Try the following:

1. Go to about:config in Firefox
2. Locate the app.update.channel
3. Change the value of this string to release
4. Then update Firefox, via Help > About

Please report back soon.

Or you can uninstall beta, then install the release from mozilla.org

The post by ComputerWhiz will not work as the app.update.channel preference is more for to know what channel you are on at present rather as it was last possible to modify it back when Firefox was 1.5 until 4.0 at latest. You can change it all you want in about:config but nothing will happen.

It has been hard coded in the channel-prefs.js file since which you can edit in the application directory while Firefox is closed.

To change your update channel:

1. Close Firefox. 2. Go to the Firefox program directory. 3. Enter defaults\pref 4. Edit channel-prefs.js in Notepad.

Change:

pref("app.update.channel", "beta");

to the one you desire. Update channels to choose from:

nightly aurora beta esr release

pref("app.update.channel", "release");

5. Save and exit. 6. Re-open Firefox.

You can then check the app.update.channel in about:config to see if the channel has changed.

Besides Firefox 25.0 may be out during day of Tuesday Oct 29 so may want to wait and install the 25.0 release instead.

Thanks to Computer Whiz, Waka Flocka Flame and James for your responses. Sorry I haven't replied but had some family issues. In any case, I'm really not sure what I should do. I guess my thought was to totally uninstall the FF that I have and reinstall with the latest non-beta version however, I still cannot find out what that version is and no one has posted any info on it. I have saved my bookmarks and know that I can restore them to a new install of FF. I also saved my profile but not sure how to restore that to the newly installed FF. James, are you indicating that FF 25 is the latest non-beta version? If so can I proceed as I mentioned above? Also, can someone tell me how I would restore the profile that I saved? Sorry I seem so befuddled on this. I am not by any means a computer expert, just an older user who does like computers. Thanks to all of you for your replies. Any additional suggestions/comments will be appreciated. JD

The Firefox 25.0 Beta you say you have is on the Beta channel so if you continue to use it you will get a update for 26.0b1 soon.

The best way to get on Release channel is to install the 25.0 release from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/ as it came out on Tuesday Oct 29.

Thanks James for your reply and the information. I did download the FF 25 from the link you provided. however, when I tried to install the FF 25 I got this weird message, "This program is blocked by group policy. For more information contact your system administrator." I've never had any message like this before. I have a home desktop computer and am running Win 7 Home Premium, SP1. I even tried to install an older version (I keep all the versions in a download folder) and got the same message. Unfortunately I decided to just uninstall the FF 25 beta and then install the FF 25 which you suggested. Before doing this I saved my bookmarks and my FF profile. The uninstall went just fine but I am still getting that message when I try to install the FF 25 from the link you provided. I'm sorry now that I uninstalled the FF 25 beta as now I do not have FF at all. I know it's my fault, but can you suggest what is going on with this message? I have no idea what "group policy" is. If you can help with this I will be grateful. Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer. JD

Do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

• Firefox 25: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

Uninstall your current Firefox version, if possible, to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.

• Do NOT remove personal data when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because all profile folders will be removed and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords from profiles of other Firefox versions.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

• (32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
• (64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"

• It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox

Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure that "remove personal data" is NOT selected when you uninstall Firefox.

In case of problems, try to boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) to see if that helps.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

Thanks Cor-el for your reply. I have done all that you indicated earlier. I saved my bookmarks and my profile and I did download the FF 25 as indicated and I did uninstall the FF that i had which was a FF 25 beta. I did not remove the personal data and after the uninstall I did go to Program Files and remove the FF program folder. But as I mentioned in my previous post, when I did all this and then tried to install the newly downloaded FF 25 I got the message: "This program is blocked by group policy. For more information contact your system administrator." So no matter what I do at this point I cannot seem to get the newly downloaded FF to install. Every time I get that same message. I even get this message when I try to install an older version. However, I did check another program not related to FF to make sure it would install and had no problems. So whatever if causing the problem and causing this weird message to appear must be related to FF. I'm totally at a loss on this. To summarize:

1. I saved my FF bookmarks and profile and also downloaded the Firefox 25 (non-beta) and saved it to my download folder. 2. I uninstalled the existing Firefox 25 Beta and did not remove the personal data. 3. I deleted the Firefox folder in Program Files 4. I then tried to install the newly downloaded Firefox 25 and got the message "This program is blocked by group policy. For more information contact your system administrator."

