We're calling on all EU-based Mozillians with iOS or iPadOS devices to help us monitor Apple’s new browser choice screens. Join the effort to hold Big Tech to account!

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why does my Firefox (Win 64-bit version) run 3 firefox.exe files when I start it?

  • 2 replies
  • 27 have this problem
  • 63 views
  • Last reply by amznrandy

sjbegin
sjbegin
more options

My Firefox became corrupt and I performed a clean install. Now when I open Task Manager after starting Firefox there are 3 firefox.exe files running. Two use a lot of memory and one not so much. is this supposed to be happening and could it be why I constantly have slowness issues with Firefox?

My cmputer runs Win7 Pro, 64-bit and I installed the latest 64-bit Win version of Firefox.

Stephen

My Firefox became corrupt and I performed a clean install. Now when I open Task Manager after starting Firefox there are 3 firefox.exe files running. Two use a lot of memory and one not so much. is this supposed to be happening and could it be why I constantly have slowness issues with Firefox? My cmputer runs Win7 Pro, 64-bit and I installed the latest 64-bit Win version of Firefox. Stephen

Chosen solution

That is quite normal.

Current Firefox releases have three or more Firefox processes running.

  • one process for the main thread (user interface)
  • one or more processes for content threads as set via "Options/Preferences -> General -> Performance"
  • one process for the compositor thread (Windows)

See also:

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

That is quite normal.

Current Firefox releases have three or more Firefox processes running.

  • one process for the main thread (user interface)
  • one or more processes for content threads as set via "Options/Preferences -> General -> Performance"
  • one process for the compositor thread (Windows)

See also:

Modified by cor-el

amznrandy
amznrandy
more options

As of today 10-21-17 I am running Firefox 56.0 (64 bit) which was supposed to be faster and use less resources I thought. Right now I have 3 tabs open and Firefox.exe is showing open 6 times in task manager. It is using a total of over 1.4 gig of memory which I think is a little excessive. I only have 4 gig as I really don't do much except read news, email, and look at eBay. I have crashed twice when I've gotten up to 5 or 6 tabs open and tried to see something on you tube so I try not to go there any more. I didn't have this problem with the older versions of Firefox so wondering how the upgrades fixed anything. I've been a user since Netscape and haven't had any problems until now. Think something is wrong, just saying....

Modified by amznrandy