Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

All open windows lock up, cannot minimize/close, must use task manager to close everything

  • 3 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by tyrranus

more options

I've been using Mozilla Firefox for a few years and love it. My home page is Google News, and Google is my chosen search engine. For the last three weeks, whenever I have Firefox/Google news open, then open another program, like Word, Quicken, maybe a downloaded game site, everything locks up - every single page including my Mozilla Firefox, my gmail account and whatever other page I have tried to open. I cannot minimize any screen, cannot X close any screen, this includes the original open Firefox Mozilla screens. The only way to be able to do anything on any screen is to use Task Manager to close the windows. My AVG protection runs scans every night. I have gone in and run my Malware protection program, another AVG scan, updated everything, flash players, run checks everywhere. Even ran a computer degrag, yet still the problem persists.

What now? I am frustrated having to completely shut down all programs running with task manager before I can proceed with any program.

I've been using Mozilla Firefox for a few years and love it. My home page is Google News, and Google is my chosen search engine. For the last three weeks, whenever I have Firefox/Google news open, then open another program, like Word, Quicken, maybe a downloaded game site, everything locks up - every single page including my Mozilla Firefox, my gmail account and whatever other page I have tried to open. I cannot minimize any screen, cannot X close any screen, this includes the original open Firefox Mozilla screens. The only way to be able to do anything on any screen is to use Task Manager to close the windows. My AVG protection runs scans every night. I have gone in and run my Malware protection program, another AVG scan, updated everything, flash players, run checks everywhere. Even ran a computer degrag, yet still the problem persists. What now? I am frustrated having to completely shut down all programs running with task manager before I can proceed with any program.

All Replies (3)

more options

Have you tried running Firefox in safe mode to see if any of your Extensions are causing this?

  • Firefox -> Help -> Restart with Add-ons Disabled
more options

Try making IE your default browser temporarily and see whether that resolves the issue. If so, it could indicate that other applications are trying to use Firefox for something and this obviously is not working correctly.

more options

I found that logging into Google Docs would lock it up EVERY TIME. So I disabled every one of the Add-Ons one at a time, and found the offending Add-On: Shockwave Flash 11.3.300.268. Disable that one and see if it solves your problem, it did mine.

EDIT: Disabling this means you can't watch YouTube videos. The best fix is to do a search for Adobe's earlier versions of Flash. Uninstall Flash Player from your computer and reinstall an earlier version. I am successfully using 11.3.300.265.

Modified by tyrranus