Firefox won't install

May 13, 2009 2:25 PM

NSIS Error -- Error writing temporary file. Make sure temp file is valid.

My copy of Firefox was blocking photos despite all attempts to have it show everything, so I uninstalled it, downloaded a fresh version (using IE) and tried to run the installer. I got "NSIS Error -- Error writing temporary file. Make sure temp file is valid."

There's a file named "temp" in Computer\OS(C:)\Windows and one named "TEMP" in Computer\OS(C:). I emptied them out and have plenty of space on my hard disk.

I'm running Vista Home Premium Version 6.0 (Build 6001: Service Pack 1).

I also tried a copy of Firefox from a thumb drive to do the download, but the installer didn't work with that either, saying that 7Zip couldn't access the temp directory.

Help, please

posted by KRS to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

You probably need to run the installer with admin privilege. Right-click on the installer program and select "Run as administrator".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:06 PM on May 13, 2009

Also, clear out your temporary folder where applications put their files during installs or what have you. In Vista, C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp . Also, look at CCleaner as an automated solution to do so.

If either of the above solutions don't work, there is a slight possiblity something is wrong with NSIS working correctly. That is very slight though.
posted by deezil at 3:26 PM on May 13, 2009

This download link is an EXE file. You can install it to your regular hard drive. I recommend downloading it to your desktop first, and then opening up the program. You can install it to a temp directory on your desktop for now, while you work out your file permissions.
posted by Mijo Bijo at 3:26 PM on May 13, 2009