This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

why is firefox asking for administrator password or it wont open

  • 10 cavab
  • 330 have this problem
  • 19 views
  • Last reply by John99

more options

I installed firefox 3.6.11 today on a Windows 7 Laptop and everytime I attempt to open it it keeps asking to log on as administrator and wanting my admin password

I installed firefox 3.6.11 today on a Windows 7 Laptop and everytime I attempt to open it it keeps asking to log on as administrator and wanting my admin password

All Replies (10)

more options

me to?

more options

I keep searching for this issue, and I'm finding tonnes of people having it and not a single person who has figured out what is wrong. One person said maybe it was the antivirus? Not as far as I can tell. This is a super annoying issue and I wouldn't even bother trying to install it if I didn't need it for an assignment.

more options

Check that you do not run Firefox as Administrator.

Right-click the Firefox desktop shortcut and choose "Properties".
Make sure that all items are deselected in the "Compatibility" tab of the Properties window.

  • Privilege Level: "Run this program as Administrator" should not be selected
  • "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" should not be selected

Also check the Properties of the firefox.exe program in the Firefox program directory.

more options

Me too. This issue did drive me crazy, but I got a solution. 1. Save installation file on your harddisk 2. Right click on mouse 3. Execute (file) as administrator

This worked for me. The whole issue started, when I accepted an AUTOMATIC update of Firefox. After that update, Firefox redirected me always to browsersafesearch. Even about:config and changing the keyword.url to Google as the default search tool did not work. Everytime I started firefox newly the setting was on browsafesearch. Crazy... I did run AVIRA Virussoftware, and it indentified files with malware/viruses which were created exactly the date when Firefox updated. I remove Firefox and the infected files, re-install Firefox 8.0, which created (the first time ever) the Adminstrator issue.... Now I hope everything works fine, also for you

more options

this was a 24 hour nightmare--I deleted version 8 because my roboform was not syncing correcting with my Vista. Kept getting the run as error message and no password change up worked. Tried again today and the last tips seemed to help--icon was never on desktop tho--still in downloads---went from there as suggested and VOILA! my version 8 is back and my roboform with it too tennisdoc1/teresa

more options

this worked for me as less than a novice with computers but when laid out easily i can comprehend and do it--- thank you teresa

more options

I found a solution for this problem. Right click on the Firefox Setup file and select Properties > Compatibility tab > Select Run as Administrator or simply right click firefox setup file then select Run as administrator.

more options

It is so simple ... just click on the Firefox setup icon and then go to the "Compatibility tab" and then see the image attach with it... Problem solved

more options

Mine also did this with windows 7, all I had to do was change my User Account Control to the lowest setting, restart the computer and then redownload. The User Account Control is in the Security settings, that is located in the control panel.

more options

Locking due to age of original question.