Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

am told firefox is already running , but task manager doesn't show it

  • 2 replies
  • 13 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by poisrael

more options

am told firefox is already running , but task manager doesn't show it. I installed Firefox 3.6.10 on a new computer (win 7 home premium), deleted the profile given and copied my old profile in its place (win vista premium). I get the above message and am told to close the existing process, or restart the system. Can't close and restarting doesn't help. Please solve this for me, i so don't want to use Internet Explorer

am told firefox is already running , but task manager doesn't show it. I installed Firefox 3.6.10 on a new computer (win 7 home premium), deleted the profile given and copied my old profile in its place (win vista premium). I get the above message and am told to close the existing process, or restart the system. Can't close and restarting doesn't help. Please solve this for me, i so don't want to use Internet Explorer

All Replies (2)

more options

g'day people... a dude called "moopenguin32" showed me the way... alleluia

     1. Copy your Firefox shortcut (what you click on to open Firefox) to the Desktop.
     2. Right-click on it and click on Properties.
     3. Go to the end of the text in the "Target" field. The end will say: firefox.exe"
     4. Enter a space followed by: -profilemanager
     5. The end result will look something like this: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -profilemanager
     6. Click OK to save the settings.
     7. Double-click on the shortcut you just changed.
     8. Delete the profile listed. It shouldn't matter that you're deleting it because you're trying to restore a profile anyways. You should have the profile you're trying to restore saved elsewhere.
     9. Close the profile manager.
     10. Start Firefox using your regular shortcut. Firefox should open properly. Close Firefox.
     11. Now to restore your profile, open the profile folder you have backed up and copy the contents of it rather than the actual folder.
     12. Go to your existing Firefox profile and open it.
     13. Delete the contents of the existing Firefox profile.
     14. Paste the contents of the Firefox profile that you're trying to restore (the one you copied in step 11).
     15. Open Firefox and everything should be there (including your extensions).
more options

I have to do this just to use Firefox? Why?