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I have to reset firefox after every download. Why, and what can I do to stop this?

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I'm on Windows 7. And Firefox says it's up-to-date. I've had this problem before, where firefox wouldn't download files. But I've always found that firefox needed to be updated, and after updating, the problem would go away. This time, that's not the case. Resetting firefox works, but only one time. If I want to download a second file, I have to reset again.

This started happening when I tried to download troubleshooting files from microsoft. I'm having the problem where Windows update says updates are available, but then windows update gets stuck at 0%. Trying to troubleshoot this problem, I couldn't download the fix-it utilities without having to perpetually reset firefox.

Is there anything I can do to fix the browser problem, so I can fix the windows problem? Or have I got a bigger issue going on?

Thanks.

I'm on Windows 7. And Firefox says it's up-to-date. I've had this problem before, where firefox wouldn't download files. But I've always found that firefox needed to be updated, and after updating, the problem would go away. This time, that's not the case. Resetting firefox works, but only one time. If I want to download a second file, I have to reset again. This started happening when I tried to download troubleshooting files from microsoft. I'm having the problem where Windows update says updates are available, but then windows update gets stuck at 0%. Trying to troubleshoot this problem, I couldn't download the fix-it utilities without having to perpetually reset firefox. Is there anything I can do to fix the browser problem, so I can fix the windows problem? Or have I got a bigger issue going on? Thanks.

All Replies (2)

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Hello,

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from mozilla.org (or choose the download for your operating system and language from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Please report back to say if this helped you!

Thank you.

Modified by GamerFreak

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Shouldn't be using Firefox for Windows updates, but rather use Internet Explorer to do manual updates - or just stick with the built-in Windows update system.

Also, one or more Windows 7 updates that were released on Tues 12/9 created problems for non-Microsoft applications. Do a search for details about which Windows updates may need to be backed-out.