Separate Issue; Your System Details shows;

Installed Plug-ins

Shockwave Flash 13.0 r0 Shockwave Flash 16.0 r0 Shockwave Flash 17.0 r0
Having more than one version of a program may cause issues. You must remove the older programs. Then get the current full installer.

Flash: Grab the uninstaller from here: Uninstall Flash Player | Windows Uninstall Flash Player | Mac

Then reinstall the latest version.

Flash Player Version: 18.0.0.160
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html

Why did you do a refresh? What problems did you have?

Hi SDJ1, to change your default search engine, click the magnifying glass at the left end of the search bar and then "Change Search Settings" at the bottom of the panel that drops down. More info: Use the Search bar in Firefox and manage search engines.

These symptoms are puzzling to me:

3) When I minimize Firefox, it dies. Have to restart it every time.
4) Pinned Tabs aren't remembered across sessions
5) Does not show as being active in Windows Taskbar

On #3: Do you recall ever disabling Firefox from using hardware acceleration? After a Refresh, it is re-enabled by default.

You can check for updates to your Intel graphics drivers using the steps in this article: Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL.

However, if that doesn't help, I would try disabling hardware acceleration here:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

This takes effect the next time you exit Firefox and start it up again. Any difference?

On #4: Pinned tabs should be remembered as part of your open windows and tabs. Is anything getting restored? I assume you are using History > Restore Previous Session if you are not restoring your previous session automatically. (Restore previous session - Configure when Firefox shows your most recent tabs and windows)

If you got pinned tabs back before without having to restore your session, that might have been handled by an add-on.

On #5: I can't think of what would cause this, except if the problem is that after closing the last window, Firefox hangs and remains running instead of shutting down all the way. In that case, you may get a message from Firefox that it can't start up because it's still running, but there is no button/tile/tab on the Taskbar.

Since there is no built-in way to "undo" a Refresh, I'll post the steps to do it by hand in case you aren't able to easily resolve your current issues.

Check inside "Old Firefox Data" folder that Refresh adds to your desktop for a folder with a semi-randomized name. If there's only one, that probably has your old settings and add-ons. If there's more than one, you'll want to work with the one that was updated most recently.

Once you have identified the profile folder you want to restore, here is my suggested "old profile resurrection procedure":

Overview

These are the steps described in more details below:

1. Create a new Firefox profile
2. Remove everything from that new profile folder
3. Copy in everything from the old profile folder

Create a new Firefox profile (Windows)

Exit Firefox and start up in the Profile Manager by pasting the following into the Start menu search box, or the Start > Run dialog, and pressing Enter:

firefox.exe -P

Note: Any time you want to switch profiles, exit Firefox and return to this dialog.

Click the Create Profile button, assign a name like OldSettings, and skip the option to change the folder location. Then select that new profile in the dialog and start Firefox.

Open the New Profile folder in Windows Explorer

Firefox in the new profile should look like a factory fresh installation. Open the Troubleshooting Information page using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• Help menu > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table, click the "Show Folder" button. Firefox will launch your brand new profile folder in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that folder open, switch back to Firefox, and Exit using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
• (menu bar) File > Exit

When Firefox closes, the profile folder should be front and center, or you can activate it using the Task bar.

Copy Old Data in Place of New

In that new profile folder, select all the contents and delete.

Leaving that window open, open or switch over to your Old Firefox Data folder. Drill down into your old profile folder. At this level you should see a folder named bookmarkbackups among other things.

Select everything (Ctrl+a) and Copy (either right-click > Copy or Ctrl+c).

Switch to the empty new profile folder in other window and Paste (either right-click > Paste or Ctrl+v). This may take a minute since some of the files are large.

Start Firefox

Firefox should start up in that "new" profile with the resurrected old profile data. Success?

Thanks for the responses. Thought I'd post an update/status.

Items 3-5 were caused by a quirk/bug that occurred after the Firefox refresh. I keep a number of applications pinned to the Windows taskbar which I have in auto-hide mode. When I clicked the Firefox icon on the taskbar, FF would start but rather than show in the existing icon, it created a new icon in the taskbar (didn't notice this because of auto-hide). I would make changes to the settings and open tabs and eventually minimize FF. Later when I went to the taskbar to restore my session, the pinned FF icon would show nothing active. Pressing the pinned icon would again bring up a "refreshed" version of FF without my changes. When I eventually spotted the new icon on the taskbar, it had about 10 FF instances active.

Thanks again

Hi SDJ1, has the strange behavior of starting a separate instance stopped now? Usually Firefox is pretty strict about not allowing that, so it's odd that it happened.

Yes, I deleted the old icon from the taskbar and pinned the new one. Now after minimizing FF, pressing the new FF taskbar icon brings back the active session rather than starting a new one.