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As of this morning, Firefox desktop shortcuts won't open unless Firefox already open ...

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  • 16 have this problem
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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Aaaaahhhhh - yesterday all was well. Nothing seemed to be a problem. This morning I go onto my laptop to read my emails as usual, through a desktop shortcut icon to Yahoo, and it won't open. So I tried various other desktop shortcuts linking to Firefox and none of them will open either. The only desktop shortcut that works is the Firefox one that takes me to my homepage. Once that is open, then my shortcuts all work. What? I have to say that I have other desktop shortcuts linking to Google Chrome, and they all work fine. What is the matter with Firefox that I now have to have it already open to enable my shortcuts to open??? It's so annoying to not be able just to open things directly from the desktop. I have tried deleting all the shortcuts and reapplying them. That doesn't help. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks,

Aaaaahhhhh - yesterday all was well. Nothing seemed to be a problem. This morning I go onto my laptop to read my emails as usual, through a desktop shortcut icon to Yahoo, and it won't open. So I tried various other desktop shortcuts linking to Firefox and none of them will open either. The only desktop shortcut that works is the Firefox one that takes me to my homepage. Once that is open, then my shortcuts all work. What? I have to say that I have other desktop shortcuts linking to Google Chrome, and they all work fine. What is the matter with Firefox that I now have to have it already open to enable my shortcuts to open??? It's so annoying to not be able just to open things directly from the desktop. I have tried deleting all the shortcuts and reapplying them. That doesn't help. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks,

Chosen solution

Just checked the other shortcuts and they now all seems to be behaving again - I guess I had a short-lived protest on my hands!

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All Replies (5)

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Could be problem with the Profile Manager.

Do you start Firefox with a -P Profile parameter appended to the target field?

Try to start Firefox once with the Profile Manager and select the correct default profile and make sure that "Don't ask" has a checkmark in its box to make sure that Firefox uses this profile when you start Firefox via an external link.

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Right click one of the bad shortcuts, and select Properties. Make sure everything is as it should be.

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Hi - thank you both for your replies!

Cor-el - I'm afraid that's a bit too technical for me! I've never heard of a P Profile parameter!!! All I know is that everything has always worked just fine but this morning it was all on strike.

FredMcD - I right clicked and looked at Properties. All I can see is that if I click on my Yahoo Mail shortcut, it only has the URL https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=uk&.src=ym so I copied Firefox shortcut and went to the Properties and added that to the present URL to get "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=uk&.src=ym I tested and it worked! However, I did this method earlier today for all my shortcuts that were not working and they still didn't work, so not sure why it would work now??? Or if it will continue for that matter ...

Firefox is my default browser so I don't see why the Yahoo Mail shortcut wouldn't work anyway, without the additional Firefox guff added before.

Thanks you two for your input!

Nina

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Seçilmiş Həll

Just checked the other shortcuts and they now all seems to be behaving again - I guess I had a short-lived protest on my hands!

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Well, here's hoping. If something like this happens again, try this; STOP ! ! Save all your work, then re-boot.

Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.

Type about:preferences#general<enter> in the address bar. Turn on Always Check Firefox Default Browser.