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Firefox 13.0 ALWAYS Opens the "Welcome to Firefox" Page, Not My Home Page. What Will Actually Fix This, Please?

  • 23 replies
  • 12 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I tried all of the advice in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-says-its-just-updated-every-time-it-starts?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Firefox+has+just+updated+tab+shows+each+time+you+start+Firefox and there was no effect on the problem.

I tried the advice in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved, but again, there was no effect on the problem.

I even tried https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/How%20to%20set%20the%20home%20page. But, whether I set it to the "Default Page" or to a new home page, it doesn't matter...

Firefox 13.0 will still only open up to the "Welcome to Firefox" page.

Please help me. Is anyone looking at fixing this?

I tried all of the advice in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-says-its-just-updated-every-time-it-starts?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Firefox+has+just+updated+tab+shows+each+time+you+start+Firefox and there was no effect on the problem. I tried the advice in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved, but again, there was no effect on the problem. I even tried https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/How%20to%20set%20the%20home%20page. But, whether I set it to the "Default Page" or to a new home page, it doesn't matter... Firefox 13.0 will still only open up to the "Welcome to Firefox" page. Please help me. Is anyone looking at fixing this?

Modified by Duke SkyWatcher

All Replies (20)

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It's possible that an extension is interfering. I think there are two things to try:

  1. Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems - this article has instructions for determining if an extension is the problem.
  2. You can also try installing this special extension that resets all home page and search preferences and then uninstalls itself - Search Reset - it could be that there is a modified preference that isn't getting changed
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Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

Some security software does have virtualization features that can cause problems by protecting and restoring files in the Firefox profile folder.

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Had this problem on a couple pages. It was my ad block plus. I disabled and the page came up ok, and then I reinabled, and all is fine.

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I'm using McAfee, which hasn't had a problem with Firefox getting updated before. Did Firefox change how it's doing things so that McAfee objects?

I'm thinking of switching to AVG, though. Does Firefox have problems with that one?

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Wouldn't disabling your Mcaffee for a few minutes help you determine if it was the culprit?

I use NAV and MSE on my computers and firefox is fine with them.

I did revert back to FF 12 though. Too many kinks in 13 still.

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Firefox has upgraded many times before with McAfee installed. Has Firefox changed how it upgrades so it no longer works with McAfee?

FF 13 is pretty clearly broken in some ways, and no one seems to have any clue how to fix it. I sure hope Firefox handles security issues better than upgrade issues. This does NOT inspire confidence.

So, how does one revert back to 12? That seems to be the best answer.

Modified by Duke SkyWatcher

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Chosen Solution

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That worked. Thanks, my Firefox may now be out of date. But at least it works right.

Modified by Duke SkyWatcher

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If anyone who actually works on Firefox eventually reads this...

After many previous successes, 13.0 has to go down as a failure. I'll still be looking forward to 13.1

Modified by Duke SkyWatcher

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I know some people still using years old versions of FF.

FF 12 will be good and have the necessary updates for a couple years at least I would guess.

I'm sure FF 13 is being debugged. I'll probably try it again in a couple months.

My biggest problem with FF, which hasn't been fixed in over a year now, is that I cannot make hotmail attachments without disabling Silverlight. Thus, I have to use IE for most of my emailing.

I sure hope this is fixed soon.

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Axxel,
Just to follow up - Firefox 13 includes security fixes not in Firefox 12. Firefox 13 is the security update for 12. 12 will not be updated ever again.

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Can you please provide reference to those claims?

I have used old FF versions and it itself and all the addons have always reported as "up to date".

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Thanks cor-el.

As you can see from those links, they continue to update security fixes for previous versions.

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Since it seems like you arevery knowledgeable with FF, cor-el, do you know if there are any solutions to the hotmail attachment problem?

You know the one where many people (including myself), have found a work around by disabling silverlight?

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cor-el, Verdi, if you are so against FF 12, then how about providing solutions to the problems that FF 13 has, instead of just trying to scare us into accepting broken software?

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Even in FF 13, I couldn't attach anything to hotmail.

I am almost ready to switch back to IE.

Would really like to stay with FF, but, don't know how much longer I can holdout.

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I don't blame you, Axxel. The quality of support from Firefox is starting to cast Microsoft in a good light.

  • Ignoring user problem reports for years at a stretch
  • Reply to users asking for help with unhelpful knowledge base articles.
  • Then advice users to turn off anti-virus protection.
  • And finally, try to scare users into not reverting to a previous version, even though it works correctly.
  • All the while, never, ever admitting that their software has a problem.

You're doing it, Mozilla! You're competing with Microsoft! If that was your goal, then good for you! But bad for us, as that leaves us users left out in the unsupported cold.

Congratulations, but a big F, too!

Modified by Duke SkyWatcher

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All the while, never, ever admitting that their software has a problem.

Mozilla is completely open about bugs in the software; you can search more than a decade of bug reports and fixes if you like. The problem is that bugs related to a user's unique combination of settings and add-ons can be hard to reproduce, and therefore hard to track back to their causes.

And finally, try to scare users into not reverting to a previous version, even though it works correctly.

Correctly is relative: each version has bugs; many users couldn't wait to switch from Firefox 12 to Firefox 13 and installed the beta to solve Firefox 12 bugs they found to be critical. But what isn't in dispute is that Firefox 12 does have some security vulnerabilities that are not in Firefox 13. If you visit a site that attacks one of these vulnerabilities, the results could be quite bad, but not all vulnerabilities are actually exploited in the real world or on the web sites most people visit. We all choose to take some risks, and it's your call how long you want to wait before updating.

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