Sorry, I don't know why it didn't work correctly, but we can help you recover. When you use Firefox's Refresh feature, it should do this:

(1) Create a folder on your desktop named Old Firefox Data and move your entire old -- semi-randomly-named -- profile folder into it.

Can you find this? If so, these are your old settings, so hold onto this folder. If you have any kind of "clean up" software that might delete it the next time Windows starts up, you could back up this entire folder.

(2) Create a new profile with selected data from your old profile folder and point Firefox to it to use going forward.

The Refresh either did not get this far, or we are going to interrupt it now.

At this point: I suggest shutting down and restarting Windows. That should make sure that when you start up again, Firefox is not running.

Alternately: If you are familiar with the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), you could try to stop Firefox there. On the Applications tab, running programs with a visible window should be listed. If you see Firefox there, click it and then End Task. If it's not there, check the Processes tab, and look for firefox.exe here (not necessarily in alphabetical order). Click it and then End Process. Terminating Firefox this way does risk some data corruption, but hopefully with the Old Firefox Data as your backup, that won't be an issue.

Then try starting Firefox. Success? Or... an error about Firefox not being able to find your profile. If you get that error, we can describe recommended next steps.

When I go to the Task Manager, Firefox does not appear at all, and yet when I click on the icon, it says that it is running (but not responding), and it tells me to close it before I can access Firefox.

I guess try shutting down Windows and starting it up again to proceed to the next step, or did you already try that?

Also, could you try creating a new Firefox profile?

A new profile will have your system-installed plugins (e.g., Flash) and extensions (e.g., security suite toolbars), but no themes, other extensions, or other customizations. It also should have completely fresh settings databases and a fresh cache folder.

Start Firefox's Profile Manager using the Start menu search box. Type or paste the following and press Enter to run it:

firefox.exe -P

Don't delete anything here!

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

Click the Create Profile button, assign a name like TEST0424, and skip the option to relocate the profile folder. After creating the profile, select it and start Firefox in that profile.

Will Firefox display the built-in home page?