Have to be away from keyboard now for about an hour. But I will come back and check in case you get a brainwave since it is clear I wont.

Thank you so much for all your help thus far, truly appreciated.

Anne x

annethewriter said

Does the attachment, the screen shot tell you if the edges are round or straight or whatever, sorry I dont understand that bit at all.

Yes, that is Firefox. If you look at the tab bar, the bar near the top with the blue tab, you can see that the edges are curved.

Did you log into Google or did Firefox do that automatically?

It might be helpful to show the classic menu bar for the next steps in the process. To turn different bars on and off, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

• right-click a blank spot on the tab bar (or the "+" button on the bar)
• tap the Alt key to activate the classic menu bar, then on the View menu click Toolbars
• in Customize mode > Show/Hide Toolbars (see: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars)

Once that list is showing, to turn on the Menu Bar, Bookmarks Toolbar, or other bars, click it on the list.

Now... if you click the Bookmarks menu, what do you find? Is it just a handful of bookmarks that come with Firefox, or some of your bookmarks, or what?

Another place to view your bookmarks is the Library window. To call that up, you can use either:

• Ctrl+Shift+b
• Bookmarks menu > Show All Bookmarks

The left column shows different categories (Menu, Toolbar, Other). If you click them, their contents display on the right. How does it look?

For JS

When I click Firefox, which I always do first, it opens (usually) giving me access to all the tiny icons along with their pw so I can just start working from clicking one of the tabs. ALL OF THAT IS GONE.

When I click on Firefox, either from the list of programs or from anywhere I get the Google homepage come up. It does it by itself entirely.

NOTHING with Firefox on it brings up the FF screen.

Anne x

To JS

I'm sorry to be thick but I dont know what a toolbar is. I know you mean well, but I dont understand one word of this

"It might be helpful to show the classic menu bar for the next steps in the process. To turn different bars on and off, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:"

How can I turn any toolbars on and off if I dont have Firefox ?

For JS

I dont see a bar, only the Google bar, no + sign there. I can send you a screen shot of the google page which appears when I hit FFox.

But I think I did that already.

Dont know what else to do.

OMG I dont know what happened but they all suddenly came back again.

I mean the three rows of tiny icons which I use to click. I dont know how.

I right clicked on the blank space under the URL box on the Google page which comes up every time I hit FF.

I have no idea what happened, but very glad it did.

Is there any way that I can prevent this from happening again in the future please JS  ?

I have literally been doing this ALL DAY LONG way behind and sick to death of computers now.

The only good thing to come out of it is that I have met you, and you are a genius.

Thank you VERY much for whatever you did. But can I stop the whole thing from disappearing again do you know please ?

Thanks in millions to you.

Anne x

For JS

Just to say, the URL did not change, it still says GOOGLE. Is that correct ?

For JS

I have taken a screenshot of the page, as it should look. But I am not sure about the Google stream of URL being in there. Shouldn't it be FFox ?

I hate bothering people you have been so patient, I am so very grateful.

My link with this machine is so tenuous, I am always terrified of hitting the wrong button.

And HOW do I stop ALL updates from messing up what is for me, the perfect system ? Is there some magic way ?

Hi Anne, do you have any kind of backup system? You could look into that. There are a lot of options now, including devices you attach to your computer and services that copy data to "the cloud."

I'm not sure what kind of update caused the problem, but interrupting updates can definitely cause issues. Firefox has a major update about every 6 weeks, and little emergency fixes 1, 2 or 3 times in between. These should all just flow seamlessly, but occasionally something drastic happens. For those occasions, it's great to have a backup.

Is that Google page your "home page"? The home page is what appears if you launch a new window using Ctrl+n, or if you click the Home button (house icon) on the address bar. If you want to start on a different home page, this article has the steps: How to set the home page.

Sometimes the desktop (or Taskbar) shortcut you use to start Firefox has been modified to launch a different page than your home page. But we can come back to that issue if updating your home page setting doesn't help.

