Firefox geek needed

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I need the assistance of someone who knows all the ins an outs of Firefox 22.0. I've been running Firefox as my preferred browser for many, many years and it's always performed beautifully. Then last week, suddenly it's incompatible with my Windows 7 home premium OS. They've been getting along famously for a year and a half and now I can't get it to fully load. It starts and then without even starting to display it quits.

I can get it to come up under "Safe" mode with networking. It works as I would expect, so I presume that something that loads under the full operating system that doesn't load under "Safe" mode it what makes it incompatible.

I've tried two different (save info and destroy info) ways to uninstall and reinstall and it still comes up "Incompatible." Mozilla suggest it may be in the profiles and shows me how to find them, but doesn't say what to do about it. If you can and are willing to help me, please PM me.

I'm using Internet Explorer and not liking it.

Comments

Firefox

The best solution may be to uninstall the browser and then download it again from the firefox website. when you uninstall it your personal info and favorites will be saved on your computer and will auto sync with the new firefox download.

Jessica Marie

No good

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

That was my first try.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann

Firefox

Frank's picture

Version 23 came out this week. It may help or not depending on where the problem is...have you added any new add-ons recently? Maybe in safe mode you can remove the most recent add-on(s) you've installed and see if that clears up the issue.

If you have to, you can delete the profile and start over with a new one. Them import your bookmarks from IE into Firefox. You can also add a new profile by editing the properties of the firefox icon and adding a -p to the Target line so it reads: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p This will prompt you for the profile you want to use and let you create a new clean one.

{{Hugs}}

Frank

Hugs

Frank

Okay - the incompatible isn't

Okay - the incompatible isn't firefox itself. It's one of the add-ons or plugins - that's a pretty normal message.

Start in safe mode, go to the addons/plugins section, and remove anything you don't actually need, and disable the ones you like, but don't have to have running this minute.

Then try it in normal mode.

You may want to purge the browsing history and cache, just to be on the safe side.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Remember...

You have to think in Russian.

People say, "You don't know what you had until it's gone." Very true, but also equally true is, "You don't know what you've been missing until is arrives."

A few things to test

Generally, if you're having trouble with mozilla products, there are a few things to do/test:
- Open with a new profile. You do this by starting the browser with "-p" option on the command, so either start it using the command prompt or add it to the link properties.
- Disable all plugins, add-ons, etc. Add them back one by one.
- Reset about:config to default on everything. Change those you need to one by one if there are any you need.
- Do everything above in failsafe mode.
- If this doesn't work, uninstall the browser, clear out mozilla properties from the registry, run CCleaner, then install the newest version directly from mozilla's homepage

Sometimes it's not the browser's fault. Antivirus, firewall, antimalware programs can sometimes break other programs, especially programs that are trying to optimise performance and get caught by their heuretics. Drivers to totally unconnected hardware can do it. (My webcam driver broke VLC when I installed it...) Overzealous computer cleaning programs (CCleaner is one of the few I haven't had this happen to me with) can break stuff too, usually by breaking necessary registry posts. This is usually fixed by reinstalling though.

Mozilla

If you had a recent 'update' to Win7 you may find that is the problem. Apparently the latest update causes problems of incompatibility with several programs... especially when MS has a similar program.

Zip

Quite possible

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

My Windows 7 does automatic updates. Ummmmm. I'll have to check that out. But... what to do if this is case.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann

Thanks everyone

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

Downloaded the newest version (23.0)Now the arduous task of putting all my add-ins and the other customizations I've made over the years. I'll do them one by one and restart each time to see if one of them caused the problem.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann

Firefox 23

For the first time since I've started using Firefox when I had 23 installed I received a Network cannot be found message. It turned out that my antivirus had somehow blocked it. In fact I had to turn on my Antivirus program or perhaps more importantly the firewall. I don't know what happened but that's the only way I could get it to work.

sometimes you need

to download the full file from the official site, then disconnect your network cable and disable the antivirus and firewall before you install. In my case, I have never had to do that, but everyone's computer configurations and programs are different. So download the full file from mozilla and do what I suggested after uninstalling your current ff 23 entirely.

