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

How do I stop extra instances of Firefox program being opened by another page when it loads?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

How do I stop extra instances of Firefox program being opened by another page when it loads? When I log on to a favorite site it loads OK. The site has a number of pages. When I move to the second or third page, a second instance of Firefox automatically starts and loads an advertisement. I can block the site that tries to load the page, but I cannot stop the second instance of Firefox from loading up. So in the end I might have three or four instances of Firefox all going at once. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

How do I stop extra instances of Firefox program being opened by another page when it loads? When I log on to a favorite site it loads OK. The site has a number of pages. When I move to the second or third page, a second instance of Firefox automatically starts and loads an advertisement. I can block the site that tries to load the page, but I cannot stop the second instance of Firefox from loading up. So in the end I might have three or four instances of Firefox all going at once. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All Replies (3)

more options

Do you have the Popup Blocker turned on? https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Pop-up+blocker

more options

Yes, popup blocker is turned on and functioning correctly. This is not a popup, of course, but a complete new instance of Firefox. Thanks anyway.

more options

Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs.
You need to use all programs because each detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database.

See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website