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When I click on Tools, Options, the screen freezes

  • 7 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by maccifj

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No matter what website I am on, when I click on Tools, and then click on Options, Firefox freezes. I cannot refresh, I cannot close the tab, I cannot close the browser session. The session does not close when I click on the Firefox icon in the start tray and click on Close Window. The only way to get the web browser to close is to Ctrl+Alt+Del and end the task (which always shows that it is "Running"). I have waited as long as 5 minutes for the browser to Refresh or Close, and nothing happens.

No matter what website I am on, when I click on Tools, and then click on Options, Firefox freezes. I cannot refresh, I cannot close the tab, I cannot close the browser session. The session does not close when I click on the Firefox icon in the start tray and click on Close Window. The only way to get the web browser to close is to Ctrl+Alt+Del and end the task (which always shows that it is "Running"). I have waited as long as 5 minutes for the browser to Refresh or Close, and nothing happens.

Chosen solution

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

Windows hides some file extensions by default. Among them are .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see file name without file extension. You can see the real file type (file extension) in the properties of the file via the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer.

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All Replies (7)

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This does not solve my problem. I need to access Tools, Options in order to be able to do things like turn off the pop-up blocker for specific websites. I cannot access Options for anything, from any webpage. Firefox simply stops. My Start Manager indicates that FireFox is still "Running" but nothing I can do or click, no matter how long I wait, will allow me to do anything in FireFox.

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You can check for problems with preferences.

Delete possible user.js and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in the current Firefox release.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window
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And just where is this "user-js" file, etc? The help files associated with this reply seem to suggest that I should omnisciently know where these settings are found. I need some "Click on XXX, Click on YYY" assistance with this type of thing. Thank you.

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Chosen Solution

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

Windows hides some file extensions by default. Among them are .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see file name without file extension. You can see the real file type (file extension) in the properties of the file via the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer.

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I appreciate your attempt to help, but this is all bewildering to me and the Mozilla Help web page instructions are beyond my ability. I have to use FireFox because my primary client's proprietary FTP-type website is incompatible with Internet Explorer, but when I need to do "anything else" I'll open an IE browser. At least in IE I can navigate through Options, etc., with no trouble.

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I have a similar problem and seek a simple answer as well. Whenever I click on Options, Firefox stops responding and I have to use Task manager to end it. The other functions in the Firefox menu work ok. It's only the Options that does this. It only started doing this today. May 28, 2015. I've tried shutting down and re-starting to no avail. I ran Malware bytes and McAfee scans - no problems detected.