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Cannot change numerous History settings in Privacy tab (is Norton 360 and/or Avast causing this problem?)

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I have Norton 360 and Avast Internet Security 2014. I AM able to change most Firefox settings. I am NOT able to change numerous Privacy settings (mainly History and Use custom settings for history, including all subsettings). When I change certain Privacy/History settings, the browser tells me it must close and restart to disable this existing setting. When I open the Privacy tab after browser restart, I see that the change(s) I made did NOT take effect. I have two enabled firewalls, managed by Norton and Avast, respectively (the Windows 7 OS firewall is disabled, probably because of the third-party management by Norton and Avast).

      • What, specifically, is causing this problem (being unable to change some important Privacy/History settings), and what can I do to regain the ability to make any and all Privacy setting changes whenever I want to?

Thanks.

I have Norton 360 and Avast Internet Security 2014. I AM able to change most Firefox settings. I am NOT able to change numerous Privacy settings (mainly History and Use custom settings for history, including all subsettings). When I change certain Privacy/History settings, the browser tells me it must close and restart to disable this existing setting. When I open the Privacy tab after browser restart, I see that the change(s) I made did NOT take effect. I have two enabled firewalls, managed by Norton and Avast, respectively (the Windows 7 OS firewall is disabled, probably because of the third-party management by Norton and Avast). ***What, specifically, is causing this problem (being unable to change some important Privacy/History settings), and what can I do to regain the ability to make any and all Privacy setting changes whenever I want to? Thanks.

All Replies (3)

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You have both Norton 360 and Avast Internet Security 2014 installed and enabled on that PC?

IMO, that is just asking for problems!

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What is the setting you are trying to change which requires a restart?

Could you check for a user.js file that may be overriding your changes? This article describes how to do that: How to fix preferences that won't save.

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Speaking of avast!, you may want to disable the avast! Online Security extension. A variety of odd problems have been reported with it. You can do that on the Add-ons page. Either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions.