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Cannot Launch Firefox browser on Windows 10

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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I've had Firefox on my computer for several months & it worked fine. Until about a week ago (early November 2020), I've been unable to launch Firefox on my computer. When I click the icon (shortcut or even actual application location), I get an hourglass for a couple of seconds & nothing happens.

I've looked in my Task Manager to see if there's a Firefox related process running but there is not. I've tried to uninstall & reinstall Firefox several times, including machine reboots, but I still encounter this problem. I'm running Windows 10 on my computer and the Firefox version that I've installed most recently is 82.0.3 (x64 en-US), which is detected automatically when I initiate the download directly from Mozilla's website. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've had Firefox on my computer for several months & it worked fine. Until about a week ago (early November 2020), I've been unable to launch Firefox on my computer. When I click the icon (shortcut or even actual application location), I get an hourglass for a couple of seconds & nothing happens. I've looked in my Task Manager to see if there's a Firefox related process running but there is not. I've tried to uninstall & reinstall Firefox several times, including machine reboots, but I still encounter this problem. I'm running Windows 10 on my computer and the Firefox version that I've installed most recently is 82.0.3 (x64 en-US), which is detected automatically when I initiate the download directly from Mozilla's website. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Any messages in your virus software? Can you try booting into safe mode and see if Firefox opens?

How to if needed. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-10-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

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Some problems occur when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

  • Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
  • Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}