Oops ... I messed up the security settings ... I edited them.

so its resolved now ??

Yes and no... It is for me by making an exception for this file by making it write accessible. But the fact remains that debug.txt file is there and needs write access. Sorry my 'answer' is so ambiguous. I originally posted the new security settings in that 'answer' post before I realized I could also edit my original post details and make less of a mess on the screen. Sorry about that.

Anyways. The problem still persists. Although it won't be a problem for users with a default stand-alone install, I'm seriously wondering what that file does in a released product... and why it has such perculiar requirements.

Where did you find that debug.txt file ?? I don't have any debug.txt file in my WHOLE C:\ (windows) drive

Try this - Troubleshooting extensions and themes

• https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting%20extensions%20and%20themes

Also, Do a MALWARE check with some Malware Scanning programs. You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. Make sure that you UPDATE each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

-> Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

-> SuperAntispyware

• http://www.superantispyware.com/

-> Windows Defender: Home Page

• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx

-> Spybot Search & Destroy

• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

-> Ad-Aware Free

• http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

-> Spyware on Windows

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Check and tell if its working.

Try to use DiskMon to see which application is accessing the file:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896646.aspx

I don't have a malware infection. I did a filemon scan, if you cared to look at it, a snipit of it is in the system details attached to the original post. Also attached are the security settings of that file, as seen from the windows client that's executing the firefox executable. By the way, the problem as described persists, even when running Firefox in safe mode. It doesn't load any plugins/extensions then. Running safe mode was the first thing I did when I came across this. I have all my Windows up to date, legal, use up to date virus and spyware tools and haven't had a single virus infection (unless I examined the virusses intentionally) in 20+ years of personal computer usage. This is not a post about an ignorant user for crissake. I'm talking about an actual usability bug. I design, program and debug applications and algorithms cross platform in various programming languages for a living and sysadmin a small business network with various computers with Windows, Linux and MacOS operating systems on there all interacting with each other. I know when I see something strange.

Are you able to Delete debug.txt file ??

I can delete debug.txt perfectly fine. Because Firefox is on a file share with only read access I had to do it server-side though.

I did a little more testing. Firefox doesn't seem to need the file, it doesn't create it, but if it's there it uses it and tries to write-access it as soon as you request the about:support page (and in other instances, like with that elderscrolls page). That might be why the file wasn't on your system at all. However it is on mine. Somewhere along the use of Firefox it was created (oldest timestamp of that particular firefox install is 4-12-2005 of the 'defaults.ini' file. A file which is also no longer in use in current Firefox installs.)

I also checked the Firefox install on my laptop. The debug.txt file doesn't exist there. But as soon as I make it and browse to the about:support page, the timestamp of the file is updated. So there is definitely something trying to use that file and if it's present it can cause some strange problems. Well ... at least this makes it a bug with an easy workaround.