Need help --XPcom

I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Mathedman wrote:
I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
Â*Â*Â* I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
Â*Â* In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
messageÂ* "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Â*Â*Â* Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Â*Â*Â* Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 08:32:08 -0600, Mathedman wrote:

I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.

You've got a backup and/or backup image, right?

--
s|b

On 11/15/2017 1:21 PM, s|b wrote:
On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 08:32:08 -0600, Mathedman wrote:

I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.

You've got a backup and/or backup image, right?


No recent backup -- and "backup" doesn't save Windows ?

Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

No IE?

Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 1:21 PM, s|b wrote:
On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 08:32:08 -0600, Mathedman wrote:

I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.

You've got a backup and/or backup image, right?


No recent backup -- and "backup" doesn't save Windows ?

That depends on how you backup.

Restore Points are not a backup. You can tell from the
size (1GB per, or less), that they're incremental. There
isn't a copy of every file in there. They can roll back
system state (for cases where nothing else is damaged),
but you have to read the documentation to understand
what is covered. The single most valuable item in a
Restore Point is a copy of the registry files.

Any time a Windows computer is attacked by malware, the
staff at helper sites like Bleepingcomputer, they will tell
you to dump the restore points immediately, as they'll all
be infected. Restore Points are not a "trustworthy feature".
They are mainly useful for "trivial" rollback situations.
If you just had a meltdown, don't expect miracles by using it.

On later versions of Windows, you can run DISM and SFC offline,
and try to fix OS components that are damaged. That won't
work on Windows 7. The closest Windows 7 gets to DISM is
CHECKSUR (a download), and it's an online check with the
OS running.

*******

Some people just copy their Downloads folder to a
USB stick. That's not a comprehensive backup.

The imaging option in the Control Panels (Windows 7 backup),
backs up at a minimum, the C: partition and System Reserved.
It should be able to put back the OS if you made one. A third
party solution, is Macrium Reflect Free, where you have more
control of partition-by-partition backups. (There are at least
twenty other programs that do this, and some of them offer
free programs with the same feature set as this.) Generally,
nobody "gives away" incremental backup capability. But
full backup imaging, is free, simply because the Windows 7 Backup
offers full backup images for free.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Both of those tools, use an Emergency Boot CD. In the Windows 7
Backup window, is a link to click to start the making of the
boot CD. In Macrium Reflect, it will hint many times that
you should use its procedures, to make a Macrium Reflect
WinPE based emergency boot CD. In that way, you can boot
the CD, click "Restore", point the program at the external disk
with your backup image(s) on it, and restore over top of
C: and System Reserved. That's a full backup, that can repair
most everything you could trash on the OS itself. That would
get you out of your current mess.

When my copy of Windows 7 was completely and utterly trashed
one day here (the three repair cycles couldn't fix it),
that's what saved my ass.

Doing C: backups, saves you time on reinstalling the OS,
installing Service Packs, installing Security Updates,
reinstalling and configuring all your programs, bringing
back your email folder from somewhere, and so on. A great
time saver. For a well maintained C: , devoid of extensive
downloads, it should take about ten minutes (disk-to-disk
backup).

The Windows Backup also has the option of backup to DVD,
but at around 30 minutes per DVD, and a four or five DVD
minimum, you'd have to be insane to put up with that. If
you must store to DVD, do it *outside* the Windows Backup
environment. Windows is *not good* at formatting DVDs,
erasing them, realizing it should erase the rewritable
disc you just inserted, and so on. You have to baby-sit
the procedure. If you want to waste DVD+R discs, that
will work smoother. A third-party burner program, and segmenting
the image, will store it on DVD if that's what you want.
I tested the Win7 Backup to DVD, and will never do that again!

*******

Your error message, the term XPCOM is defined here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xpcom

Cross Platform Component Object Model

XULRunner

xul.dll (browser engine)

That really should not be attacking desktop components.

The plugins or addons that Firefox no longer accepts,
might have been candidates for that subsystem.

*******

Perhaps you could take a screenshot, and post it to
a picture hosting site, so you can share what you're
seeing.

Since nothing is working on your computer, that means
using a digital camera rather than Win7 Snipping Tool,
and posting a URL to the picture using some other
computer.

Paul

On 15/11/2017 18:45, Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

how did you manage to post here then? So "(nothing works
means nothing works!)" means "Something works" .



--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 11/15/2017 10:45 AM, Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
Â*Â*Â* I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
Â*Â* In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
messageÂ* "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Â*Â*Â* Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Â*Â*Â* Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

Â*Â*Â*Â* What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

YOu could give this a try

I can't open Firefox, it says couldn't load xpcom. Whats wrong?

Hello,

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to
its factory default state while saving your essential information.
Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and
some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

Go to Firefox Help Troubleshooting Information.
Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a
window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/965228

"Mathedman" wrote

| In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
| I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
| message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".

Maybe try re-installing the new version and then
uninstall it properly.
Another note: Recent versions of FF break
compatibility with older extensions. The supported
version 52 can be set to allow older extensions.
Unless you just like to live on the edge there's
probably no reason to use the very latest.

On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 08:32:08 -0600, Mathedman wrote:

I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Thanks.


