Firefox will not open. Process runs, but browser window will not open.
I am unable to get the Firefox browser window to launch. The application will attempt to open, but the browser window will not appear. Task manager indicates that the process is running, it just will not launch the window. No amount of restarts or reboots will make a difference. The strange thing about this is that Firefox has never run. This is a new computer and this issue has been a problem since it was first plugged in. Troubleshooting steps attempted thus far: 1) Attempted to open in safe mode - will not open 2) Attempted to run in administrator mode- will not open 3) Completely uninstalled application, including profile info and reinstalled 4) Uninstalled known conflicts - Skype 4 (do not have Norton) 5) Even though issues since new, I ran a virus scan just in case-nothing 6) Uninstalled Chrome which I installed after originally being unsuccesful at getting FF to install (I uninstalled it before I began all of these troubleshooting steps as I have heard of conflicts)
I am now at a loss and willing to try any other steps that you guys can suggest.
Computer is running Windows 7 pro 64 bit. Running McAffee virus software. There are three identical computers in my office, purchased at exactly the same time with the same configuration. Mine is the only one that will not run firefox. Sadness. Please help, pleeeease...
Modified by jodigb1
All Replies (6)
i have the same problem but i ahve win xp pro
I have exactly the same problem with both Firefox and Thunderbird, under my Windows Vista OS. However, I can get both running using the following cumbersome method. In the Task Manager right click the entry firefox.exe in the process window. Choose "Properties" from the drop-down list and then choose the "Previous Versions" tab. In my case it showed a so-called "shadow copy" dated about four weeks previously and when I selected this and clicked "Open" then Firefox opened normally, though rather slowly. Unfortunately this does not solve the problem because after Firefox is closed the same problem recurs next time I try to open it. However, if the "Restore" button is available (it was not for me) in the "Previous Versions" window then you might be able to restore an older but working copy.
I have solved my problems with Firefox 7.0.1 running on Vista Business 32 bit OS - actually two problems: Firefox first started opening very slowly taking up to a minute, and then it stopped opening at all except as a process. I previously tried every fix I could think of could find on the Internet: uninstalling, re-installing, opening in safe mode, scanning for viruses, closing and eventually uninstalling programs that might conflict such as anti-virus programs, disabling services that seemed suspicious, scanning my system for hardware and software problems with SciSoft Sandra, and so on.
The fix was to uninstall Firefox and then manually delete in the registry (using the program regedit.exe provided by Microsoft) most entries for Firefox (especially those in HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE), then reinstalling Firefox. It now opens normally in a couple of seconds.
Cleaning the registry manually is something I had to do a lot in the "old days" but I thought that it was a thing of the past, or something that could be handled by an automated registry cleaning program. I was wrong.
Modified by aitchis
I have solved my problems with Firefox 7.0.1 running on Vista Business OS - actually two problems: Firefox first started opening very slowly taking up to a minute, and then it stopped opening at all except as a process. I previously tried every fix I could think of or could find on the Internet: uninstalling, re-installing, opening in safe mode, closing and eventually uninstalling programs that might conflict such as anti-virus programs, disabling services that seemed suspicious, scanning my system for hardware and software problems with SciSoft Sandra, and so on.
The fix was to uninstall Firefox and then manually delete from the registry (using the program regedit.exe provided by Microsoft) most entries for Firefox, especially those in HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then reinstalling Firefox. It now opens in a couple of seconds.
Cleaning the registry manually is something I had to do a lot in the "old days" but I thought that it was a thing of the past, or something that could be handled by an automated registry cleaning program. I was wrong.
I have this problem too, but it started with FireFox 9. 8 and earlier run fine, but 9, 10, 11, and now 12 exhibit the same problem. I also am running McAfee VirusScan, in a corporate environment. Maybe try to run FireFox portable v8, and see if it runs without issue. The link is:
I have further narrowed down the change to nightly 9.0a1 09/02/2011. I was able to run the nightly build on 09/01/2011, but not on 09/02/2011. I also narrowed down the affected files to mozjs.dll and xul.dll.
What doesn't work: Creating new profile, Running in safe-mode, Running in Win98/Me compatibility mode, rebooting, Disabling hardware acceleration in prefs.js, Disabling Javascript in prefs.js
I am running Windows XP 32 bit with SP3. Thinking maybe FireFox might be just starting slowly, I left it for an hour, but the browser window never opened.
Modified by rommager
Win 7 with iTunes installed - I was also having problems with that.
"netsh winsock reset" at the command prompt resolved all issues and Firefox launched normally.
Check to see if Winsock is corrupted. May prevent FF from communicating with the web and consequently fails to launch properly - for my situation was not a firewall or antivirus block!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936211#LetMeFixItMyselfAlways
Click Start, and in Start Search, type cmd. Right-click the cmd entry that appears in the search results, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue. At the command prompt, type the following, and then press ENTER: netsh winsock reset Then, you should see the following message: Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset. Restart the computer. Note If you receive an “Access Denied” error message instead of the message that is mentioned in step 3, the command prompt was not correctly elevated. In this case, close the Command Prompt window, and repeat steps 1 through 3. Make sure that you correctly implement step 2.