As a side note, I gave my wife the Firefox 25 I had downloaded and she had no problem installing it on her laptop.

I'm really sorry I am bugging everyone on this but cannot figure out what to do to get Firefox back on my desktop computer. I do have it on my own laptop so still have access to a Firefox, just not on my desktop and I do use my desktop a lot. Also I have tried to delve into Group Policy but could not get very far. I cannot use the MMC.exe as it only works on Win 7 Pro. Thanks to all for your help. JD

Hi josephdamien, where did you save the download? If it's on external media, copy it to your Downloads folder or Desktop and try from there. Some security software may protect you from dangerous stuff on USB flash drives or other removable media by requiring that it run from your PC.

A couple other thoughts:

• Sometimes malware will block certain third party software from installing. If you rename the download -- for example, version25.exe -- will it run? To check for and clean up malware, the free tools in this article are helpful: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware.

• There is some malware going around that has IT departments blocking EXE and MSI files from running from certain locations, such as the Windows TEMP folder. I got a similar error message the other day when I tried to update Java from the Java control panel. Fortunately I was able to update from the Java website. But enough about me... the point is that I don't know a workaround for the TEMP folder block and you should contact your IT if your desktop is in a managed environment.

Thanks jscher. I did what you suggested and renamed the FF 25 file which is in my Download folder and tried again to install but no soap, got the same message "This program is blocked by group policy. For more information contact your system administrator." It's getting late here so need to hit the hay but will be back tomorrow at some point. I did check the troubleshoot site you indicated but most of that was for problems after FF is already installed. The one thing no one has addressed is the "group policy" matter. That is what comes up each time I try to install FF 25, but as I mentioned earlier, it also comes up if I try to install any older versions of FF. I think I have about 10 or so older versions in my download folder. In any case, I do greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions and those of the other posters. Just hope at some juncture that the problem can be resolved. Again thanks to you and all. I'll be back tomorrow. If anyone else has ideas I'm open to all. Especially the "group policy" thing! JD P.s. I am just an average home user, no network no IT, just me and my desktop!  :)

Hi josephdamien, try to download an run a few of the anti-malware tools in the article I linked above.

Windows allows IT administrators to distribute "policies" that are stored in the registry. These are the Group Policy restrictions. It's also possible with Pro versions of Windows to create your own security policies. I don't know how to create or even view security policies on non-Pro versions of Windows: the dialogs I've used are not included.

My thanks again to all who replied to my question. I finally went into safe mode and was able to install FF 25. However, it is not a good result but it is usable. Some of the areas that should have text are blank but if you put your mouse over them they show. Also the little boxes next to each email in the inbox remain blank even when I click in them but I know something is there as then some of the blocks above appear with the choices, like "archive, delete, spam, etc". Can't figure out what is going on but it appears something is amiss and I've tried changing themes, etc. According to FF settings the text should be black but something is just messed up. I thought about maybe installing an older version of FF to see what would happen but not sure an older version would install over a newer one. I'm seriously thinking about just reformatting and reinstalling everything. Only drawback for me is that I am on a very limited data plan as I live out in the country and am currently using the Verizon 5 Spot to get faster internet and for the most part it works pretty well, except of course for the 5 GB limit per month. If I were in town I could get DSL or Cable and get unlimited data for the same price I pay Verizon. I hate it but the Verizon is much, much better than dial-up. Anyway, I am leaning to doing the reformat and reinstall and will have to download all the Win updates at the library and then add them from the download. If I let the Verizon 5 spot do the updates I would run out of data pretty darn quick. If anyone has any comments I would of course welcome them, but there seems to be no fix for the problem. Again thanks to all.

Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

• Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes