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Bizarre overlaid image on Firefox start screen - then Firefox completely freezes computer

  • 4 amsoshi
  • 2 sa na da wannan matsala
  • 10 views
  • Amsa ta ƙarshe daga FredMcD

graybeard3
graybeard3
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Computer is iMac desktop with OSX 10.6.8. Recently FF's start screen showed a trapezoidal overlay with an amateurish rendering of the FF logo and a "CLICK ME" button. After a minute or so computer would completely freeze, necessitating a hard shutdown. Tried uninstalling then reinstalling FF to no avail - still the weird overlaid image, still the "CLICK ME" button, still the freezing of the entire system. FF's staying uninstalled until I can get an answer re what's going on...I'm certainly not going to click the "CLICK ME" button!

Computer is iMac desktop with OSX 10.6.8. Recently FF's start screen showed a trapezoidal overlay with an amateurish rendering of the FF logo and a "CLICK ME" button. After a minute or so computer would completely freeze, necessitating a hard shutdown. Tried uninstalling then reinstalling FF to no avail - still the weird overlaid image, still the "CLICK ME" button, still the freezing of the entire system. FF's staying uninstalled until I can get an answer re what's going on...I'm certainly not going to click the "CLICK ME" button!

All Replies (4)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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If there are problems with a snippet on the about:home page then you can set the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref to an empty string on the about:config page. Delete the storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home folder in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed ("3-bar" Firefox menu button > Exit/Quit) to remove snippets stored in IndexedDB and make Firefox use a default snippet set. You can reset the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref via the right-click context menu to the default value to re-enable the snippets and make Firefox recreate the moz-safe-about+home folder. You need to close and restart Firefox after changing the value of the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
graybeard3
graybeard3 Mai mallakar tambaya
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Nope, didn't work; thanks for trying to help. Guess I'm off to Google Chrome. Sorry, Mozilla.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The above posted steps should remove the 'click me' snippet, but needs to be followed precisely. First set the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref and then close Firefox and delete the storage -> persistent -> moz-safe-about+home to remove the data of the 'click me' snippet. The snippet should be gone after starting Firefox and Firefox shouldn't be able to reload it because there is no URL defined.

You can use these alternative steps to disable the snippets on the about:home page:

  • Set the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref to an empty string on the about:config page
  • Open about:home page in a tab
  • Open Web Console in this tab (Firefox menu button or Tools > Developer)
    https://developer.mozilla.org/Tools/Web_Console
  • Run this command via the command prompt of the WC: gSnippetsMap.clear()
  • Close the tab with the about:home page
  • Close and restart Firefox
FredMcD
FredMcD
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As soon as the browser opens, type about:blank <enter> in the address bar.