Afterwards, turn on your antivirus and firewall before you reconnect your network cable.

Sephrena

Thanks but actually

Thanks but actually I'm using 23. I automatically receive the updates once they come out. It was just strange that it hiccuped so bad. What was stranger was that Norton wasn't active and Firefox wouldn't work. Once Norton was reactivated it started working.

I've seen that sort of

I've seen that sort of behaviour when Norton set up a proxy to route all of your internet traffic through; you might want to check the Firefox proxy settings.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

ugh. Norton.

Both Norton and McAfee are honestly complete pieces of trash. It takes a LOT of work to remove them once they've been on a system though. Ask someone who really knows what they're doing to wipe Norton completely clean from your system and then install Avira. You'll be happy you did.

Abigail Drew.

Peoples ideas

I have been an active user of Norton since the beginning and that means diskettes. As I respect your opinion I also would say that there are many antivirus programs that people swear to but others hate.

There are those that swear to Apple, Microsoft and such, So please lets leave our personal opinions to ourselves unless asked.

I won't start a flame but my antivirus program has detected viruses that others have missed. As anyone knows its a game of cat an mouse when it comes to viruses. There is no virus program that is fool proof short of having no operating system.

Uhm.

No offense, but I've used Norton. For years even. I've also used McAfee. Both expect you to pay subscriptions for even just basic antiviral, and neither of them have a heuristics engine nearly as thorough as what the Germans do. In fact. Their business is actually in selling to other corporations "passes" so that their garbage goes through undetected and can still clutter up your computer and report home. American-made stuff is just full of corrupt politics.

Everything Norton OR McAfee reports has been reported by Avira even sooner, I often get bombarded by new detections updates 4 times a day. VS with Norton they followed MS's example of waiting and pushing all updates once a week. Avira pushes new detections as soon as they become final. They want their customers SAFE. And their customers are their USERS, not other businesses whom they sell free passes to.

You remember that recent scare about that virus that had been running rampant and took Norton and McAfee forever to get an answer out? Avira heuristics caught it before it even had a chance. I don't KNOW anything more than that, but I have my suspicions on why it took those clowns so long to fix something the Germans didn't even have to deign to notice.

So I suppose you're welcome to your OPINION. But for me, I prefer letting the facts guide my choices. And the facts have been that everyone I've gotten to use Avira hasn't had a single virus since. I don't have as much luck convincing people to use my system of anti-malware protections or my 3 layer firewall, so they still have other problems. Just not viral ones.

I do love that everyone is always accusing me of sharing opinions though. When I share an opinion I say it's an opinion. When I make a statement it's a statement of fact. I just don't always explain the complete background of the fact because it's a waste of words most of the time.

Abigail Drew.

My complaint with Norton and

My complaint with Norton and McAfee is a bit different than yours, and rooted in reproducable facts.

They both use too many resources, and try to do too much for everything. I still remember a computer that had 100% of its memory take up _only_ by Norton. It took half an hour to boot up. Norton doesn't even check to see if the computer can support it. I have a real problem with any program that has 13 services or applications running at one time, especially when it only needs four. One to scan files before they are opened (as they are opened), one to allow control of the settings, one to talk to the operating system to say 'yes, I actually DO exist. shut up', and the last to run full scans of the operating system (this one doesn't need to be running all the time) That's it. If it's in an email, it has to be written to the hard drive and opened to infect the machine. Same with a download, or getting from a network. You don't need to scan it sixteen times.

As for Avira being wonderful? I beg to disagree, but only up to a point. That point is that _none_ of the antivirus programs block most viruses for at least two days. I don't use an antivirus. The last time I got a virus on one of my personal machines was when I wasn't paying attention and ran a virus I'd been storing, so I could see exactly what it did. I forgot about it, then remembered right as I went "what was this again?" Oops. Five minutes later, no virus.

