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I cannot start firefox on my computer. I cannot uninstall it either

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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I use Windows XP. I cannot open firefox with a short cut or directly from the program file. I cannot uninstall firefox from the control panel add or remove programs. In the program list it shows that the files are still on the computer. Help

I use Windows XP. I cannot open firefox with a short cut or directly from the program file. I cannot uninstall firefox from the control panel add or remove programs. In the program list it shows that the files are still on the computer. Help

All Replies (2)

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Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from mozilla.org (or choose the download for your operating system and language from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Please report back to say if this helped you!

Thank you.

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Start your Computer in safe mode with networking.

Starting The Computer In Safe Mode;
Free Online Encyclopedia

Now see if there are still issues. Also;

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.