Hello,

Sorry to hear about Firefox not opening when it should. If you open up your task manager, is the Firefox process running after you click on the shortcut or the executable? I am not sure what system you are using, but up until Windows 7 for sure you can open the task manager by right clicking an empty space on your taskbar or on your system tray clock and selecting "Start Task Manager".

If Firefox doesn't even show up in the task manager after opening the shortcut, can you right click on the Firefox shortcut and check the Target line under the shortcut tab to make sure that the link to the executable didn't get changed somehow?

If Firefox does show up in the task manager and then disappears, please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.

1. Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
2. In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
3. From that explorer window, double-click on the Mozilla folder, then double-click on Firefox and then on Crash reports. Double-click on submitted.
4. Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to View > Arrange Icons by > Modified to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
5. Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
6. Paste each ID with bp- into the reply window on the forums.

Thanks in advance!

You may be able to find more information and troubleshooting steps in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.

Thank you for your quick reply. I am using Windows 7 and Firefox does appear in Task Manager and Process Explore(which I use more than Task Manager.

Here are the crash report ids you requested:

bp-a0b6a8a8-8843-4712-a254-de54e2140825 - 25/8/14 bp-6dadaaed-5314-465e-9beb-c59c52140625 - 25/6/14 (12:03) bp-5c043d94-d0d8-41b4-951a-a3c922140625 - 25/6/14 (12:02) bp-981e3934-2769-47a6-9061-798032131231- 31/12/13 bp-810663a3-36cf-4c38-a870-0d1052130803 - 3/8/13

I await your reply.

With Regards,

Mark

hello, these crash reports are fairly old and won't be related to the current issue unfortunately. two things you could try:

• perform a clean reinstall:

1. please try to uninstall firefox from the system control panel.
2. then go to the firefox program folder (usually located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox) and delete any remains of the firefox program folder after the uninstall manually
3. afterwards reinstall the browser with a fresh copy from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

• manually create a new firefox profile: press windows-key + R and open: %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\ - in there rename the file profile.ini to something like oldprofiles.ini...

A complete uninstall - including all bookmarks etc. - did not work.

I attempted to rename profile but got the following message: "C:\users\MPL\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles access denied" when I tried to enter the Profile folder - and I have full administrative privileges!

I killed the firefox entry in Process Explorer and tried again - same thing!

Have I been hacked in someway that not even MSEssentials can discover?!

Over to you!

the "access denied" error might be part of the problem, because firefox needs access to that folder to work properly. can you rename the whole %appdata%\Mozilla directory to %appdata%\oldMozilla?

can you rename the whole %appdata%\Mozilla directory to %appdata%\oldMozilla? Instead of doing the above, it would be better to rename the %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox directory to OldFirefox. For more information on creating a new default profile see:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_default_profile

For other suggestions on what to do when Firefox doesn't start, see:

• Firefox won't start - find solutions
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up

P.S. You asked before, Have I been hacked in someway that not even MSEssentials can discover?!

You can try running the free malware scanning programs listed under the "How do I get rid of malware?" section of this article:

• Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

I have already run malware anti-bytes and nothing came up.

This morning Renamed to oldMozilla. And now?

I should also point out that before renaming I tried to access the folder again but after entering Roaming and then Mozilla - the folder was empty! No Firefox folder!

Over to you.

Sorry I meant nothing was in the Firefox folder - it was completely empty!

is the startup crash continuing after manually renaming the folder?

Yes. I just tried clicking on the Firefox icon, nothing happened and an entry appeared in Process Explorer that I just killed.

No more ideas? Fixes? Solutions?

Is your organisation aware of any intrusive s/w that could do this?

Due to the nature of my work and my knowledge of government wrongdoings, this isn't a paranoid question on my part.

A long shot since for some reason your profile is missing, but what happens if you attempt to start in Firefox Safe mode? You can enter safe mode by holding Shift while clicking the Firefox icon, or get to the run dialog:

• Either open the start menu > Run, or press the Windows Key and R
• In the run dialog box, enter: firefox --safe-mode

Does the profile dialog box open then? If it does, try creating a profile there and see if it starts.

I typed the safe mode cmd, no err mesgs, I entered my 'oldFirefox' folder and it is empty. Entry appeared in Process Explorer but I've now killed it.

Over to you.

If you saw an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the Desktop that means you selected the Reset Firefox option in the Firefox Safe Mode window, instead of the "Start in Safe Mode" option.

In any case, if the Old Firefox Data folder was empty then Firefox is not creating a profile for some reason.

You said before,

I attempted to rename profile but got the following message: "C:\users\MPL\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles access denied" when I tried to enter the Profile folder - and I have full administrative privileges!

Since you got an "access denied" message when you attempted to rename the Firefox profiles.ini file, it is apparently a Windows permission issue. It might help if you could furnish the exact error message you see and/or a screenshot.

Ultimately, you may need to visit a Windows forum for help with Windows "access denied" file and folder permission issues, such as one of these:

• answers.microsoft.com
• www.windowsbbs.com
• For Windows 7: sevenforums.com

All roads seem to end back at Microsoft as this is only one of a number of s/w issues I am experiencing!

However, I don't know if this will help but when the problem with Firefox started occurring I decided to install the Tor Browser. Now I have Tor running and I notice in Process Explorer it is running both as Firefox.exe and Tor.exe.

I know this because the Tor logo is running under a 'firefox.exe' name in PE. When I highlight the app the path shows as: C:\Program files\Tor Browser\Browser\firefox.exe.

I don't know if Tor or I have configured something that has disabled firefox and rendered its application use to Tor.

I hope this makes sense to you and I await your response.

I suggest you uninstall the Tor Browser, reboot the computer and then try launching Firefox.

Did you check the permissions and owner in the Properties > Security tab of those folders?

Er, which folders exactly? The one's I was denied access to?

I will have to try the uninstall of Tor at the end of business today as it is currently in use throughout the day - I avoid IE like the plague when I can!

If this doesn't work, any other thoughts on fixes?

I uninstalled Tor, I uninstalled Firefox, I ran registry & apps cleaner from CCcleaner, I rebooted my PC, reinstalled Firefox 32.0 - Firefox up and working!

Thank you for your patient support.