getting message "could not initialize the browser security component" offered solutions not working
I'm getting a message "could not initialize the browser security component" plus a blank screen. Of the 5 solutions offered in Help, only creating a new profile helps, but it only helps for that session! So I'm having to create a new profile each and every time I start Firefox. This means no bookmarks, no add-ons (they require a restart), etc. I've even tried deleting the Default profile, but it doesn't help. The new profile is deleted each time I start. What do I do?
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I did that many times. The new profile would work for one session only. Each time, Firefox (or something) would delete the new profile, so it didn't work; I ended up with the Default profile, which was obviously corrupted. Here's what finally worked. Based on your 1st response, I saw that the other profiles still existed as subfolders in the Profiles folder, even though they weren't listed when I did firefox.exe -P. So I had the idea to uninstall Firefox and see if those folders were still there. And they were! In fact the Mozilla, Firefox and Profiles folders hadn't been removed with the uninstall. I deleted the folders, re-installed and now I'm fine and writing this from Firefox. So, if someone is continuing to have problems with a corrupt profile, suggest uninstalling and then deleting all the Firefox-related folders that are left behind.
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Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?
You may have security software that uses virtualization to protect files against changes.
Did you try to delete secmode.db and maybe also cert8.db in the profile folder?
I'm using Norton Anti-Virus. This all happened after an attack of malware. I had MS Security Essentials, which not only didn't prevent it but couldn't repair it. So I tried Nortion, which got rid of it, but not the damage it caused. Norton's support helped with a lot of the damage, but I still have some problems. By the way, IE is working fine (but I hate it and want to get back to my beloved Firefox).
I had deleted cert8.db, because it was mentioned in that article, but not secmode.db. I just tried deleting it in the default profile and that didn't help. I have 6 profiles now (meaning that I have that many subfolders in the Profiles folder, after trying many times to create one. But when I run firefox.exe -P, only default is listed. Should I delete those 2 files in all the subfolders?
By the way, I've uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox and that didn't help either.
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
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I did that many times. The new profile would work for one session only. Each time, Firefox (or something) would delete the new profile, so it didn't work; I ended up with the Default profile, which was obviously corrupted. Here's what finally worked. Based on your 1st response, I saw that the other profiles still existed as subfolders in the Profiles folder, even though they weren't listed when I did firefox.exe -P. So I had the idea to uninstall Firefox and see if those folders were still there. And they were! In fact the Mozilla, Firefox and Profiles folders hadn't been removed with the uninstall. I deleted the folders, re-installed and now I'm fine and writing this from Firefox. So, if someone is continuing to have problems with a corrupt profile, suggest uninstalling and then deleting all the Firefox-related folders that are left behind.