There are currently no known security issues with the 7u17 and 6U43 Java versions, so there is no urgent need to block them.

See: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=843373#c7

Great! Thanks for your reply.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am tired of having it blocked. Let's all hope that the folks at Javaland keep up their guard and stay up to date with Firefox.

I rehooked Java Wednesday and updated Firefox. I've had nothing but problems since, continuous slowdowns and freezeups. I'm about ready to dump Java and return to an earlier Firefox. Why are we offered things that do not work properly? That's not kind to computer naifs like moi...

shamanalix,

Have you checked and rechecked your computer for malware/viruses?

I highly recommend Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. If you don't know, it's atop the highest rated and trusted solutions to run alongside your antivirus, and has no incompatibility issues that I'm aware of.

Once downloaded, install it like you would any program. There's no need to use the 30-day trial version of it, as it uses the same hueristics engine, and will find any badware that may have found a way into your PC. I suggest first running a quick scan with it, then a full one.

If you have Windows Security Center disabled for some reason, it will find that and call it Bad, when it's actually not, likely because they know it should be enabled for your protection and notifications. Other than that, everything else is probably malware of a sort.

Another possibility is an incompatible add-on installed. You may want to disable them one at a time and restart Firefox to verify it's not one of them causing your issue.

Have you tried these options yet?