Hello JS

I tried clicking on the "house" button and the page appeared which is already there, with Google being the search engine, and the three lines of little icons. So yes, that is my homepage.

I dont understand how backup could help with the home page. I know it can with documents, but the homepage ? I am clueless about "cloud" technology and dont want to have to get into it unless critical. It is just too much for me to take in. I am a creative person, not a techie. Even the basics are a great struggle for me, as you see.

I'm concerned that just anybody can do an update to my PC whenever they like without my permission. That just seems wrong. And I do have auto-update turned off.

If it is a Firefox update, would it actually say that it is from Firefox ? Those I would let through. But others not.

I dont understand this, sorry : "Sometimes the desktop (or Taskbar) shortcut you use to start Firefox has been modified to launch a different page than your home page. But we can come back to that issue if updating your home page setting doesn't help."

I have the FFox symbol on my desktop and that is what I click to get to the home page. From there I select the tiny icon from the 3 lines of icons, depending on what needs to be attended to first.

I dont understand your quote I have printed above. Are you saying that the FFox button on my desktop which leads to my homepage will sometimes take me elsewhere? WHY? I dont want that.

I get very panicky when something like this happens, I know so little about it and could not possibly grasp the intricacies of it all. The basic question I have is this --- if it aint broke why fix it ?

I dont want to click FFox and have it take me somewhere else when I have to use it to get to my home page to do an important job. Why would Firefox even think that is a good idea?

Not everyone is tech-savvy and yet we rely upon the machine to do what it is set up to do, not what someone else decides we need to see or do. THAT to me is both rude and inconsiderate to the customer base.

I am considering changing Firefox. My son is trying out Safari and has recommended Avira which has a built in VPN. I know that stops people from tracking ones movements and I could make good use of that.

The ONLY reason I have not already changed from FFox is that it has the facility for me to quickly get onto the URL I want, via the tiny 3 rows of clickable icons on the home page. Without that I would have left years ago.

It took me about 3 years to build up the most used icons for those three lines, and they are the only thing holding me to FFox.

That plus a loathing for the censorship of Google, Facebook and many others. But a VPN (preferably a free add on) is what I must look for now. Then comes the nightmare of trying to set it up.

It makes me physically sick to my stomach even thinking of having to do these things and I know plenty of other women who feel the same. Dont Firefox ever think of us ? Or are we indispensable ?

The next big headache for me is trying to dislodge a bug someone dropped into my PC which makes it open and boot up at 3am every morning. I am hoping that doing system restore back to the end of last year will clear it. But terrified that it will also remove all my documents and images since then.

It's a minefield.

Hi Anne, please hold off on the system restore. That would roll back a lot of things.

Do you have someone who can help you check the Windows "Scheduled Tasks"? That's usually where a timed task would be stored.

Back to Firefox: you can change from Google to a different home page if you like. By home page, I mean the part in the content area where web pages display. This won't affect what you see in the toolbar area above the page. For how to do that, see: How to set the home page.

Regarding backups: you already have a sense of what you might need to back up in Firefox -- your bookmarks! I assume you have an email account that stores messages online for an extended period of time. In other words, if you lost your computer, you wouldn't lose all your email -- you could still go back to the mail server and view it. If true, a "quick and dirty" way to back up your bookmarks would be as follows:

(1) Create an "export" file using the steps in this article, saving it somewhere convenient like your desktop: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks.

(2) Create a new email addressed to yourself and attach that export file. Then if something goes wrong with your Firefox, you will be able to re-import those bookmarks by downloading the attachment and using the Import feature.

annethewriter said

I dont understand this, sorry : "Sometimes the desktop (or Taskbar) shortcut you use to start Firefox has been modified to launch a different page than your home page. But we can come back to that issue if updating your home page setting doesn't help."

I have the FFox symbol on my desktop and that is what I click to get to the home page. From there I select the tiny icon from the 3 lines of icons, depending on what needs to be attended to first.