1) Browser will not start up -- "Couldn't load XPCOM" error

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_wi...COM .22_error


2) Fix: Firefox couldn’t load XPCOM in Windows

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/firefo...-xpcom-windows


3) I am receiving a "couldn't load XPCOM" error.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1029239



--
Kind regards
Ralph
🦊

Ralph Fox wrote:
On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 08:32:08 -0600, Mathedman wrote:

I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Thanks.


1) Browser will not start up -- "Couldn't load XPCOM" error

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_wi...COM .22_error


2) Fix: Firefox couldn�t load XPCOM in Windows

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/firefo...-xpcom-windows


3) I am receiving a "couldn't load XPCOM" error.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1029239

I suspect this is a new behavior, related to Firefox 57.

My attempts to search for a Nov.2017 XPCOM issue have turned
up nothing.

In the source for Firefox 57, in "nsBrowserApp.cpp" there is
the one instance of the error message. This is the only place
in the program that message appears.

InitXPCOMGlue(const char *argv0)
...
gBootstrap = mozilla::GetBootstrap(exePath.get());
if (!gBootstrap) {
Output("Couldn't load XPCOM.\n"); -----
return NS_ERROR_FAILURE;
}

What it appears to be hunting for, is the path of the
executable (as the name of the executable is stored
in argv0 when Firefox is launched by a shell). The
executable which probably contains this very subroutine
(self-referential). The main() of Firefox is only
inches away, just below this routine in that source
file.

Now, one reason for doing this, is because Firefox 57 is multi-process
capable. Windows doesn't support tradition fork() (and since
Firefox is multi-platform, other platforms would likely use
such a method). It looks like the code instead, launches
multiple copies of itself, and it probably passes a
"personality" tidbit to each one, so they know what
role they play.

If you have Electrolysis enabled, it's going to open four or five
or six Firefox processes in Task Manager. Any one of
those could be throwing the error. Logically, it should
be the first call that dies, but you never know.

I tested Firefox 57 in 16299.64 and it installs with

browser.tabs.remote.autostart False
browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 True

That second item is in prefs.js in the profile folder.
If the program is crashing, then a person could edit
the prefs.js with Notepad and change the setting to False.

I don't know where the browser.tabs.remote.autostart
one is hiding, and there is another file in the profile
that has some sort of preferences in it. The second
entry was enough for me to drop Firefox to one process.

If the browser was running, you could enter

about:config

in the URL bar, enter "browser.tabs.remote" in the Search
box, and the two preferences will be present there.

*******

This is not a fix, merely an experiment.

If Firefox is running multi-process, it's going to
go through main() code multiple times. It would
take a change in an environment variable of some
sort, for it to not be able to find itself
when the second third or fourth process starts.

The message *does not* appear to reflect the outcome
of actually loading something. It merely attempts
to find a path to the executable ("exePath.get")
at that point in time. The loading is somewhere else.

https://s8.postimg.org/tl50vm8z9/fir...process_57.gif

https://s8.postimg.org/6wftw2u6d/firefox_57_status.gif

Now, if the user moved the Program Files to D: or did
some other customization, would that do it ? None of
this makes sense, and it just shoulda worked. I'm
grasping at straws here. My setup is bog-standard,
and mine didn't break. I didn't really need to change
to single-process mode, but nothing broke when I did.

Paul

On 11/15/2017 2:27 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
Â*Â*Â* I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
Â*Â* In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
messageÂ* "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Â*Â*Â* Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Â*Â*Â* Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

No IE?


What did I say above? NOTHING WORKS. Every attempt to use a piece of
software yields the message "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM"

On 11/15/2017 7:50 PM, Good Guy wrote:
On 15/11/2017 18:45, Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
Â*Â*Â* I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
Â*Â* In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
messageÂ* "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Â*Â*Â* Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Â*Â*Â* Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

Â*Â*Â*Â* What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

how did you manage to post here then?Â* So "(nothing works
means nothing works!)" means "Something works" .

Thunderbird doesn't rely on windows.

On 11/15/2017 8:42 PM, Mike S wrote:
On 11/15/2017 10:45 AM, Mathedman wrote:
On 11/15/2017 12:35 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Mathedman wrote:
Â*Â*Â* I made a sad mistake --- using Firefox, today it asked
if I wanted the new version. Foolishly, it turns out I said yes.
It proceeded to mess up lots of stuff -- changed all icons, etc.
Â*Â* In disgust, I deleted it and ran system restore. It worked
I thought, But now nothing works. Every No icons work but give
messageÂ* "COULDN'T LOAD XPCOM".
Â*Â*Â* Any help to clean up this mess would be appreciated.
Â*Â*Â* Thanks.

Have you tried googling for a solution?

Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* What did i say above. I can't use google (nothing works
means nothing works!)

YOu could give this a try

I can't open Firefox, it says couldn't load xpcom. Whats wrong?

Hello,

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to
its factory default state while saving your essential information.
Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and
some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

Â*Â*Â* Go to Firefox Help Troubleshooting Information.
Â*Â*Â* Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
Â*Â*Â* Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a
window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
Â*Â*Â* Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

DUH! NOTHING WORKS! That included Firefox --in fact, a Firefox
"update" is what created this problem.