hello, normally such issues are caused by a firewall/security software which doesn't recognize & therefore blocks new firefox versions: [[Fix problems connecting to websites after updating Firefox]]

Problem wasn't the firewall, how about not normally?

Can you start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> by holding down the Shift/Options key? Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> 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 *https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode *https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes You can try to reinstall Firefox. Do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release. *Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop<br>https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software. *Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions. Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer. *(32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\" *(64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\" *It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling. *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data. If you keep having problems then also create a new profile. ---- *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall ---- Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions. Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan. *Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:<br>http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php *AdwCleaner:<br>http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/<br>http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml *SuperAntispyware:<br>http://www.superantispyware.com/ *Microsoft Safety Scanner:<br>http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx *Windows Defender:<br>http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender *Spybot Search & Destroy:<br>http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html *Kasperky Free Security Scan:<br>http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller. *Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:<br>http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446 See also: *"Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Problem was a hung Firefox task in the task manager - once I quit the task, I re-ran Firefox and didn't have the issue. Many thanks to all who tried to help.