hello TwoTankAmin, you can use this addon to hide the tabbar if you want: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/hide-tab-bar-with-one-tab/

i'm not sure about the "automatic addon checker" though that you've mentioned - i'm not aware that any such feature was introduced in firefox 20 or 21...

Because I do not use tabbed browsing, I regularly will close all windows when I am done with them. When I then wish to resume browsing I open a Window again.

Whether I have just started up my PC and am opening my fist window of the session or if I have been on the PC for a while, have closed all open windows and then open one to resume browsing, I get a pop up telling me my addons have been checked and are up to date.

I can get this same popup 10, 20 or 30 times a day, often minutes apart. It is really annoying and has kept me from upgrading above version 20.0.1 where I do not have this problem.

I have tried several versions above this one with the same result. I actually now keep ver. 20.0.1 on my PC so I can reload it since I almost immediately uninstall the upgrades as the same problem comes with every single version I have tried.

I even do the upgrade as if it were a new download and not from the other ways that claim to check for a new version but actually automatically download it. This is typical of the mindset of the programmers who seem to feel compelled to trick users into installing upgrades rather than allowing us to think for ourselves. I have and will always keep "Never Check for Updates" selected ever since Mozilla forced me, and many others to upgrade way back when from ver. 3.6 (if I remember right).

My favorite canard from this site is that enabling one to disable tabs via the browser instead of an addon is an insult to the intelligence of anybody able yo use a keyboard. Who in today's world doesn't know what tabbed browsing is? And many us us do not like it, do not believe it improves our ability to browse in any way and for me makes it worse not better.

So here I am again many versions behind and determined to stay there until the ability to make certain choices are returned to we the users or until I am forced to use some other product.

I find when I have upgraded in the past I have spent more time trying to figure out how to disable or turn off many of the features in an upgrade because I find they insult one's intelligence. Most so called smart technology is simply not smarter than I am. I do not want an awesome bar, I do not blindly accept updates without reviewing them first. I have many MS Windows updates hidden so they don't bother me. I don't use Bing to search so I wont allow any Bing related "updates" etc. to DL to my system. would be an example. The same applies to IE updates- I have not used IE since ver 6.0.

I have no issue with Mozilla putting this kind of stuff into FireFox as long as users have the choice to keep thinking for themselves rather than to allow programmers to decide what is best.

One of the biggest reasons Google Chrome is not used by a specific segment of people is because Google will never allow Chrome to work without tabs. This despite its reputation for being way faster than Firefox.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel very strongly about this sort of stuff.

hey again, this forum is rather intended for troubleshooting than for general discussion. if you have certain problems that you're seeking to address, i'd also ask you to keep them precise & short for the sake of simplicity.

so from your original question and your further explanation i gather that you still have the issue that there is a check for addon's compatibility every-time you launch the browser. this is no intentional behaviour of the browser but a symptom when certain preferences aren't properly saved, please refer to How to fix preferences that won't save (especially the part about the user.js file in your profile) on how to solve that.

I can get into the appropriate places suggested, but I have no clue which line controls the automatic Add-on checker that pops up all the time. Can you please point me to the specific line of Firefox code that I need to change or delete?

I do not understand why in ver 20.0.1 I never get the popup but as soon as I do an upgrade it starts to happen. This suggests to me it has something to do with the upgrade version rather than with my current settings. Am I wrong about this?

Do I need to do an upgrade and then find the new command/code that makes it happen rather than looking for it in ver. 20.0.1? Is there someplace in the newer versions in the Tools/Options or Add-ons areas that controls this process by selecting or deselecting something rather than changing code? I currently have the Add-on option set to check manually for upgrades. And I do check for them every couple of weeks.

The one thing I am loathe to do is to use the reset option. This tends to undo some settings I worked hard to locate and change to get Firefox looking and working as I want. Some of these it took me hours to figure out in the past and I really don't remember what or how I did them.

I should add that in the past the best results for doing upgrades was not to follow the normal one click option to upgrade but instead to down load the entire new version, save it, delete the older version and then do a clean install. This was the only way I could have a chance to click the option box not to install the maint stuff.

philipp, thanks for your efforts to help. I would like to be able to upgrade but will not do so unless I can fix this very annoying situation.

Note that if you start the same profile with a different Firefox version that you will get this check for plugins that are found.

It is possible that there is a problem with the file(s) that store the extensions registry.

Delete the extensions.* files (e.g. extensions.sqlite, extensions.ini) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox profile folder to reset the extensions registry.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Profiles

New files will be created when required.

See "Corrupt extension files":

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_themes_or_extensions
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Unable+to+install+add-ons

If you see disabled or not compatible extensions in "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the Tools button at the left end side of the Search Bar to check if there is a compatibility update available.

If this hasn't helped then also delete the addons.sqlite file.

just to be sure what's happening - is it the message in the screenshot attached that you are receiving on each startup?

in fact this should only happen once there is a major version upgrade (so from firefox 24 to firefox 25 for example) & this is how it's supposed to work: there is a preference named "extensions.lastAppVersion" which stores the current version of the application. when an updated version of the browser gets executed the first time, it notices that it is out of sync with this stored preference, the compatibility check is run and the updated version number is written into the preference file. if something fails with this last step then the compatibility check will obviously run on each start-up of the browser again.
so please make sure that there is no user.js file in your profile folder that is overwriting the extensions.lastAppVersion preference, that the prefs.js file is not write-protected and that you're not using any other extension or external sandboxing software that might interfere here...

Yes phillip- that is the screen I keep getting. I have just downloaded ver 25 and I am repeatedly getting that popup you posted above. I did a search and I show a user.js file in the following location: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\oymy665y.default This file shows the last change date of 5/23/2013.

A search for "extensions.lastAppVersion" comes up blank.

Files extensions.sqlite, extensions.ini and compatibility.ini are all dated 3/11/2013 which ia tioday and after I downloaded ver 25.

So here I am with the problem pictured by phillip, no lastapp file and other files seemingly created when I downloaded ver 25. I am willing to try and take steps suggested in reply to this information to try and fix the problem. if I can not resolve it, I still have a copy of 20.0.1 on my computer and can revert to it if the problem cannot be fixed.

try to delete the user.js file - it normally shouldn't be in your profile folder at all if you haven't created it yourself.

I now have ver. 25. I have no tabs. I have no repeating Add-on checking.

Thank you very much for your help phillip :)