I screwed up Firefox...

Category: Geeks r Us

Post 1 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Friday, 17-May-2013 19:13:44

yeah, the subject line says it all. I have no idea how this even happened. On my computer, or any computer I've ever used for that matter, whenever I run Firefox, eventually it takes up so much Ram that I have to end the process in task manager. I've heard other people complain that Firefox is one of the worst resource hogs there is. A shame, really, as it really is the superior browser. Anyway, this usually happens every half hour or so, although it's not exact like that. it's not like clockwork or anything. Anyway, so I was ending the process in task manager, as usual, but for some reason, task manager wasn't closing. I finally got it to close, but when I went to relaunch Firefox, it asked me whether I wanted to reset Firefox or run it in safe mode. I didn't even know Firefox had a safe mode, so I figured it would be better to reset it.
Of course, now all my add-ons and plugins are gone. I didn't have that many, but it's going to be a pain to get them back. Would doing a system restore bring them back? I'm thinking it should, but I figured I'd ask here first, since I don't want to screw anything else up. I would also like to know what I might have done to cause this. Usually, there are only two options once you've elected to end a task: you can either end the task or cancel. I'm pretty sure I ended the process, because it was then that I tried to get out of task manager and realized I couldn't for a minute.
I'm running Windows 7 32 bit, with the latest version of Firefox. Any help would be appreciated.

Post 2 by rat (star trek rules!) on Friday, 17-May-2013 19:19:58

It's possible that something in firefox got damaged from the force shutdown. I myself haven't been having the memory issue for a bit now, although I once did get it a lot. System restore won't help you in this case, it's better to get the addins yourself again as if you restore they could be corrupt and that would land you right back in this mess again.

Post 3 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Friday, 17-May-2013 19:57:13

Ok, thanks. I'll do that. I guess it makes sense that things could get corrupt, as often as I have to shut it down. I'm hoping a clean install might solve another problem I'm having, though. When I run Firefox, when certain webpages load, basically anything with Facebook or Twitter widgets, my computer will lock up for a good 10 seconds or so. I have no idea if that's a Jaws or a Firefox issue, or maybe even an issue with one of my plugins, but maybe a clean install will fix it.

Post 4 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Saturday, 18-May-2013 17:22:12

Turning off javascript or getting the adblockplus list called antisocial will get rid of the share widgets; they can give screen readers the fits. lol.

Post 5 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Sunday, 19-May-2013 16:08:48

I didn't know about that. Where can I get this antisocial thing? I do have Adblock Plus installed, but didn't know it had other things you could add to it.

Post 6 by rusty81 (Zone BBS is my Life) on Tuesday, 21-May-2013 23:35:34

this might help?
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&p=11876837

Post 7 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Wednesday, 22-May-2013 10:13:33

Here's a list of all known adblockplus subscription lists. The 'subscribe' link in each entry makes it easy to add the list; they're updated automatically. Adding too many subscriptions may block more or other than you intend.

http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions

Post 8 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Wednesday, 22-May-2013 20:32:16

Or, you can disable javascript, and all that social stuff will go away. Instead of toggling javascript as needed, you could add the extension called noscript, and make a white list for sites where you want script; everything else will not run js.

Post 9 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Thursday, 23-May-2013 14:55:13

Awesome, thank you. i'll take a look at this list and see what I come up with. I was having trouble figuring out how to do it myself.