I have a new profile in operation, but no change to start time.

Have a good holiday.

FF has updated itself to FF5, but still takes 60 secs to open !

Still no improvement if FF startup time, but I have just updated Thunderbird to V5 and that now takes 60 secs to start!!!

How many Add-ons do you have installed? Does it include any of these? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/

Hope you had a good vacation.

I have the following installed:

Extensions: Garmin Communicator 2.9.3.1 JAVA Console 6.0.26 Microsoft.NET Framework 0.0.0

Appearance: Default 5.0

Plugins: Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0.534 Garmin Communicator 2.8.1.0 JAVA Deployment Toolkit 6.0.260.3 JAVA(tm) Platform SE6 V26 Quicktime Plugin 7.1.3 7.1.3.100 Silverlight Plugin 4.0.60531.0

These do not seem to figure in the list of slow starters.

Yes, five weeks of absolute bliss in Thailand. Now it's back to the miserable Euro weather.

You need to update your VLC player to v1.1.11 for security reasons, but I doubt if that would contribute to slow startups.

Which security software do you use? By that I mean apps like AVG Safe Search, or BitDefender Anti-phishing bar, or McAfee Site Advisor etc., etc.

I uninstalled VLC player some weeks back. Microsoft Security Essentials plus Malware Bytes plus Spybot search&destroy.

Could you do the following please.

1. Click the orange Firefox button, go to History, then Clear Recent History.
   
   
2. In the menu which appears, change it to "Everything" at the top.
   
   
3. Click the arrow underneath that and remove the checkmark from "Active Logins", "Cookies" and "Site Preferences".
   
   
4. Then click the "Clear Now" button.
   
   
5. Close Firefox and then shutdown the computer.
   
   
6. Remove the power source to the system by removing the power cord (unless it's a laptop).

This is what's known as a cold boot which flushes system memory. The latter can get clogged up over time which degrades performance.

Wait a full three minutes before you power on again. Then see if it makes any difference.

Ooops! I missed line 3, however the system still had my logon details for this site. Unfortunately, FF took 5secs LONGER to start!

Please do the following.

1. Go to Download Firefox 5.0.1 and download the installation file to your desktop.
   
   
2. Then go to Add/Remove Programs, scroll down to "Mozilla Firefox" and remove it, choosing to keep your bookmarks, customizations etc., (don't checkmark the box).
   
   
3. Then reboot and delete the folder called "Mozilla Firefox" at this location: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
   
   
4. Finally run the installation file you downloaded to the desktop earlier.
   

Your bookmarks, customizations etc., are maintained in a different location and will become available to you again once you complete the installation.

As a precaution, make a backup of your Bookmarks as follows:

1. Click the orange Firefox button, go to Bookmarks, then Show All Bookmarks to open the Bookmarks Manager.
   
   
2. Click the link to Import and Backup and then click Export HTML" and save the file somewhere. If it proves to be necessary, you can use the file to restore your Bookmarks.
   
   

The purpose of doing this is to remove any files which may have become corrupted and are degrading performance.

FF 5.0.1 now installed; start time still 60 seconds :-(((

How old is the computer?

About 4 years, during which the CPUs, Graphics Card & Memory have been upgraded. Both FF & Thunderbird start instantly in Safemode.

ps What happened to your avatar?