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Firefox doesn't open when I double-click the icon. I already tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it.

  • 3 replies
  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by mpham227

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Initially, both internet explorer and Mozilla Firefox wouldn't open. After 3 months of not using my laptop, I decided to try to troubleshoot the problem. Miraculously, I could open IE today without having to do anything. But I was still having trouble with firefox. So I killed it in the task manager, and then I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. The loading icon would appear, but the window wouldn't open. So I tried opening it in safe mode. It worked, but like for 2 seconds. After 2 seconds of having it in safe mode, the window would freeze, I wouldn't be able to click anything in the window, and the top of the bar said "not responding". I'm not sure what else to do. Any suggestions?

Initially, both internet explorer and Mozilla Firefox wouldn't open. After 3 months of not using my laptop, I decided to try to troubleshoot the problem. Miraculously, I could open IE today without having to do anything. But I was still having trouble with firefox. So I killed it in the task manager, and then I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. The loading icon would appear, but the window wouldn't open. So I tried opening it in safe mode. It worked, but like for 2 seconds. After 2 seconds of having it in safe mode, the window would freeze, I wouldn't be able to click anything in the window, and the top of the bar said "not responding". I'm not sure what else to do. Any suggestions?

All Replies (3)

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I'm also using Windows 7 on a Lenovo U310 laptop.

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.

It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full, unrestricted, access to install for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:


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.

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

See also:

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I'm not sure how to do this:

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full, unrestricted, access to install for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

But I did check the windows firewall settings, and it already allows firefox communication through the firewall. I also booted my laptop in safe mode (networking) and was able to open firefox immediately without the window hanging. I have a guess that perhaps microsoft security essentials (the anti-virus program I have) is preventing firefox from opening?

I have not scanned my laptop with anti-malware software, but I'm currently running a full scan with microsoft security essentials before I attempt to download anti-malware software.