Windows 10 install not working after restart (works fine until PC is restarted).
This is pretty bad. Upgraded to windows 10. Wanted to make sure I was starting with a clean slate, so I uninstalled FireFox, then use the new Windows Edge browser to download the latest version of FireFox.
It installs fine, remembers my bookmarks and settings, etc. All seems fine.
But after a system restart, the FireFox icon on the desktop and in the taskbar are just blank page icon, and when you try to run the program it says that it can't be found or that I don't have permission to run it.
Let's not get too hung up on how bad an error message that is (c'mon, Windows, which is it?), the problem is that a program that was running fine until I restarted is now not found or I suddenly don't have the permission to run it?
The problem exists if I try to start from the desktop shortcut or if I go directly to C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox and double click Firefox.exe.
Things I have tried:
1. Checked the properties on the download stub installer (Firefox Setup Stub 40.0.3.exe). I notice that it was flagged as a program that had been downloaded from the Internet and might be "blocked". So I checked the "Unblock" button. Did an uninstall, then ran the installer again. Everything fine. Restart - same problem.
2. Checked the properties on the download stub installer (Firefox Setup Stub 40.0.3.exe). I noticed that there were two weird "Unknown user" entries in the security settings with some kind of GUID. I removed both of those. Did an uninstall, then ran the installer again. Everything fine. Restart - same problem.
3. Did an uninstall, then ran the installer again as Administrator (after making the changes noted above). Everything fine. Restart - same problem.
I am out of ideas.
الحل المُختار
Diagnosed by a Microsoft technician during a help chat session!
If you want to do a clean install of FireFox on your Windows machine after upgrading to Windows 10, but you previously had FireFox installed on Windows 7 or Windows 8 before the upgrade, you need to uninstall BOTH FireFox and the Mozilla Maintenance service before doing the clean install.
If you only uninstall FireFox but not the Mozilla Maintenance service, you get the squirrelly results that I described, where FireFox stops working after a reboot, or a logout / login.
I expect that this is related to the BS that Microsoft introduced with Windows 10 where, after installing FIreFox, if you click the button that says you want FireFox to be your defualt browser it doesn't just persist that setting directly. It takes you to the Windows 10 configuration screen for setting default programs, which is not at all intuitive, especially based on past behavior.
I think FireFox needs to put some explanatory text (on the page where you click the button to make FireFox the default browser) that explains the tricks that Microsoft is up to.
are going to install FireFox on a Windows 10 machine
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (4)
New information: A restart is not necessary for the problem to occur. Simply logging out and back in causes the same problem.
Try using the full off-line installer, rather than the "stub". https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
See if that makes a difference.
Thanks for the suggestion, Ed. No luck - identical problem. Tried it both as an update to my existing (broken) install and where I uninstalled first and did a clean install.
الحل المُختار
Diagnosed by a Microsoft technician during a help chat session!
If you want to do a clean install of FireFox on your Windows machine after upgrading to Windows 10, but you previously had FireFox installed on Windows 7 or Windows 8 before the upgrade, you need to uninstall BOTH FireFox and the Mozilla Maintenance service before doing the clean install.
If you only uninstall FireFox but not the Mozilla Maintenance service, you get the squirrelly results that I described, where FireFox stops working after a reboot, or a logout / login.
I expect that this is related to the BS that Microsoft introduced with Windows 10 where, after installing FIreFox, if you click the button that says you want FireFox to be your defualt browser it doesn't just persist that setting directly. It takes you to the Windows 10 configuration screen for setting default programs, which is not at all intuitive, especially based on past behavior.
I think FireFox needs to put some explanatory text (on the page where you click the button to make FireFox the default browser) that explains the tricks that Microsoft is up to.
are going to install FireFox on a Windows 10 machine