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Why would Firefox use multiple processes if set to 1

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My computer basically can't seem to run Firefox. Uses over 1 gig of ram for one tab. So I turned off hardware acceleration and limited processes to 1. I also disabled add block plus, and Facebook container which seemed to help but Firefox is still using multiple processes.

Additionally there's a lot of other fishy behavior like getting an unknown error trying to log into Mozilla on 3 browsers even though your site was up.

Can't access safe mode, just downloaded newest update for spybot snd and got a warning that spybot and windows defender were turned off. I'm on an iPhone right now.

Lastly when the machine was restarting from spybot update a dialogue box appeared for just an instant and I couldn't read it.

My computer basically can't seem to run Firefox. Uses over 1 gig of ram for one tab. So I turned off hardware acceleration and limited processes to 1. I also disabled add block plus, and Facebook container which seemed to help but Firefox is still using multiple processes. Additionally there's a lot of other fishy behavior like getting an unknown error trying to log into Mozilla on 3 browsers even though your site was up. Can't access safe mode, just downloaded newest update for spybot snd and got a warning that spybot and windows defender were turned off. I'm on an iPhone right now. Lastly when the machine was restarting from spybot update a dialogue box appeared for just an instant and I couldn't read it.

All Replies (1)

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To answer the main question of this thread, Firefox always uses multiple processes. What you have restricted to 1 process is the content processes. This means that no matter how many websites you have open, Firefox will only use 1 process to open them in.

However, Firefox will still have other processes (1 for the main program, 1 for graphics, 1 for WebExtensions, etc) regardless of the number of content processes you have allowed Firefox to use.

As for your situation, it sounds like you are having a lot of problems. Certain performance issues and issues where you security software is being disabled can be caused by come kind of malware infection.

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

Hope this helps.