If you feel that you cannot use Firefox without the Norton Toolbar, consider using a different variant of Firefox called the Extended Support Release (ESR) for the time being. ESR is designed for companies that require a longer cycle time between feature changes, and currently is based on Firefox 38. It will get security updates over the next several months, but not get new features, so changes in Firefox 41 related to add-on compatibility will not kick in for quite a while.

Norton is likely to continue to support ESR until the new toolbar updates are completed, maybe next month. After that, I'm not sure what they will do because normally they only support a small range of versions.

If you decide to try it, here is how I suggest installing it:

Clean Reinstall

We use this name, but it's not about removing your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent, corrupted, or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. Do NOT uninstall Firefox, that's not needed.

(A) Download a fresh installer for Firefox 38.3.0esr from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.)

(B) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).

(C) Rename the program folder, either:

(64-bit Windows folder names)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Fx41

(32-bit Windows folder names)

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files\Fx41

(D) Run the installer you downloaded in (A). It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Success?

Note: Some plugins may exist only in that old folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:

• \Fx41\Plugins
• \Fx41\browser\plugins

For background: some technical changes to what extensions like the Norton toolbar can do in Firefox 41 require significant programming changes, and Symantec has not yet completed its rework of the toolbar. They have an article about it here:

https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/product-update-announcements/firefox-41-and-norton-toolbar-compatibility

Naturally we disagree with their suggestion to roll back to an earlier Firefox due to publicly disclosed security flaws in Firefox 40. The ESR version is a better workaround.

dlinderson said

You can't make Firefox work with Norton? Come on!

Short answer is Firefox is not made compatible with the thousand of Extensions out there but the other way.

Even though Norton has known for a few months about the change and even asked Mozilla to move the change from Firefox 40.0 41.0. Norton is still behind on having a toolbar ready.

They were however good at having a liveupdate for their toolbar extension usually whiten a each new major Firefox release since Firefox 5.0. Unlike with most Extensions it has to be made for each new major Firefox .exe on Windows for the toolbar extension to work.

Hmm looks like the Norton forum/blogs may be down currently.