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how do I STOP Firefox from pinning itself to taskbar EVERY TIME I RUN IT????

  • 13 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by argenfarg

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Been using FF forever. But now it pins itself to my taskbar every time I run it. Seriously folks? What idiotic script kiddie thought this was a good idea?????????????????????????????????????????????? I manage my desktop - not you. How do I turn this bug off????????????

Been using FF forever. But now it pins itself to my taskbar every time I run it. Seriously folks? What idiotic script kiddie thought this was a good idea?????????????????????????????????????????????? I manage my desktop - not you. How do I turn this bug off????????????

All Replies (13)

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All programs pin them self to the taskbar when opened to tell you its opened. Other wise you would have been opening tons of windows.

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Wow - like I didn't know that. Let's define it a little more. "Pinning" means the program is left on the taskbar AFTER you close the last instance. Every time I run firefox it pins itself to the taskbar, and then I have to right-click, and select unpin to make it go away. This is intolerable.

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Try resetting Firefox, otherwise this is a computer problem, so ccleaner would maybe help to, as it would clear log files and other data in Firefox. If those don't work try reinstalling Firefox.

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How about a little less "attitude"? Most of us are volunteers, users like you.

Maybe the firefox.exe process is "hanging" and not shutting down cleanly. Check the Task Manager in Windows7 to see if the process is still running; if it is End Process and see if the Taskbar button is gone.

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tried all that. Firefox is pinning itself.

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Is the process hung or not after you exit Firefox? There is a bug report filed about Firefox closing very slowly or not closing at all when the user uses "Clear history when Firefox closes." If it was hung, when you killed that hung process did the button on the taskbar disappear? If not, we may need to file another bug report.

Not sure why this "Clear history ....." bug wasn't spotted before making it to release, but the developers are testing a patch.

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With FF & Task Manager running I highlighted the process in TM and then used FF File-> exit to terminate FF. Watching TM the FF process vanished after about 4 seconds. So, FF close is normal. I do not use the Clear History option at this time.

As I do not like pinning anything to the taskbar - it should only have running programs IMHO, and since its my system my opinion rules, I removed myself from ownership on: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar. This is where the shortcuts are created that create the pinned program on the Taskbar. FF creates a shortcut there every time it runs (v 24.6.0). I saw that before I changed ownership. Why it does that I don't know, but its annoying as hell and it never did that before. I discovered this when the IT Dept pushed an FF upgrade.

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It could be the work of one of your add-ons, or even add / mal-ware. Look thru your add-ons list and make sure you know what each one is there for. Also, check the programs that are on your computer

Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the "Applications" folder Linux:

  • Ubuntu Unity {web link}
  • Xfce: Applications Menu category sections
  • options depends on the package manager and the desktop environment

Go thru the list. If you find something that you don't know what it is, use a web search.

Troubleshoot Firefox Issues Caused By Malware {web link}

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Does a different browser do the same thing?

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when FF starts it creates a shortcut in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar, which is what defines something as pinned to the taskbar. Having started and stopped FF a bunch of times and watched the folder I know its FF. As for add-ons, I have Tab Mix Plus, Adblock, and Flashblock. These are pretty stable and I have used them for a long time.

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nothing else does this. only FF.

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My computer has this; C:\Users\==user==\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Use your file explorer and delete \User Pinned, unless there is something else in that folder.

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Good idea, I thought of it also. However, the OS tracks this directory and if you delete it, it gets recreated, just like the TaskBar directory underneath. Also, if you rename it the OS keeps track of that also. Thank you so much W7. Besides, there is another directory under \User Pinned called \ImplicitAppShortcuts and that might be important for something I am unaware of.