only update Firefox via "Help > About" or by downloading and installing Firefox from the Mozilla server and never via a pop-up or link on a web page.
• Plugins should only be updated via the plugin itself or by visiting the home page of the plugin.

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

• Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

You can check for recently installed suspicious or unknown extensions.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

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

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

When you reset Firefox then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, form data) is automatically imported and the current profile folder will be moved to the desktop to an "Old Firefox Data" folder. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.

It is possible to recover data from the old profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Thanks for the reply AND all of the info! I have a couple of the programs that you're suggesting. Should I uninstall those and then reinstall or just keep what I have, which is updated?

Hi, since you have another PC. An easy way to transfer (or backup) your bookmarks is: On your other PC - plug in a USB/SD flash drive, then open bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Export Bookmarks to HTML, then navigate to your flash drive and save them to it.

Now plug the flash drive into this PC and open bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Import Bookmarks from HTML, then navigate to your flash drive and import them.

cor-el,

I wanted to be clear that I was NOT searching the internet when I received update info. The Avira messages came directly from the Start Menu/Task Bar as Avira was being used to protect my system AND I checked my Plugins DIRECTLY from Mozilla Check Your Plugins AND INDEED, Flash Player WAS out of date. Thanks again for your help.

Also, thank you to Scribe_uk for your help!

Not sure why this post shows-up funky lookin'?

moderator fixed the leading space in the first sentence which brought about the horz scrollbar in this posting

Note that your System Details List shows multiple Flash plugins.

• Shockwave Flash 14.0 r0
• Shockwave Flash 17.0 r0

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Issues_related_to_plugins#Identifying_installed_plugins

You can check the Flash player installation folder for multiple Flash player plugins and remove older version(s) of the plugin (NPSWF32) and possibly (re)install the latest Flash player.

• (32 bit Windows) C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\
• (64 bit Windows) C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\

cor-el

Thanks for helping me get rid of multiple Shockwave Flash plugins.

cor-el,

Thank you for your patience and for hanging with me through this! I've downloaded most of everything that you suggested and have scanned with some of them. Busy, so a slow process for me. Plus, I'm not real savvy in this area. One of the scans did find a yahoo file, folder or a program. Which the program that found it also got rid of it. Being a new program I wasn't certain which of those I listed it was?

Your link for Windows Defender didn't take me exactly where I thought it would/should. I did find Windows Defender on the Windows Defender page. There were about four choices all to be used offline. I would not have known which one to choose? However; I do have Windows Defender that I believe can be used online OF offline? I've always updated it when offered. Probably, known as the old Windows Defender now?

Thanks for bring to my attention the two Shockwave Flash! I did read most of the info and will see if I can get those deleted. I don't understand why it was telling me to update yet, it never updated as you've made that clear to me. After deleting I will "try" to get the most up to date. I will follow as you've instructed. Including, rereading what I have already. I'll see if I can find the folder/folders.

I cannot thank you enough for ALL of your help! Please take care and have a wonderful week!