If you want to not be infected, here's the way.

1) Turn off Flash completely.
2) Uninstall Java. (if you need java for a program, disable it in your web browsers)
3) Remove the ability to view PDF files in your web browser.
4) Set your email to automatically move any files with attachments to a subfolder, and delete anything that you weren't expecting from a friend who told you on the phone.
5) View your email in text mode, and never click on a link - even if it claims to be from the bank or the government (especially). Manually type links into your web browser (like to check to see if that invoice you were emailed was correct)

If you follow those rules, it's basically impossible to get a 'virus', at least at home. Firewalls are close to worthless at home - they only benefit you for -outbound- things, and if that's the case, you're already infected. 'so solly'. Your standard NAT router (Cisco/Linksys, Belkin, whatever) is a solid firewall on its own.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

A firewall that only protects...

On the outbound is not a very good firewall. I have a three layer. It hides me so that the outside world only sees one single linux machine, it encrypts and decrypts everything that passes through, and it manages my QOS. (Making sure things that need more immediate traffic gets it.) A standard NAT can do these things, but usually lacks very good encryption methods. Mine are a bit more advanced.

As far as my network goes, it's runs like a well greased machine and anyone who tries to hook on and actually manages to sniff out any packets won't be able to make any sense out of them unless they happen to have a supercomputer handy.

Firewalling isn't about infections though, it's about intrusions. There's a difference. And you're living in lala land if you don't think protecting against intrusions matters for a home network. It's getting to where a LOT of identity theft and other high scale thefts are being done via network hijacks, and not of the banks, but of the individual. Anti-malware is a much more interesting creature as it's kind of about both. And requires different heuristics to anti-viral but also a different approach from firewalling... Or anti-viral. It's a complicated world, the digital one.

And for Avira not blocking most viruses for at least two days... Mostly true. But they have a very good team and usually get the most urgest cases solved very quickly. And as I said, they push updates as soon as they become available. Which you CAN change a setting in the program that delays you actually checking for and getting them, default is to get them as soon as Avira's network sends out a message that they're available. Personally I don't know why you'd want to delay getting the latest protection.

Your solution is A solution. But a good antiviral is also a solution. Norton, unfortunately, is neither. It leads its user into thinking they are protected when they really are not very well protected at all, truly. As you say, it is also a resource hog. Avira is also more intrusive than I'd like, but I can't have EVERYTHING the way I'd like it. Or I'd have to do it myself and that'd just be impossible.

There is a very low resource and mostly good antiviral choice out there - if you can get it working. It seems to rather dislike certain system configurations, however. I can never seem to get it working. Possibly because my other protections are perhaps too strict for it. Nod32.

Abigail Drew.

I didn't say that it only

I didn't say that it only protected on the outbound - I just said that the only real use of a firewall on the _machine_ is for outbound. For your average home/business, the internet access point (router/switch/managed whatevertheheckitis) is the better firewall, completely.

Nod32 (ESet) has had a number of good reviews, but I've never really liked it for some reason. Just a personal dislike; I can't say anything bad about it (or good).

As for me, I do it the easy way. I don't run Windows, and on my Windows boxes, I don't run IE. I also don't have java active in the browser, and PDF's are downloaded before viewing (this is also pragmatic. I _hate_ scrolling down two pages, then having to wait for it to download the next three. I want the whole thing to look through)

I've seen Extortionware being the biggest problem nowadays - and the FBI (and our government) refuses to put a stop to it. (Yes, they can. It's done overseas, and they just have to trace the money to the first bank across the pond, then issue an ultimatum. Stop it, or they will no longer be allowed to use the US Banking system for anything. They're just lazy morons who don't want to admit it's organized crime, and thus under the aegis of the FBI. It's _just_ a $100 hijacking attempt that claims it's from the FBI, so why should they bother? :) )


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.