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

Windows XP3 Firefox works for one use, not another.

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

Using windows XP SP3 and latest Firefox. On normal user Fire fox suddenly will not load. Click on Icon and it seems to load but does not appear on desktop. Looking in Windows Task Manager it looks like ti is running. Never appears open on desktop On user "Admin", it boots and works normally. BOTH Admin and other user are admin security levels. I have downloaded and installed the latest update but no change. Thunderbird works normally on all users. There are only two user names on this machine. My problem is with another machine. I have compared some settings from this one to the faulty on and found no noticable differences.

Using windows XP SP3 and latest Firefox. On normal user Fire fox suddenly will not load. Click on Icon and it seems to load but does not appear on desktop. Looking in Windows Task Manager it looks like ti is running. Never appears open on desktop On user "Admin", it boots and works normally. BOTH Admin and other user are admin security levels. I have downloaded and installed the latest update but no change. Thunderbird works normally on all users. There are only two user names on this machine. My problem is with another machine. I have compared some settings from this one to the faulty on and found no noticable differences.

All Replies (1)

more options

Occasionally the Firefox window will get off screen. Here are three different approaches to getting that window into view. One of them should work!

Firefox Window "off screen" — Arrow Key Method

If you know that Firefox is off to a particular side, you can use the arrow keys to move it back on screen. You only need to move it far enough to be able to click the title bar and then you can drag it the rest of the way.

Make the Firefox tile active on the task bar and press this key combination to start moving the window:

Alt+Spacebar > m

(To clarify, that's Alt+Spacebar to open the window control menu, then the letter m to start moving the window.)

Press the arrow key for the direction you want to move the window, e.g., press the left arrow key to move the window left. Press the Enter key to complete the move.

Firefox Window "off screen" — Maximize + New Window Script Method

If Firefox is nowhere to be found but you know it's out there, try this method. Make the Firefox tile active on the task bar and press this key combination to maximize the window:

Alt+Spacebar > x

(To clarify, that's Alt+Spacebar to open the window control menu, then the letter x to maximize the window.)

If that works, try this:

(1) Copy the following line of code to the clipboard (it's all one line...):

newwin=window.open(window.location.href, "_blank",
"width=640,height=480,menubar,toolbar,personalbar");
newwin.moveTo(0,0);

(2) In the maximized window, press Ctrl+Shift+k to open the web console.

(3) Press Ctrl+v to paste the line of code next to the caret (») then press Enter to run it. A new copy of that page should open in a window positioned at the top left of the screen.

(4) Switch back to the maximized window and close it first, before doing anything in the new window.

Firefox Window "off screen" — Remove Settings File

If you can't move or maximize Firefox, you can rename or delete the settings file that stores the last window position.

(1) Open your currently active Firefox settings folder (AKA Firefox profile folder). From the Start menu (Run box or search box), paste this into the search box and press Enter:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

This should open a window showing one or more Firefox profile folders. If you have multiple folders, look for the most recent. Click into your profile folder.

(2) If Firefox is still running, right-click it on the Task Bar and Close all Windows.

(3) Wait a few moments for Firefox to finish updating files in your profile folder, then rename localstore.rdf to something else, like localstore-bad.rdf or localstore.old. Alternately, you can delete the file.

(4) You're done with your profile folder and you can restart Firefox now.