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When Firefox is not "maximized" I can't see it at all.

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  • Last reply by KLN44

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My computer uses Vista. When I open Firefox in a normal window, I can't see anything but the Firefox square in the taskbar. I can open Firefox maximized, but when I try to click on the little square "restore" button (between minimize and close in the top right corner) Firefox disappears. How can I see Firefox in a regular window that does not take up the whole screen? I discovered this after the babysitter set up my toddler to watch Netflix on the computer, so I don't know what they did.

My computer uses Vista. When I open Firefox in a normal window, I can't see anything but the Firefox square in the taskbar. I can open Firefox maximized, but when I try to click on the little square "restore" button (between minimize and close in the top right corner) Firefox disappears. How can I see Firefox in a regular window that does not take up the whole screen? I discovered this after the babysitter set up my toddler to watch Netflix on the computer, so I don't know what they did.

All Replies (2)

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Try:

  • Use Restore or Maximize in the right-click context menu of the Taskbar icon to set focus to the Firefox application if you do not see the Firefox window.
  • Open the system menu of that Firefox window via Alt+Space and see if you can move and resize that window.

If that works then close Firefox (File > Exit/Quit) to save that setting.

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The first two suggestions didn't fix the problem, but I learned with the third one that the system menu was in the extreme upper left corner, so perhaps the babysitter moved the Firefox window off the screen at the top. I reticently tried opening in safe mode and resetting to factory defaults, fearing that I'd lose all my settings. But that worked, and I now have a non-mazimized window that I can see! And, Firefox loaded back all my plug-ins, and then I did History/Restore Previous Session and got back all my active tabs! So I didn't lose anything. I love Firefox. Thanks, cor-el for pointing me in the right direction.