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ver. 32/33 prob with browser window constantly shrinking upwards??

jjcorb
jjcorb
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I have XP and the latest version of Firefox installed. A couple months ago when I had installed the latest version, a weird problem started happening that whenever I click on something to download in the browser, when the download window pops up, the browser window starts to incrementally shrink up from the bottom. Even if I open another program window or folder over the top of the browser, it does this as well. It can shrink so much, that I have let it get to where I can only see about an inch of the browser window underneath the location bar, and at that point, I have to minimize the browser window to the taskbar, and then right click to choose maximize, and then start the whole process over again... and again... and again, dozens upon dozens of times per day. It makes browsing extremely difficult and frustrating. Help!

I have XP and the latest version of Firefox installed. A couple months ago when I had installed the latest version, a weird problem started happening that whenever I click on something to download in the browser, when the download window pops up, the browser window starts to incrementally shrink up from the bottom. Even if I open another program window or folder over the top of the browser, it does this as well. It can shrink so much, that I have let it get to where I can only see about an inch of the browser window underneath the location bar, and at that point, I have to minimize the browser window to the taskbar, and then right click to choose maximize, and then start the whole process over again... and again... and again, dozens upon dozens of times per day. It makes browsing extremely difficult and frustrating. Help!

All Replies (2)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that turns off some settings, disables most add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • In Firefox 29.0 and above, click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
  • In previous Firefox versions, click on the Firefox button at the top left of the Firefox window and click on Help (or click on Help in the Menu bar, if you don't have a Firefox button) then click on Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

  • On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
    (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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This sounds similar to a problem that was happening on some email websites earlier this year (SmarterMail). Message windows would be too small and would roll themselves up if you expanded them.

To see whether your problem also is caused by a script in the download site resizing the window, you can change a setting in Firefox to block sites from being able to do that. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste dom and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the dom.disable_window_move_resize preference to switch it from false to true.