Mozilla VPN is currently experiencing an outage. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue. Please check the status page for real-time updates. Thank you for your patience.

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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

uninstall does not work

  • 2 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by packratt

packratt
packratt
more options

Something has caused me to receive the error message

Couldn't load XPCOM

when I try to start Firefox and Thunderbird on my XP based laptop. I've been using these programs for years on it.

From searching, it appears that I need to uninstall both programs and reinstall from a fresh download.

When I go to control panel and attempt to uninstall nothing happens. When I go to helper.exe in the uninstall folder nothing happens.

What do I need to do?

Something has caused me to receive the error message Couldn't load XPCOM when I try to start Firefox and Thunderbird on my XP based laptop. I've been using these programs for years on it. From searching, it appears that I need to uninstall both programs and reinstall from a fresh download. When I go to control panel and attempt to uninstall nothing happens. When I go to helper.exe in the uninstall folder nothing happens. What do I need to do?

Chosen solution

Thanks,

I had already broken down and attempted a reinstall of the new version over the old version without uninstalling and it worked for both Firefox and Thunderbird.

I didn't realize I could get away with just deleting the folder. I thought I needed to do the uninstall and clean up the registries, etc as well.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs
more options

A clean reinstall may be necessary. You would only need to delete the Firefox program folder to make sure that all files are removed before installig a freshly downloaded version of the Firefox installer.

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles

packratt
packratt Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

Thanks,

I had already broken down and attempted a reinstall of the new version over the old version without uninstalling and it worked for both Firefox and Thunderbird.

I didn't realize I could get away with just deleting the folder. I thought I needed to do the uninstall and clean up the registries, etc as well.