jscher,

I changed to IE 10 as my standard browser first and then opend your last comment. After that I changed back to FF as standard browser and tried to open FF folowing your instruction from the run box (see image - top) It opened once automatically in the save mode but freezed again. Closed FF proces and tried again but no visible FF window. Frustrating isn't it ?

Trying the step4, mentioned earlier in this support string above, as well once again explorer but this still opens the window/system32 folder

jscher, If you want to take over my pc online: I'm fine with that just tell me through e-mail how to set-up my PC on this site. I sent my e-mail address via your personal e-mail address. I can imagine this might help you a lot and saves a lot of posts.

Hi Marc, could you expand on your comment about Safe Mode: the Firefox user interface finally displayed but after that it froze, or it never displayed at all?

To start from the search box to a blank page, you need to add the "about:blank" yourself, Windows isn't going to have that on its list of suggestions:

firefox.exe "about:blank"

Does that open Firefox, open the system folder, or does firefox.exe stall out in memory?

typed firefox.exe "about:blank" in the search box and I received the question if I want to open FF in safe mode. After choosing safe mode FF launched as a process but not in a window. It neither opened the system folder.

Hi Marc, it sounds as though Firefox didn't shut down cleanly. Hopefully another volunteer knows the steps to clean up the traces of that so you can start Firefox with a blank page.

This means you are forwarding this problem internally?

Hi Marc, as a non-employee volunteer, I don't know about any internal channels, but other support volunteers are likely to read this thread and chime in.

If you don't want Firefox to try to restore a previous session at the next restart, you can rename, delete, or move all sessionstore files before trying to start Firefox again. I'm not sure of the paths on your version of Windows, but you could try opening this folder from the Start menu search box:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

If you have more than one profile folder in that location, click into the most recently accessed one. Try dragging all files whose names start with sessionstore out to a different location.

Did you try to boot the computer in Safe Mode?

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

Use "Firefox > Exit" (Windows: Firefox/File > Exit; Mac: Firefox > Quit Firefox; Linux: Firefox/File > Quit) to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox title bar.

See also:

• "Hang at exit": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs
• "Firefox hangs when you quit it": https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firefox+hangs

Hey everyone,

I've been reading through your posts and trying all the suggestions but nothing is correcting the problem. I am so frustrated with Mozilla because I even wrote them a old-fashioned letter and mailed it via the US Postal Service (remember them?) to no avail.

I can get several instances of FF running in "processes" under task mgr but it doesn't show up in "applications". I have even tried the alt-tab key combo and FF isn't even showing up there. I am at a loss. I have reloaded at least 10 times - with the latest and even older versions - and nothing has changed. FF just is not showing up on my screen.

Hopefully one of us will come up with a solution. I continue to work on it when I have time. I appreciate ALL the efforts.

Cor-El,

Sorry for the delay but I have more things to do than fighting with Firefox ;-)

I tried your suggestions although your line Use "Firefox > Exit" (Windows: Firefox/File > Exit; Mac: Firefox bla bla bla wasn't very clear to me.

In the meantime II completely removed Firefox with help of the support files. Tonight I found some time to reinstall FF. After installing it worked fine. Immediately closed FF and restarted using the ican. No problem so I looking good. Just used Alt once to get the menu and FF stopt responding.

All issues I had before the reinstall were back. Still I can start FF without issues when clicking on a URL when it's in an e-mail. VERY FRUSTRATING!

Hi mwogaman,

Question for you: are you able to start FF from an URL in an e-mail (Outlook) ? Btw make sure FF is your standard browser

Marc

Hi mwogaman, typically you will only find one firefox.exe in the Processes tab at a time, and Firefox will display an error if you try to start it again with one firefox.exe running. I can think of two exceptions:

(1) You use "sandbox" security software to isolate Firefox from your system, and because of the isolation, Firefox doesn't recognize that it's already running.

(2) Your Firefox icon has -no-remote added to the command line, which prevents Firefox from simply opening a new window in your existing Firefox session. Note: Firefox may give you a different error in this case, about your profile being in use.

If either of these apply to your Firefox, could you try starting it normally?

marc, Not sure what you mean by emailing a URL to me - do you mean an .exe file or an actual URL? jscher, Re: sandbox security software, I have been using Total Defense Security Suite without any problems for years. Re: your second point, is there a way I can check this? Finally, define "normally" vs. "abnormally". I typically use my desktop or start menu icons.

Hi mwogaman, sandbox software creates a virtual environment so that the browser doesn't touch the actual OS or disk directly. I don't think your security software mentions that feature.

To check your shortcut, right-click > Properties > Shortcut tab > "Target" box.