firefox on win10 won't start, even in safe mode or with profile manager
Hello,
On a fresh win10 installation, I installed the latest version of firefox (90.0.2). However, firefox won't start after that.
I tried starting from the command line in safe mode (firefox.exe -safe-mode), and I see very briefly (less than a second) a window with the title bar "Open Firefox in troubleshot Mode ?" starting to appear, but it disappears almost instantly.
A similar thing (dialog window briefly appearing) happens when I try to open the profile manager from the command line.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, with no effect.
Any idea what could be the issue ?
JP
PS : this is posted from a mac machine, hence the mistaken mac tag. The issue is about a win10 installation
Athraithe ag farangfrog ar
All Replies (6)
Did you see any error messages when launching Firefox, such as "VCRUNTIME140_1.DLL is not found"?
You can check for issues caused by a corrupted or incomplete Visual C++ installation that is missing runtime components (Redistributable Packages) required by Firefox, especially VCRUNTIME140_1.dll.
In that case, I would install both 32-bit and 64-bit "Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019" downloads, (x86: vc_redist.x86.exe and x64: vc_redist.x64.exe) from https://support.microsoft.com/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads
Thank you for your reply.
I did not see any error message and VCRUNTIME140_1.DLL is there. Just in case, I installed both downloads you recommanded, but sadly, the problem is still there.
One thing i did miss earlier : when I open firefox the first time (without any option), a window briefly appears, too fast to capture though, and disappears almost immediately. So quite similar to what happens when I try to launch in safe mode.
Any further idea ?
Start your Computer in safe mode with network support. Then start Firefox. Try Secure websites. Is the problem still there?
Starting Any Computer In Safe Mode (web link) Free Online Encyclopedia
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/
https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If the problem goes away with the computer in Safe Mode, the problem is with one of the other programs on the system.
As a test, disable your protection programs.
Use these links to create a new profile. Use this new profile as is. Is the problem still there?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.
Thank you very much for your replies !
Indeed, firefox starts normaly with win10 in safe mode with networking and can access secure sites. While there, I was also able to create a new profile.
Back in win10 "normal" mode, I tried disabling windows defender (firewall/antivirus/application protection...). As this is from a fresh win10 install, I believe this is the only protection program present. But firefox would still not launch.
It looks indeed like "something" is closing firefox, or that it crashes silently (no error message that I could see or find) right after starting drawing its first window or dialog box.
The machine is a Lenovo Legion Y520-15ikbn. As far as I can tell from Lenovo support, all the drivers are up to date. But could it still be a drivers issue ?
Athraithe ag farangfrog ar
You may have ad/mal-ware. Further information can be found in this article; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no
Run most or all of the listed free to use malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.