Computer question .... using Firefox

flyboyron · May 13, 2015

I have been using Firefox for many years, and whether it is any better than some others, I don't know but it seems to work for me.

I have always had the settings set to when the browser window opens, I am at www.google.com.

It just makes it simple to always start in the same place.

So that is my home page, and every time I start firefox it opens to that.

Since last Friday, when I open Firefox, the window that opens is the last window I had open when I closed firefox.

It doesn't matter if I am at gm-trucks.com or the bank website, or some Harley Davidson website....whatever was open when I closed the browser, it will open that window again and not go to Google.com as the settings are set to.

Now I have been through the settings and researched online and found I can tell it to open with the last page I was looking at, but I did not do that and the settings are not set for that.

It also doesn't tell you how to reverse that process, which you would think to be just as simple as setting it that way.

I have told it to open with a blank page....it does not do that.

I have told it to open with Firefox's default page....it does not do that.

It doesn't seem to do anything I tell it to do and won't open to the page I tell it.

I thought it might be a hijacked browser or malware, but wouldn't that cause it to open a page like a porno site or something?

I am thinking if I delete the Firefox program and reinstall it that might work, but will I lose all of my bookmarks I have set up?

Any ideas?

nadrojcote · May 13, 2015

Sounds to me like instead of closing firefox properly its crashing when you try to close it.

If firefox crashes it loads up the pages you previously had open. Maybe try reinstalling it. Don't delete it just download the latest version and install it over top. You shouldnt lose any bookmarks or cookies.

flyboyron · May 13, 2015

Let me try that tonight when I get home.

Thanks

flyboyron · May 15, 2015

I did some troubleshooting on the Firefox help website and found a refresh program. What you do is download this refresh program, it will reset all your settings to the default settings as if Firefox was just downloaded, then it removes itself from your computer.

I did that and opened it in safe mode, then refreshed again, and that fixed it.

For some reason they have had browsers that will not allow the settings to be changed even if you tell it to, so they came up with this refresh program. I wonder if it is a malware remover of some sort.

Works good now.

nadrojcote · May 15, 2015

This is part of the reason I switched to chrome a long time ago. There were just random issues and memory leaks. Leaving firefox open all day would bog my computer down.