Your list of plugins shows "SiteAdvisor" but it also shows "McAfee MSS+ NPAPI Plugin". So, it's possible that you have multiple security products that are interfering.

In order to be able to find the correct solution to your problem, we require some more non-personal information from you. Please do the following:

• Click the Firefox button at the top left, then click the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information from the submenu. If you don't have a Firefox button, click the Help menu at the top and select Troubleshooting Information from the menu.

Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.

• At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
• Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.

If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Here is the information that you requested. I should add that when I was using Bitdefender Search Advisor successfully with the old Firefox that had been self-updated to v25.0.1 I also had McAfee Site Advisor running and the two were perfectly happy to run together. I have tried disabling McAfee Site Advisor in my new Firefox installation but it does not help. In addition the problem that I have was spotted after Firefox and Bitdefender had been installed but BEFORE Site Advisor had been installed, so Site Advisor is not part of the problem.

Here is the requested data.

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 25.0.1 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:25.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/25.0

Extensions

Name: BetterPrivacy Version: 1.68 Enabled: true ID: {d40f5e7b-d2cf-4856-b441-cc613eeffbe3}

Name: McAfee SiteAdvisor Version: 3.6.4 Enabled: true ID: {4ED1F68A-5463-4931-9384-8FFF5ED91D92}

Name: Bitdefender Wallet Version: 1.0 Enabled: false ID: ffpwdman@bitdefender.com

Important Modified Preferences

browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 4 browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20131112160018 browser.startup.homepage: http://www.google.co.uk browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20131112160018 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 25.0.1 dom.mozApps.used: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 25.0.1 gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 1 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1386340621 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.npmcffplg: 2 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_colorspace: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_command: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_duplex: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_footercenter: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_headercenter: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_headerright: &U print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_in_color: true print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_oddpages: true print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_orientation: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_paper_data: 9 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_paper_name: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_paper_size_unit: 1 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_plex_name: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_resolution: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_resolution_name: print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_reversed: false print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_to_file: false print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP5200.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true

Graphics

Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS Adapter Drivers: nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um Adapter RAM: 512 Device ID: 0x06e4 Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16492) Driver Date: 10-23-2013 Driver Version: 9.18.13.3165 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10 Vendor ID: 0x10de WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d AzureContentBackend: direct2d AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.2 Version in use: 4.10.2

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.15.3 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.15.3 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.15.3 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.15.3 Version in use: 3.15.3

I found this posted on the BitDefender forum, http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=40046&st=20

 Quote: I noticed that the BD toolbar and the search adviser work only on pages/sites where scripts are permitted. In Firefox 20 (Win7, 64 bit) with NoScripts AddOn, when I permit scripts for the site/page the toolbar tab appears.  

I was looking to see if you had the NoScript add-on. You don't, but you have other extensions which may be interfering with BitDefender, so disable them in the Add-ons Extensions list, to see if that resolves the problem:

Name: BetterPrivacy Version: 1.68 Enabled: true ID: {d40f5e7b-d2cf-4856-b441-cc613eeffbe3}

Name: McAfee SiteAdvisor Version: 3.6.4 Enabled: true ID: {4ED1F68A-5463-4931-9384-8FFF5ED91D92}

You also have "McAfee MSS+ NPAPI Plugin" in your Plugins list. I'm concerned that this McAfee product is conflicting so I would also disabe the McAfee plugin in the Firefox Add-ons -> Plugins list by setting it to "Never Activate".

See Disable or remove Add-ons for details.

If that doesn't help, post back for more suggestions. Alternately, you could visit the BitDefender forum or contact BitDefender support for other solutions. I see that the Bitdefender Wallet Version extension is disabled in your Add-ons -> Extensions list. If you need more information on that extension, contact BitDefender.

Thank you for trying to help me. I have now tried turning EVERY add-on and plugin off, not just the McAfee ones. It made no difference - Bitdefender Search Advisor still will not work in a clean install of the latest Firefox, but it works happily on other machines where Firefox has been self-updated to the latest version. I do not know how the clean install differs from the self-updated Firefox. Maybe you do?

Hi again. I have got a little further and it might shed some light on what is happening. I have re-enabled all my plugins and add-ons, and tried something new. Previously I have been using Bitdefender Search Advisor in Google searches, but as an experiment I have tried Yahoo searches instead. Suddenly Bitdefender Search Advisor works in Firefox! So the problem is restricted to Google searches in Firefox. Google searches in Internet Explorer don't have the problem. Does that give you any clues please? I will be asking Bitdefender the same thing of course.

You asked,

I do not know how the clean install differs from the self-updated Firefox. Maybe you do?

...and by "clean install" you meant,

I have reinstalled Windows on a fresh clean hard drive, and with it I have installed the latest Firefox 25.0.1 directly from the Firefox website. It is therefore a clean up-to-date Firefox that has not been updated.

When you did a clean install of Windows and Firefox on a clean hard drive, you started with a brand new Firefox profile, which is where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords, and other data, as well as previously-installed extensions. Without knowing what your original Firefox profile contained, as well as what plugins and other software (which can also add extensions to Firefox) you had before you wiped the hard drive, it's hard to say how your old setup differs from the current one.

I'll escalate this question and hopefully you'll get a better answer but your best bet might be to contact BitDefender support. For example, maybe there is a BitDefender program update that you had installed in your old setup, that you need to install now?

OOPs, I missed your second reply. Sorry, I still thinkk contacting BitDefender support is your best bet.

Thank you for your continued help - I really appreciate it. I haven't actually wiped the old hard drive yet. My clean install was on a fresh hard drive. I can switch back to the old hard drive to check the add-ons and plugins, but I know already that they will be the same because I use a very limited fixed set of add-ons and plugins, and i never change them.

I will try Bitdefender support as you suggest. If I get a resolution I will see if I can post it here to help others

Thanks, Dr_Bob. I've "un-escalated" this for the time being. Please do post back, one way or another. It would be great if you could let us know what fixes it, as a help to others like you said.

Good luck!