I dont understand your quote I have printed above. Are you saying that the FFox button on my desktop which leads to my homepage will sometimes take me elsewhere? WHY? I dont want that.

I get very panicky when something like this happens, I know so little about it and could not possibly grasp the intricacies of it all. The basic question I have is this --- if it aint broke why fix it ?

I dont want to click FFox and have it take me somewhere else when I have to use it to get to my home page to do an important job. Why would Firefox even think that is a good idea?

No, that isn't part of Firefox. It's a way that unwanted programs can hijack any of your browsers to some place you never intended to go. You only need help with that if changing your home page does not work.

To JS

First time putting this machine on today, just could not face it failing again. But it did.

Soon as turned on, it went straight to Google as the home page, WITHOUT the three rows of tiny avatars to my most used program. AND without any of my Firefox Add Ons.

So back to square one. Seem to remember you said click in the blanks space under the URL box so I will do that before getting all upset again.

All I want to do is to have those three lines on the google search page WITH my FF add ons --- is that so unreasonable ???

It always was the way it worked, now it suddenly changes. I am adamant when I find out who changed it, I will NOT use any of their products again.

Really hope you are around today. Looks like we didn't fix anything at all. Very disheartening. And I just CANT spend another whole day online on this one thing.

cor-el said

Hi Anne What Firefox version do you currently use (Help > About)?

The Version of Firefox is 53.02.2 32 bit

I would be happier to go back to the previous version if it did not muddle everything up and RUIN what has taken me 3 years to build up (my whole page was set up to suit me, I thought that was the beauty of FFox, now I find that you are meddling, trying to improve what is working perfectly, why? for fun? It seem very stupid to me and I am very angry at having wasted a FULL 9 HOUR DAY on something it took me YEARS to get how I wanted it.

Now today I dare switch it on at almost 3pm - and here we go again - all of the three rows of shortcuts at the top have disappeared again with all of the add ons.

SICKENING.

Anne, I can't explain what's happening on your computer. Since you are back where you were at the beginning, please restart from my reply on the first page of this thread on where to check when your entire profile (all your settings) goes missing.

Hi, by default Firefox has a single row Bookmarks Toolbar - to turn it on right click in the tab bar (not on a tab) at the top of the screen and select Bookmarks Toolbar. That should place a single bar with your bookmarks on it, below the address bar - Bookmarks Toolbar - Display your favorite websites at the top of the Firefox window.

The 3 rows of bookmarks that you had, suggests that you were using an add-on - maybe https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/roomy-bookmarks-toolbar/ or something similar. You can look in the Add-ons Manager (Ctrl+Shift+A) > Extensions to see if that or a similar one has been disabled - sometimes add-ons, because they are made by independent developers, and not Mozilla, stop working properly after a Firefox update. If you can't enable it, that is probably what's happened and there is little you can do about it.

If you now have the single default bookmarks bar, look for a small arrow at the right-hand end and click it - that should show any bookmarks that won't fit on the toolbar. I suggest that you create some folders on the bookmarks bar into which you can drag your bookmarks. To create folders; right click in the bookmarks bar > New Folder, and give them short names, then drag your bookmarks into the folders - you can rename the folders at any time by right click > Properties.

If you want to change the Google home page to the Firefox start page, Click on Restore to Default as shown in How to set the home page

Your PC starting up at 3am sounds like a Windows automatic update. If you're using Win7 or earlier, you can type Windows Update into the Start Menu search box, click on the result > Change settings (on the left) and set it to 'Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them.' You will then get a notification in the Taskbar and can install when you're ready. If you're using Win10, Microsoft in their 'wisdom' have taken that away, but there are ways around it!

Thank you so much to JS and to Scribe.

So far, it booted up with the 3 rows of short-links all in place under the URL box. I dread turning it off for fear it will again have deleted them.

JS : I have gone through all your valuable help and indeed, have managed (I dont know how) to get the three rows of shortcuts, into a file and sitting on my desktop. I have not clicked it or opened it in case I mess it up.

