-> Navigation buttons like back, home, bookmarks and reload are missing

Check and tell if its working.

You may be using a theme or persona that makes it more difficult to see those buttons if Aero in Vista is enabled.

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

• Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode

Thx for replies, but:- @mha007 - tried that before posting to no effect. @cor-el, in safe mode with default theme and no different. Tooltips appear when hovering where buttons should be.

-> Corrupt localstore.rdf

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Corrupt_localstore.rdf

Check and tell if its working.

Turned transparency off in Vista, then back on again. When I opened Firefox (narmally, not in safe mode) buttons had reappeared. Seems related to 'tabs on top' setting, as the 'list all tabs' button (normally at the end of the tabs, was appearing at the top right, where the 'close' button should be.