hello, could you go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information, copy the contents of that page and paste them here into a reply on the forum? this might give us a clue what is going on...

Here it is:

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 32.0.3 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days

All Crash Reports

Extensions

Name: Garmin Communicator Version: 4.1.0 Enabled: true ID: {195A3098-0BD5-4e90-AE22-BA1C540AFD1E}

Name: iCloud Bookmarks Version: 1.2.12 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: LastPass Version: 3.1.1 Enabled: true ID: [email protected]

Name: Norton Toolbar Version: 2014.7.8.23 Enabled: true ID: {2D3F3651-74B9-4795-BDEC-6DA2F431CB62}

Graphics

Adapter Description: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Adapter Drivers: igdumd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32 Adapter RAM: Unknown Device ID: 0x0112 Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16571) Driver Date: 1-27-2011 Driver Version: 8.15.10.2291 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10 Vendor ID: 0x8086 WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d AzureContentBackend: direct2d AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Important Modified Preferences

accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 3 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.search.useDBForOrder: true browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20140923175406 browser.startup.homepage: https://finance.yahoo.com/portfolio/pf_1 browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20140923175406 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 32.0.3 dom.mozApps.used: true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose: false extensions.lastAppVersion: 32.0.3 font.internaluseonly.changed: true gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 gfx.direct3d.prefer_10_1: true network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1413129148 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.npgeplugin: 2 plugin.state.npgoogleupdate: 1 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_bgimages: false print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_colorspace: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_command: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_duplex: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_evenpages: true print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_footercenter: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_footerright: &D print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_headercenter: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_headerleft: 3. Bristol Motor Speedway to Hotel (via The Snake) print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_headerright: &U print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_in_color: true print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_margin_left: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_margin_right: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_margin_top: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_oddpages: true print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_orientation: 1 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_paper_name: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_plex_name: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_resolution: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_resolution_name: print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_reversed: false print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_scaling: 0.50 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_shrink_to_fit: false print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_to_file: false print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_hp_psc_1300_series.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0 security.warn_viewing_mixed: false storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1412425713

user.js Preferences

Your profile folder contains a user.js file, which includes preferences that were not created by Firefox.

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.6 Version in use: 4.10.6

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.5 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.5 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.5 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Version in use: 3.16.5

Experimental Features

thanks, probably the user.js file in your profile is the cause (it shouldn't be present anyway in case you haven't created it manually, since it can be used to overwrite your custom preferences). in order to resolve that, go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information, click on profile folder/show folder and close all firefox windows afterwards. a windows explorer window should open up - in there delete the file named user.js and restart the browser.

How to fix preferences that won't save

That fixed the problem. Thanks a lot.

I noticed there were other .js files created around that same time. Looking back I think they were created during a debugging exercise when someone was remotely helping me debug a software issue.

Should I worry about those files? Think I might have any security risks?

I run Norton and don't have any warnings from scan.

the other troubleshooting information you've provided looks pretty clean, so i wouldn't worry too much.

what you could do however, is to run a scan of your system with free tools like the free version of malwarebytes and adwcleaner - they are specialised on adware and other potentially unwanted software which is often overlooked by traditional security suites like norton.

Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware