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When I install Firefox 32 my computer now says I have Firefox 30, 31 and 32. Why does Firefox not uninstall correctly?

winstonsmith1984
winstonsmith1984
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I have several computers I would like to keep Firefox up to date on but when I scan these machines to see what version of Firefox they have installed it is very annoying as they all report that they have multiple versions of Firefox installed even though they don't. For instance, one machine says it has Firefox 30 so I think I should update it only to find that it was already up to date and that it is showing that it has Firefox 30, 31 and 32. Why does Firefox not clean up when it upgrades? Old versions should not still be reported as installed when they aren't. It makes maintaining them a hassle. Why doe sit do this and how do I stop it from happening? I uninstalled it form one machine and figured I'd try starting over with a new install instead of upgrading. It was removed. A scan of the machine with PDQ Inventory showed it did not have any version of Firefox on it. I reinstalled and now it says it has 30, 31 and 32 installed. There is something being left behind (a registry key or whatever) that is probably causing this. What is it and why does Firefox not delete this stuff when it is uninstalled?

I have several computers I would like to keep Firefox up to date on but when I scan these machines to see what version of Firefox they have installed it is very annoying as they all report that they have multiple versions of Firefox installed even though they don't. For instance, one machine says it has Firefox 30 so I think I should update it only to find that it was already up to date and that it is showing that it has Firefox 30, 31 and 32. Why does Firefox not clean up when it upgrades? Old versions should not still be reported as installed when they aren't. It makes maintaining them a hassle. Why doe sit do this and how do I stop it from happening? I uninstalled it form one machine and figured I'd try starting over with a new install instead of upgrading. It was removed. A scan of the machine with PDQ Inventory showed it did not have any version of Firefox on it. I reinstalled and now it says it has 30, 31 and 32 installed. There is something being left behind (a registry key or whatever) that is probably causing this. What is it and why does Firefox not delete this stuff when it is uninstalled?

All Replies (1)

Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Man
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  1. Click the Windows logo orb on the taskbar.
  2. Type Uninstall a program into the search box, then press Enter.
  3. If you have multiple entries for Firefox, then that's problem. This normally doesn't happen, and I don't know why it did in your case. For what it's worth, it's not an issue specific to Firefox (there are Microsoft support articles for Windows 95–Windows 2000 and Windows XP, so it's been a problem for ages).

To get rid of the uninstall entries manually,

  1. Click the Windows logo orb on the taskbar.
  2. Type regedit.exe into the search box, then press Enter.
  3. In the registry editor, navigate to the following key.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mozilla
  4. Delete the subkeys for the versions of Firefox that aren't actually installed.
  5. Close the registry editor.
  6. Click the Windows logo orb on the taskbar.
  7. Type regedit.exe into the search box.
  8. In the search results, right-click regedit.exe and choose Run as Administrator.
  9. In the registry editor, navigate to the appropriate key for your operating system.
    • 64-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
    • 32-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
  10. Delete the subkeys for the versions of Firefox that aren't actually installed, e.g.
    • Mozilla Firefox 31.0 (x86 en-US)

Modified by Gingerbread Man