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The Firefox Installer program will not run on my computer. How do I get it to run?

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  • Last reply by Kahala-bob

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The installer program downloads OK; but I can not get it to run. No error message is generated.

The installer program downloads OK; but I can not get it to run. No error message is generated.

Chosen solution

If you were using the small "stub" or "online" installer and it doesn't seem to work, try the larger "full" or "offline" installer from the following page:

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

(Scroll down to your preferred language.)

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Chosen Solution

If you were using the small "stub" or "online" installer and it doesn't seem to work, try the larger "full" or "offline" installer from the following page:

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

(Scroll down to your preferred language.)

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The full installer does not work either. Thanks for your help.

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Windows has several different "event logs" which keep track of security actions and application crashes, among other things. Possibly one of these logs would have an explanation for what is happening with the installer, for example, it could be crashing so early that there's no window/dialog.

To check event logs, type or paste

event viewer

into the Windows system search box and click the Event Viewer app. If that doesn't come up, try

eventvwr.exe

which is the program name on older versions of Windows and maybe on Windows 10.

So this will (slowly) load a window with multiple columns. In the left column, click Windows Logs to expand that list and then click Applications. This could take a long time to load.

Each event has a date and time, so you should be able to tell pretty quickly if there is anything from around the time you were trying to install Firefox. You might also check the Setup and System logs from around that same time if there's nothing interesting in Applications. Anything?

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I went to the event logs section. There are hundreds of events logs for Applications for today. The same with System logs; the Security logs are even worse.

I retried the download again; here is what came up in the Application log:

Log Name: Application Source: Windows Error Reporting Date: 7/31/2018 4:43:18 PM Event ID: 1001 Task Category: None Level: Information Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: Bobs-Dell-PC Description: Fault bucket , type 0 Event Name: PCA2 Response: Not available Cab Id: 0

Problem signature: P1: Firefox Installer.exe P2: 18.1.0.0 P3: Firefox P4: Firefox P5: Mozilla P6: 100 P7: 0 P8: P9: P10:

Attached files: \\?\C:\Users\RBL\AppData\Local\Temp\PCW6812.tmp \\?\C:\Users\RBL\AppData\Local\Temp\ACG6880.tmp \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER68CF.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER68FF.tmp.xml \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER6979.tmp.csv \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER69B9.tmp.txt

These files may be available here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_Firefox Installe_9e958be4cf70b34dd0d6cbff3df53be4da6d410_00000000_10c26bbb

Analysis symbol: Rechecking for solution: 0 Report Id: 1d9f647f-8ebe-489b-adea-c773d4d1b247 Report Status: 2147491840 Hashed bucket: Cab Guid: 0 Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

 <System>
   <Provider Name="Windows Error Reporting" />
   <EventID Qualifiers="0">1001</EventID>
   <Level>4</Level>
   <Task>0</Task>
   <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
   <TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-08-01T02:43:18.475579500Z" />
   <EventRecordID>29471</EventRecordID>
   <Channel>Application</Channel>
   <Computer>Bobs-Dell-PC</Computer>
   <Security />
 </System>
 <EventData>
   <Data>
   </Data>
   <Data>0</Data>
   <Data>PCA2</Data>
   <Data>Not available</Data>
   <Data>0</Data>
   <Data>Firefox Installer.exe</Data>
   <Data>18.1.0.0</Data>
   <Data>Firefox</Data>
   <Data>Firefox</Data>
   <Data>Mozilla</Data>
   <Data>100</Data>
   <Data>0</Data>
   <Data>
   </Data>
   <Data>
   </Data>
   <Data>
   </Data>
   <Data>

\\?\C:\Users\RBL\AppData\Local\Temp\PCW6812.tmp \\?\C:\Users\RBL\AppData\Local\Temp\ACG6880.tmp \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER68CF.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER68FF.tmp.xml \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER6979.tmp.csv \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER69B9.tmp.txt</Data>

   <Data>C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_Firefox Installe_9e958be4cf70b34dd0d6cbff3df53be4da6d410_00000000_10c26bbb</Data>
   <Data>
   </Data>
   <Data>0</Data>
   <Data>1d9f647f-8ebe-489b-adea-c773d4d1b247</Data>
   <Data>2147491840</Data>
   <Data>
   </Data>
   <Data>0</Data>
 </EventData>

</Event>



I have no idea what this all means. I hope you do.

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Did you rename the downloaded file? Normal full installers have names like:

Firefox Setup 61.0.1.exe

I can't find any useful leads on

Event Name: PCA2

It doesn't look like a crash.

I don't know whether it would help to look in any of the numerous referenced files.

Do you have any program control security software? Some firewalls will block programs until you approve them and they often keep a log of their actions.

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I think you are correct. I have some firewall program blocking the install program, but it's not asking me for approval? I will look around to see what I can find.

Thanks