Have you enabled the Use a background service to install updates option?

See What is the Mozilla Maintenance Service?

Yes. That's why I have this problem. Before 59.0.1 installed itself, the previous version was working fine.

I’m not aware of any related bugs in 59.0.2 (yet), but would do this:

• Uninstall Firefox, then reinstall it from here.
• If that does not help, check firewall / security settings in any of such products, or remove and add Firefox and possibly the Mozilla Maintenance Service as allowed application.

Thank you for your interest. I already tried refresh FF. I already tried reinstall when it was still 59.0.1. At some point I was looking at installed programs and noticed Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed. Is there a way to disallow that without uninstalling it? I should mention I'm running Norton. I've searched through Settings on that and see nothing that should be a problem. I'm reluctant to reinstall again because I'll have to mess with Options and bookmarks again. Those were all screwed up when 59.0.1 came in.

A refresh refreshes user settings and restores some defaults, and likely does not affect permissions. A reinstall was done in 59.0.1 as I understand it, but the issue (UAC popping up when starting Firefox) started occurring after updating to 59.0.2, correct?

As for reinstalling Firefox, you don’t need to worry about losing any settings and customizations, as they are stored in a profile which will be retained during uninstall. You could also run the 59.0.2 installer while Firefox is still installed (i.e. install "on top" of it), but I would uninstall the current version first.

The maintenance service is required to allow background updates without requiring admin permissions or UAC intervention, as far as I know. That means if you uninstall it, the issue may not get resolved. However, that applies to updates only so given the support article info, I’m not sure why it is invoked during startup other than that Firefox wants to update. Technically (quote) "The maintenance service intentionally doesn't have any code that attempts to connect to the internet so this is possibly Windows doing this", so I don’t expect the service to have an entry in your security software. My point was however to reinstall nevertheless, possibly fixing its registry entry or a firewall rule in your product that may have missed the update, though you would probably have no Internet access if that was the culprit. See Fix problems connecting to websites after updating Firefox for more on this.

This question may however also be helpful, as well as the Custom installation of Firefox on Windows support article. Do take note of the remark about limited user accounts - interestingly, the option to install the service may lack when installing into a limited account. That raises the question if you need it all right, and what happens if you uninstall the service. I’m not aware of requirements to change Compatibility settings.

Hope this helps. If not, others may be able to help out better.

The UAC problem was there already in 59.0.1 so the program has updated since then. And my settings were lost when that update occurred.

I am in the habit of installing new software from the user that is an administrator. I have no way of knowing which user was active at the time the update came in. I try to remember to turn off the internet when I go to that user, but I sometimes forget. I know some software seems to update only when I have gone into the administrator account and forgotten to turn off the internet. That's what reminds me. I'll look at those articles. Thanks.

Please do install from the URL supplied as it is the full version installer and not the stub installer which can cause issues in downloading and installing.

Check that Firefox isn't set to run as Administrator.

You can open the Properties of the Firefox desktop shortcut via the right-click context menu and check the "Compatibility" tab.

Make sure all items are deselected in the "Compatibility" tab of the Properties window.

• Privilege Level: "Run this program as Administrator" should not be selected
• "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" should not be selected

Also check the Properties of the firefox.exe program in the Firefox program folder.

To PKshadow Thank you for the warning.

To cor-el The problem is that "Run this program as Administrator" is checked and greyed out and I don't know how to fix that. The same is true looking at either the icon or the execute file. But when I look at NTFS security settings all users are shown as having full control. As I said before, the user with administrator privileges does not have "Run this program as Administrator" checked for itself or for other users.

Try to uninstall and reinstall Firefox, possibly as a normal user in case the problem persists.

I finally gave up and uninstalled and, as suggested, reinstalled from limited user. The UAC is gone. I can open html files and saved url's once more.

Fortunately, I manually saved my bookmarks because the best the program had saved were from February.

Things are OK. The only thing I'm seeing that I don't like about the new version is the cluttered new tab page. I would prefer a blank page for a new tab.

You can click the cogwheel button in the top right corner on the about:newtab page and on the home page to select what to see on the page.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-new-tab-page
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/hide-or-display-content-new-tab

Thank you for your continuing interest. I unchecked everything under "Customize your New Tab page" and I clicked on "Blank New Tab Page" and I still have webpages listed that I have visited that I might not wish someone looking over my shoulder to see. I really just want a blank page.

You can look at this extension to set the new tab page to about:blank:

• New Tab Override: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/

That is nice. Thank you.