Scribe: I am using Win 7 and have all automatic updates stopped. Or thought I had. I checked the box from the Control Panel. But I will do it the way you say as well, since the first one does not seem to work.

I cant tell you how very grateful I am for your patience and kindness in helping. I do try to learn more every time I log-on but find it extremely hard.

The next thing I have to do is to find a free but good VPN. Do either of you know if Firefox does a VPN as an add-on for FFox users please ?

I would be most grateful for your reply and thank you most sincerely for your invaluable help, I am truly grateful. Anne xx

Hi Anne, VPN isn't something I use so can't advise on that, but typing VPN into the search box on the add-ons page does bring up quite a few results - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

I really think that in the long run, you would be better off creating some folders on the default bookmarks bar. You can give each one a different title, so that you can group your bookmarks into categories for easy access, and you can have a large number in each folder - it works for me!

You should be aware that in FF57 due for release in mid-November, there will be big changes to add-ons (and to the Firefox User Interface - appearance). Basically, unless an add-on developer rewrites their add-on to make it compatible with a new standard known as WebExtensions, it will stop working.

Just for reference: If you have a lot of important bookmarks, it's worth backing them up manually every so often, it's very easy, and only takes a minute: Open bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Backup. Or, Export Bookmarks to HTML, and save them to somewhere convenient on your computer. (For even greater security, copy them to an external drive - the file is tiny, so a flash drive is fine). Note that Backup will overwrite any existing bookmarks when you restore them.

For extra safety, I'd suggest making both a Backup - which creates a JSON file, and an HTML file.

Thank you Scribe for yet more wise words.

I'm not sure I understand the first part, do you mean make folders containing the little pictograms which I click to take me to my most used programs? And to do that only on the default single line bookmarks bar rather than an add-on? They are on something someone else wrote, I remember when I first set it up.

So what u are saying is that on the update November, they will be gone again anyway, unless I do the above ? Will that mean I can keep them if I create folders on the single default bar ?

My goodness, you and JS really know your stuff down to the Nth detail. Is it a hobby of yours I wonder? I will try to do what you say, but then on the single default bar, I will have maybe 6 folders, each containing about 10 individual shortcuts which are clickable. I hope I have not misunderstood.

I have so much to catch up with after these 2 days I just cant do it now, so will try to put this conversation on the bar too. But to do that it means I have to take off all of the existing ones, and i will not remember them, that is for sure. I'm terrified to touch the little round extensions bubble on the desktop in case they too disappear for good.

Honestly, I dont know what to do for the best. I will have to think about it over a few weeks.

Do the developers EVER reach a stage where the browser is considered done and they stop developing it? If I can find one which has reached this stage, with no more surprise deletions, I will probably switch. I simply cant spare the time for all the minutiae of so many different changes for one simple thing which worked PERFECTLY.

Thanks so much for your brilliant help. I am really very grateful indeed. I still feel totally lost as no clue where to find the files you suggest. My memory is not the greatest. And tech-y stuff actually gives me a migraine after a few hours.

But thanks sincerely to you both, JS and you. You are exceptionally kind people.

Love

Anne xx

By 'pictogram' I think you mean the little 'icon' which you can see on the bookmarks bar next to the title of the bookmark. As an example, in this article, there is a tiny Firefox icon next to 'Getting Started.' If that is what you mean, it's actually called a Favicon! And yes that's right, I'm suggesting you make some folders on the single (default) bookmarks bar, then you can drag the bookmarks off the bookmarks bar into any folder you choose - but it is only a suggestion.

There isn't a way to be sure yet which add-ons will work after FF57. Some may, some may not, but the single bar isn't an add-on - it's part of the default User Interface, so won't be affected.

'Do the developers EVER reach a stage where the browser is considered done and they stop developing it?' Good point!! It can be very frustrating when things keep changing, especially when all you want to do is to switch on and use the thing!

Give yourself some time to think about it, and don't let it get to you - after all, it's only a machine :-)