Comments on: Firefox 2.0 Not Working

Question: Firefox 2.0 Not Working

Falconetti — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:32:01 -0800

I updated to Firefox 2.0 yesterday and everything was fine. Today, after using Firefox periodically, I came home and tried to start it and nothing happened. In Windows Task manager, I can see that the firefox.exe process is running, but the actually browser is not popping up. I've tried rebooting and I've checked for spyware. What gives?

Also, between the time earlier today that Firefox was working and the time this evening that it stopped, I added nothing. I hadn't even turned my computer off in the interim. Let me know if there is anything else I should mention that might be important. Thanks!

By: Falconetti

Falconetti — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:32:43 -0800

Also, I forgot to add that IE is working.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:42:28 -0800

I had this happen with FF 1.5. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it and never had a problem again. With my FF2.0, I had some problems with my GreaseMonkey scripts that I used for GMail macros, but I found a fix online already. There is also some mention on LifeHacker regarding losing your bookmarks with the installation of FF 2.0 and other issues.

I think if you reinstall in a different directory as they suggest for the bookmark error, it should help.

By: matthewr

matthewr — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:44:18 -0800

When this happens, I just kill the process (all of the firefox processes, if more than one is running) in the task manager and start Firefox again. If Firefox will still not start after a restart, I would start with checking the Windows event log (in the Administrative Tools menu).

By: matthewr

matthewr — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:44:40 -0800

Also, does Firefox start in safe mode?

By: Falconetti

Falconetti — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:49:35 -0800

I tried killing the process but that didn't work. It also doesn't run in safemode. I wil check out the Windows event log, thanks.

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:51:19 -0800

I'm afraid I don't have a solution, but I've been noticing that 2.0 is kind of twitchy about remembering window state & visibility. I think ultimately, we need to wait for a patch.

By: Substrata

Substrata — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:57:15 -0800

read this yesterday

By: Falconetti

Falconetti — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:05:38 -0800

Substrate, thanks! I followed the instructions from the blog post linked to in your comment and it solved the problem. The culprit was MacAfee [sp?] Site Adviser. Once I was able to uninstall that, I was back in business and I am now happily posting from Firefox 2.0. Thanks everyone for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

By: Mr. Gunn

Mr. Gunn — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:05:53 -0800

Kill all running FF processes and start it with the -profile switch. See if it'll open into a new profile. Alternatively, log in as a different user and see if it'll run. If that doesn't work, uninstall, delete your profile folder(make sure you do this) and reinstall.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:17:06 -0800

Now if somebody can just write an update for metafilthy...

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:36:34 -0800

koeselitz wrote "Now if somebody can just write an update for metafilthy..."

koeselitz: Install Nightly Tester Tools extension, then use it to make Metafilthy compatible. It works. I used it on your comment. See?