Hello rgboulter, if you check to do not run Firefox as Administrator, do the same for the properties in the firefox.exe program in Firefox program directory.

thank you

thanks for the reply. Unfortunately if I do not run as an administrator, Firefox won't load as it can't load or locate my profile

Any luck if you start Windows Explorer as Administrator and firefox not as Administrator ?

http://superuser.com/questions/58933/how-do-i-run-the-windows-7-explorer-shell-with-administrator-privileges-by-defau

thanks again

You need to locate the profiles.ini file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

This is usually caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file.

You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or reuse an existing profile:

• Delete the profiles.ini file to force Firefox to create a new default profile
• Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
  If you still have an existing profile then click "Choose Folder" in the PM and select the location of a lost profile and recover this profile.

You should find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:

• Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
  *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
• Linux: ~/.mozilla/firefox/

If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

• Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
• Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
• Linux:~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox