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Using Windows 7 Ultimate, Typing in e-mail and accidently hit <Control> something and Firefox window disappears, but icon is still active on the taskbar. Click

DML818
DML818
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Typing away on a e-mail screen, accidently hit <Control> and some other key, screen disappears, Firefox icon still active on the taskbar. Clicking on it doesn't bring back the Firefox window. Moving the mouse onto it revealing the small preview window shows it but no clicking on it expands it to full screen, and will not close it. Starting Firefox again just makes two windows on the small preview screen. Now I can't use it because every time I open it only the icon the taskbar appears with the same difficulty in expanding the window as stated before.

Typing away on a e-mail screen, accidently hit <Control> and some other key, screen disappears, Firefox icon still active on the taskbar. Clicking on it doesn't bring back the Firefox window. Moving the mouse onto it revealing the small preview window shows it but no clicking on it expands it to full screen, and will not close it. Starting Firefox again just makes two windows on the small preview screen. Now I can't use it because every time I open it only the icon the taskbar appears with the same difficulty in expanding the window as stated before.

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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First, apologies that you did not get assistance yesterday.

I can't think of any Ctrl key combination that would cause a window to exit the screen, but the "window" key may have some previously undiscovered effect.

I would try to maximize the invisible window while its Task Bar tile/button is active. This is a universal keyboard sequence that should work in nearly all Windows programs: 

Alt+spacebar
x

If that works, it still might not be possible to control the position of that window when it is "restored" but you can launch a new normal window and then close the maximized one.

Does that help?

If you don't mind resetting your toolbars to their default setup, you can eliminate the file which stores window positions (the two are stored together). Here's how:

(1) Open your personal settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder

Help (or Alt+h) > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

If you can't get a Firefox window displayed, you'll have to find your profile folder manually. Often it's the only folder here (paste into Start > search box or a Windows Explorer window): 

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Open the randomly named profile folder, or if there are multiple folders, check the one with the most recent dates.

(2) Switch back to Firefox and exit the program (e.g., File > Exit, or orange Firefox button > Exit, or right-click the Task Bar button and close all windows)

(3) Wait a few moments for Firefox to finish updating files in your settings folder, then rename localstore.rdf to something else, like localstore-bad.rdf or localstore.old.

(4) You're done with your profile folder and you can restart Firefox now.

Back to normal?