Firefox doesn't start
Hi, Have a really annoyingsituation with a non starting firefox. Currently trying on release 16.0, but had the same issue from version 15 approximately. Diagnostics:
- Windows 7 Pro x64
- Fresh install, cleaned every trace of firefox out of the computer before reinstalling
- At some point it worked with the "launch firefox" in the install wizard, but if I closed it I couldn't start it again. Now it does not work anymore that way.
- Firefox starts no problem when run as administrator
- When the install wizard shows up, it asks admin rights, if I grant it it does not launch afterwards, if I don't grant it and install firefox in a non-admin folder, it does not launch either.
- Non-admin, Safe mode doesn't start
- Non-admin, Profile manager doesn't start
- At some point I had the profile-manager or import wizard showing up when launching as non admin, but they were "non responding". Not reliably replicated.
- Doesn't start means the process is started (seen in task manager though the RAM usage is not moving), but no window opens.
- No firewall software, windows firewall disabled
- Apparently it's crashing, because in the profile/minidumps folder, there is a 0kb file created at the moment I try to start it
- If I start with no profile folders, it will create one but it's missing the Cache folder, the mozilla-media-cache folder, the startupCache folder, content-prefs.sqlite, formhistory.sqlite, mimeTypes.rdf, pluginreg.dat, sessionstore.js, signons.sqlite, urlclassifier*, webappstore.sqlite
- If I copy the "working" (created in admin) profile folder, paste it in the non-admin default folder, it doesn't start, and the only files that are modified in the profile folder are compatibility.ini and places.sqlite*
Gewysig op
All Replies (2)
Note that the cache folder is created in a different location: %AppData%\Local for the cache versus %AppData%\Roaming for the main profile folder.
Sounds that you have some security software running that is preventing Firefox from creating some of the files in the Firefox Profile Folder
Does it make Any difference if you boot the computer in Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen)?
Good catch ! That narrowed it down a lot.
- Fresh start windows
- Kill all the processes that are not necessary for windows (antiviruses, etc)
- Now firefox can start in non admin, and I can use the profile without problems
Thanks a lot, I think it's solved, I just have to figure out what process is blocking, I suspect it's the mcafee antivirus.
EDIT: Found the culprit. No antivirus software or anything, but Ftpdrive. Uninstalled it, now firefox starts no problem. Weird.
Gewysig op