SOLVED Firefox Will not open.

[davehc]

I read in your first post the you created a new profile? Later you dleted the contents of the profile folder. Perhaps you should give it a go like this:
Close Firefox.
In the run box enter firefox.exe -p.
Press Enter/OK.
When all the available profiles appear, you can select your user profile,(default ), and delete it
Now select another profile, if you see more than one, or completely remove all the profiles. Aa new one will be created once you start Firefox.

 

[Mothie]

Well honourable gentlemen, I think you have cracked where the problem lies. Did as suggested and Firefox works.
Well done BigFeet and Trouble, you are stars,
Now then my system needs to be fixed. Looks like I need to Refresh/reinstall or along those lines.

Need your advice,good friends.

 

[Trouble]

First you need to advise as to what you determined??

IF you've found that the problem is unique to your specific profile (account / login), then....

It's a pretty simple matter of moving (or copying) all your stuff into the proper respective locations in a new user profile. Sort of like buying a new house and relocating.
Docs to Docs, Music to Music, Picture to Picture, etc., to etc.,

Then when everything seems to be safe and sound and nothing is misbehaving you can delete the old corrupt user account.

I'd like to advise that a "refresh" or in-place upgrade repair would solve the issue, but....
Generally these solutions repair problems with "Windows" and as part of the process, preserve your stuff which would likely include the area that is producing your problem, like
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
and or
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2946127644-565494833-2665594461-1001 (or whatever your particular user GUID might be).

Personally, I'd just pack up and move (from old profile to new profile)

 

[BigFeet]

I mean you could just move the stuff in your library folders over to the new profile, and when everything is running as it should in the new profile, just delete the old one. I've had corrupt profiles before. But it is best to just do a reset keeping your files, and start fresh.

edit: I always keep a second profile ready in case. I've never had an issue with Windows 10, but I have had a profile that was completely inaccessible in Windows 7, and had to create a new one.

And I see Trouble already suggested moving the files over. I'm not paying attention today, lol.

 

[Mothie]

I have run both sfc /scannow and DISM again, result no problems there on either count.
The additional account I used was Administrator, local Account, administrator, password protected, this opened Firefox.
Original account was my name,email address, Administrator, password protected.This a/c works well on everything except with Firefox.

It is as though I need to start all over again just to put on Firefox. Wish there was a way to isolate the Firefox problem in or out of the registry. Sorry but I am somewhat confused.

 

[Trouble]

The additional account I used was Administrator, local Account, administrator, password protected, this opened Firefox.

Typically you wouldn't want to use the normally hidden / disabled local "Administrator" account
Rather creating a new local user and adding that user account to the Administrators Local Group

It is as though I need to start all over again just to put on Firefox

Moving from a problem account / profile into a new account is not like starting over.
The new account would still have access to all installed programs, services and processes.
It just involves a little general house keeping to copy your data into the appropriate folders from the old account into the new account.

Have you gone through the steps listed here to create a new firefox profile
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

 

[BigFeet]

It is as though I need to start all over again just to put on Firefox. Wish there was a way to isolate the Firefox problem in or out of the registry. Sorry but I am somewhat confused.

It may not be a registry issue. Actually I would doubt it is. My guess is the profile has gotten corrupted somehow. The one thing you could try is a clean boot. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows . You may be able to isolate the issue that way. It's a long shot, but maybe worth a try.

 

[Mothie]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
Just tried 3 ways to open profile manager. Absolutely nothing happened.

Clean Boot, never tried it before. looking into it.

 

[Mothie]

Could not get profile manager to open on desktop.
Clean Boot, no start-up items appear to cause trouble. Firefox still not opening.
Looking as if the only way to solve this problem is to reinstall Windows 10 pro from disc.

All this I ask my self for Firefox?
Computer working fine for everything else.

 

[davehc]

Did you see this bit, in your link:

If the Profile Manager window does not appear, you may need to include the full path to the Firefox program, enclose that line in quotes, then add a space followed by -P. Examples:

Firefox (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows

• "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P

Firefox (32-bit) on 32-bit Windows (or 64-bit Firefox on 64-bit Windows)

• "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P

 

[BigFeet]

Well something is obviously not right. And no sense in reinstalling from disc when you can reset the PC. Same thing except you can keep your files. There does come a point you have to cut your losses. Personally, I gave up on firefox years ago. But that doesn't change the fact that's something is corrupted. Eventually it could start affecting other programs or Windows itself.

 

[BigFeet]

Other things you can try.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-wont-start-find-solutions

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1212171

 

[davehc]

Interesting thread. I am a traditionalist. Always stuck to old IE or, latterly, Edge. I have never had any notable problems with either. Edge was a case of "give a dog a bad name" It has slowly been improved and I am quite attached to it now.
But, when getting into this thread, I had to have a go at FF.

Interesting task manage comparison.

Even more, FF shows quite a significant increase in CPU usage when you open a site.

 

[Mothie]

Hi Guys.
BigFeet, tried out your suggested UTube solution. Sorry, Firefox still not opening. However, in Safe Mode with Internet, it works. Change back to normal mode after a restart, back to normal. Nothing.

Hello davehc. He he! I just wish I could open the blasted thing and hang increased cpu and memory. I cut down my number of browsers quite recently to Internet Explorer, Edge, and Opera. Never had any problems with those.

BigFeet. I take your point about there is obviously a corruption or something untoward lurking in the background.
DISM, sfc,disk check,full Antivirus scans via Kapersky Internet security and Malwaresbytes have yielded nothing. Ok on all those fronts.
I believe also that I have tried your suggestions, however, will look again, my friend.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-wont-start-find-solutions

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1212171

 

[Mothie]

• "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P Just not working. On run, it does not open, davehc

 

[Mothie]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-wont-start-find-solutions

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1212171

Gone through all of this and took old firefox data and copied all into profile.NO joy at all.
Give up.

Additionally, if I click Firefox.exe and properties and troubleshoot tag, all I get is "error, can not open"

 

[davehc]

Here is another consideration, perhaps?

https://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/firefox.exe.html

 

[Mothie]

Not impressed. I do not see how it would be of any use tracking down the Mozilla problem that I am having.
It only picks up on running processes and in my case firefox a'int running. Additionally,it blacklists harmless programs that I know are no threat.
nevertheless, many thanks for the thought davehc.

 

[Trouble]

It's almost like you've managed to Blacklist firefox.exe
Most conventional methods of doing this will generally produce a message box informing you that the program is blocked
However there are a few applications that can be used in silent or hidden mode and no such error or warning is produced.
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/program-blocker-free-download is one such program and there are several more out there in the wild.

Just wondering if perhaps you might have experimented with any such product in the past and perhaps used firefox.exe to test.

 

[BigFeet]

Hi Guys.
BigFeet, tried out your suggested UTube solution. Sorry, Firefox still not opening. However, in Safe Mode with Internet, it works. Change back to normal mode after a restart, back to normal. Nothing.

Then you absolutely have a process that is blocking it. There really isn't much else to try other than going one process at a time. Security software is all I can think of off hand. If it were me, I'd have already done a clean install. I have for way less. JMO