Hi AFABKurt, Thank you for your question. It sounds like the profile manager is crashing? If you run this in a cmd.exe window:

• On 32-bit Windows: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p
• On 64-bit Windows: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p

Please also make sure that you are downloading it from the official url as well as scan your computer for malware. Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
• Hitman Pro
• ESET Online Scanner

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Are you starting Firefox with a profile specified in the desktop shortcut?

You can check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties) to make sure that nothing is appended after the path to the Firefox program.

You can try to delete the Firefox folder where the profiles.ini file is located and reboot the computer and verify to make sure that this has worked.

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\

If you start Firefox then Firefox should create a new profile. If you have previously used Firefox and still have personal data in an existing profile folder then make sure to backup this data before deleting the Firefox folder.

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/profiles.ini_file
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

guigs2, I have downloaded mozilla from the official URL. When I run the profile manager, it opens (as it does when I run Mozilla from the desktop icon. I'm given the options of Create/Rename/Delete. When I click on create profile, the create profile wizard windows opens for 1/100 of a second and immediately closes. I run Malwarebytes regularly, and am fairly confident that there are no malware issues on my machine.

cor-el, the target location is correct on the shortcut. I looked in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming and there was no Mozilla file. Is this perhaps an issue with the install? I just uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox, and the Mozilla file was still not there.

profile.ini may be a hidden file. How to show hidden files in Windows

If even the Mozilla folder isn't there then it is possible that Firefox already crashes before being able to create that folder structure.

Try to do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

• Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
  http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.

• Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.

Remove the Firefox program before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

• (32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
• (64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"

• It is important to delete the Firefox program to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox

Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure that "remove personal data" is NOT selected when you uninstall Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.

• http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/

Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked