Firefox won't open, have run Microsoft Security Essentials & Malwarebytes, nothing coming up.
I have Firefox 18 installed. This is the third time Firefox has stopped opening.
I have run Malwarebytes & Microsoft Security Essentials all three times and each time neither has found any issues. The only thing that has worked has been uninstalling (using Revo Uninstaller) and reinstalling.
It has been working fine for about three weeks, and stopped opening again last night.
Oh, and trying to use the mozilla help screens in Internet Explorer is a nightmare ...
And I tried to use the Troubleshooter below, IE won't let that happen either.
Réiteach roghnaithe
A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that 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:
Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites
All Replies (5)
Does Firefox give a crash report when it tried to open? If you hold down the Shift key when you try to open Firefox will it open?
No, I just get the little circle going around for a few seconds and then it goes away and nothing further happens. Same thing happens with the shift key.
Réiteach Roghnaithe
A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that 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:
Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.
Athraithe ag cor-el ar
OK, Firefox wasn't in the list of exceptions (Windows Firewall) so I added it.
How do I add the plugin and updater ?
It still won't open, do I have to reboot the computer ?
OK, restarted and no difference. Then I started in safe mode and Firefox went immediately to installing an update. When it was done I restarted normally and Firefox opened.
I then went into the firewall and figured out how to add the updater and plugin.
It seems that the firewall was ok with Firefox until the update and then wouldn't let it install the update, and because that's what Firefox does first before opening, it didn't get to open.
Hopefully now that the other two are added to the exceptions this won't happen again.
Thankyou :-) This is alot simpler than uninstalling and reinstalling the whole program, I appreciate your help !