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Opening a new tab/browser doesn't load properly

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On my mother's new laptop (Windows 10) when opening a new tab or Mozilla in general the page says "connecting" for a long period of time or "server not found". Usually she will have to constantly click try again before it loads. At times it loads with no issues but it's hit or miss.

On my mother's new laptop (Windows 10) when opening a new tab or Mozilla in general the page says "connecting" for a long period of time or "server not found". Usually she will have to constantly click try again before it loads. At times it loads with no issues but it's hit or miss.

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Some problems occur when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

  • Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
  • Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}


Start your Computer in safe mode with networking. Then start Firefox. Try Safe websites. Is the problem still there?

Starting The Computer In Safe Mode;
Free Online Encyclopedia

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Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?


If Safe Mode still has the same issue:

Usually the page that loads in a new tab and a new window are different and may have different issues.

New Window Firefox should follow the home page setting on the Options page. (For example, see: Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings.)

Q: Is mom's selected page coming up, or does it appear to have been hijacked in some manner?

New Tab Firefox displays a page with tiles from mom's history, and if this is a recent install without much history, some suggested/sponsored tiles.

Q: Is mom getting that page, eventually, or is something else trying to load?

For the built-in page: There are times when a tile thumbnail wasn't captured when a site was visited, and Firefox tries to recapture it in the background, which can cause responsiveness problems with the new tab page. This thread has a suggestion for how to address that: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1131353#answer-898100