Firefox 2.0 is running on my laptop invisibly. In the Windows Task Manager, there’s no entry in the Applications tab, but the Processes tab shows “firefox.exe” running.

Here’s how I fixed it, thanks to googling around for help.

First, end the firefox.exe process. Control-Alt-Delete and open the Processes tab. Select the “firefox.exe” process, and right click to get the menu for ending the process.

Now start Firefox in safe mode. To do this, create a shortcut to the firefox.exe program you just installed. Select the shortcut, choose Properties, and add “-safe-mode” to the command, so that it looks something like:

Double click on the shortcut and you should see the Firefox “safe mode” dialog box. If you don’t, go find some other blogger to help you because I’m all out of tips.

Click on “Disable all add-ons” and press the “Make Changes and continue” button. Firefox should start. If it doesn’t, try relaunching it from the shortcut and click every box in the “safe mode” dialog.

In Firefox, go to Tools > Add-ons. All of them are disabled. Enable one. Close Firefox. Start it up, but not using the safe mode icon. You want to start it in full mode to see if it opens. If it does, you know that the add-on (nee extension) you just enabled is not the culprit. Repeat until you find the culprit.

Now do control-alt-delete and kill the Firefox process. Start it up in safe mode again. Turn off the add-ons. Enable them all except the culprit(s).

Good luck.

BTW, the culprit in my case was McAfee SiteAdvisor (disclosure). [Tags: firefox siteadvisor]

Categories: Uncategorized dw