Fixed it! Uninstalled windows update of 7/24 and rebooted. One must wonder what goes on at Mircosoft to shoot their software in the foot like that?

I have same problem for past 48h since I did a refresh of Firefox. I'm not sure how you determined that Windows update of 7/24 was the problem, but could be more precise about which update is causing the problem and how you removed it? Thanks!

control panel > programs and features > installed updates > uninstall an update

I just uninstalled the latest update since the problem and update arrived the same day. It worked. The uninstall screen has the dates of install. I don't see a 7/24 in my list. I can't tell if MS reinstalled it at a later date but the problem has not returned. The next update I got was on 8/10. I got kb 3172729. The one before that is kb3172727 which may indicate I deleted kb3172728

If you are just now having a problem seems like it came with a recent update.

Thanks - so you don't have the KB reference for the update you removed? If not, it is very difficult for me to replicate. In the meantime, I discovered that removing or disabling the add-on DOWNLOADTHEMALL results in nullification of ALWAYS ASK. When I recently reset Firefox, I didn't bother to reinstall this add-on, as I don't use it anymore, but when I reinstalled it, things went back to normal. Perhaps you too should try this and if you find the kb ref, kindly let me know.