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problem with Firefox 3.6.13

  • 6 cavab
  • 5 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by John99

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G'day Firefox, Great browser, congratulations. I have Firefox 3.6.15 which I use as my regular browser. Checked my Add/Remove Program programme in Control Panel and discovered Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13 which was 2641 Mb on 18.1.2012 and is now 2681 Mb and have not used either of them. Tried to Remove 3.6.13 and it would not remove. Unable to find it elsewhere in the computer and am worried it may be a "bug" of some sort. I have quite good anti-virus and anti-"bug" programs but they have not "seen" it. Do you have any suggestions as to what this is and how to get rid of it? My O.S. is XP Home SP2. Thanks for your time, hope you can help. Cheers, trano

G'day Firefox, Great browser, congratulations. I have Firefox 3.6.15 which I use as my regular browser. Checked my Add/Remove Program programme in Control Panel and discovered Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13 which was 2641 Mb on 18.1.2012 and is now 2681 Mb and have not used either of them. Tried to Remove 3.6.13 and it would not remove. Unable to find it elsewhere in the computer and am worried it may be a "bug" of some sort. I have quite good anti-virus and anti-"bug" programs but they have not "seen" it. Do you have any suggestions as to what this is and how to get rid of it? My O.S. is XP Home SP2. Thanks for your time, hope you can help. Cheers, trano

All Replies (6)

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Even firefox 3.6.15 is out of date and should be updated. If you are using the default installs of firefox you should only have the one version. Update firefox to the latest version of firefox 3.6; or better still if you have no reason to stay on 3.6 upgrade to the current version Firefox 9.

Two versions of firefox.exe (or any other file for that matter) may not exist in a windows folder/directory if they have identical names, so I assume they are in separate folders, and it should be ok to delete the old copy along with its folder and any files it contains, BUT do NOT delete the firefox files you have in the profile path, only those in the programs path.


Also your Windows OS is out-of date it should be XP SP3, it may be an idea to update that whilst you still can.

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Mozilla, G'day Firefox and John, Thank you for your response but unfortunately although it has some good suggestions, it does not solve the problem. The problem of having an apparently bloated Firefox 3.6.13 at 2681Mb which appears in the "Add/Remove Program Files" program alongside Firefox 3.6.15 at 27.65Mb. I tried to remove 3.6.13 and it refused to go so I successfully removed 3.6.15 and then tried again to remove 3.6.13 and again it refused to go, so 3.6.15 was re-installed. Also I seem unable to find any trace of 3.6.13 anywhere else on the computer. Also "Search" is unable to find its whereabouts?? All very strange to me and I do not know how to fix this problem. Updates, etc can wait until this is fixed. Anyone else have any other ideas for a fix? Many thanks and cheers, trano

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It is probably just an orphaned registry key that points to a no longer installed Firefox version. You can use a registry cleaner or remove that entry yourself if you are familiar with editing the registry.

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Mozilla Firefox (????)
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Mozilla. G'day Firefox and cor-el, Many thanks for the suggestions. Neither "Search" nor "Run" could find this, probably my mistake as have not used this much. Found it through - Windows\System 32\regedit32, then scroll down the tree HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE Mozilla and two entries for Firefox 3.6.13. Both deleted but made no difference even after a reboot. Does not seem to be causing any problems so far so will work at it when time available and let you know if successful. Thanks again, much appreciated. Cheers, trano

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Can you post a link to a screenshot of how Firefox appears in Add or Remove programs?

I suggest doing a manual backup of your bookmarks and uninstalling every instance of Firefox that you can. Afterward find the Firefox profile folder and delete it (Documents and Settings\(Login Username)\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox). Note: this will remove all your settings and add-ons.

Then run a registry cleaner, reboot, and then reinstall the latest version of Firefox.

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Tip
Remenber to backup the registry first

  1. make a small inconsequential change, maybe change a file association for an unimportant file type
  2. recover using your own registry backup, you are then no longer dependent on the vagaries of Windows

Tip Use Windows XP recovery console, that needs setting up in advance to work easily if you are able to use comand line instructions it can get you out of sticky situations that you may encounter doing registry hacks


With Windows XP I found ERUNT indispensable for backing up the registry, it is freeware and easy to use. If you consider working on the registry it is wise to have a known good recent full copy, plus coppies of any of the keys you are working on.

( I am new to Windows 7 and have not tried working on its registry, but if it is like previous versions Windows is probably pretty abysmal at creating proper & reliable backups of the registry. I have tended to use ERUNT. I have not tried that with Win7 but it is advertised as compatibile and may be worth using. )

Not certain of the home website of ERUNT possibly