Help!

Tried refreshing Firefox because it was so slow. Did so. Now almost nothing
works. Can't switch to Gmail or Google. Refuses to do so. Says bad insecure
site (or words to that efect). Back to Iron browser. I don't like it either
- especially many web sites don't print completely. Can I return it to non-
refreshed state?

Evidently I need a good browser. Tried Windows browser - won't run. I
follow instructions and get non-existant links.

I need a good browser. Which one?

Using XP Home, sp3.

TIA


--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

KenK wrote:
Tried refreshing Firefox because it was so slow. Did so. Now almost
nothing
works. Can't switch to Gmail or Google. Refuses to do so. Says bad
insecure
site (or words to that efect). Back to Iron browser. I don't like it
either
- especially many web sites don't print completely. Can I return it to
non-
refreshed state?

Evidently I need a good browser. Tried Windows browser - won't run. I
follow instructions and get non-existant links.

I need a good browser. Which one?

Using XP Home, sp3.

TIA

I think your best bet is still with Firefox, which works fine over here. It
sounds like something else is going on with your setup. Why don't you try
uninstalling Firefox, rebooting, and then reinstalling it, for a clean
slate? (this is assuming your browser is the culprit here, which may not
necessarily be true, as something else may be going on - perhaps even some
malware)

As for IE, I don't think you can use it on many sites anymore since it's so
old and unsupported. At least that has been my experience. IE8 was the
last version that works on WinXP, so you can't use IE11. And like you, I'm
still using WinXP.

I'll throw in one other idea, which may be a long shot: if this situation
just recently happened, you could alwsys consider using System Restore to
roll back to a date preceding this "event", to see if that helps. That
assumes you have a few such restore points available, of course.

"Bill in Co" wrote in
:

KenK wrote:
Tried refreshing Firefox because it was so slow. Did so. Now almost
nothing
works. Can't switch to Gmail or Google. Refuses to do so. Says bad
insecure
site (or words to that efect). Back to Iron browser. I don't like it
either
- especially many web sites don't print completely. Can I return it
to non-
refreshed state?

Evidently I need a good browser. Tried Windows browser - won't run. I
follow instructions and get non-existant links.

I need a good browser. Which one?

Using XP Home, sp3.

TIA

I think your best bet is still with Firefox, which works fine over
here. It sounds like something else is going on with your setup. Why
don't you try uninstalling Firefox, rebooting, and then reinstalling
it, for a clean slate? (this is assuming your browser is the culprit
here, which may not necessarily be true, as something else may be
going on - perhaps even some malware)

Right. I restarted FF and the tabs all work again. Wonder what happened?
Still pretty slow but I'll be better able to tell when I get back on line
Monday. Quiting for the weekend now.

As for IE, I don't think you can use it on many sites anymore since
it's so old and unsupported. At least that has been my experience.
IE8 was the last version that works on WinXP, so you can't use IE11.
And like you, I'm still using WinXP.

I'll throw in one other idea, which may be a long shot: if this
situation just recently happened, you could alwsys consider using
System Restore to roll back to a date preceding this "event", to see
if that helps. That assumes you have a few such restore points
available, of course.

I don't know if I have any recent restore points. Haven't used restore
points in mamy many years. Pretty much forgot how they work.





--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

KenK wrote:
"Bill in Co" wrote in
:

KenK wrote:
Tried refreshing Firefox because it was so slow. Did so. Now almost
nothing
works. Can't switch to Gmail or Google. Refuses to do so. Says bad
insecure
site (or words to that efect). Back to Iron browser. I don't like it
either
- especially many web sites don't print completely. Can I return it
to non-
refreshed state?

Evidently I need a good browser. Tried Windows browser - won't run. I
follow instructions and get non-existant links.

I need a good browser. Which one?

Using XP Home, sp3.

TIA

I think your best bet is still with Firefox, which works fine over
here. It sounds like something else is going on with your setup. Why
don't you try uninstalling Firefox, rebooting, and then reinstalling
it, for a clean slate? (this is assuming your browser is the culprit
here, which may not necessarily be true, as something else may be
going on - perhaps even some malware)

Right. I restarted FF and the tabs all work again. Wonder what happened?
Still pretty slow but I'll be better able to tell when I get back on line
Monday. Quiting for the weekend now.

As for IE, I don't think you can use it on many sites anymore since
it's so old and unsupported. At least that has been my experience.
IE8 was the last version that works on WinXP, so you can't use IE11.
And like you, I'm still using WinXP.

I'll throw in one other idea, which may be a long shot: if this
situation just recently happened, you could alwsys consider using
System Restore to roll back to a date preceding this "event", to see
if that helps. That assumes you have a few such restore points
available, of course.

I don't know if I have any recent restore points. Haven't used restore
points in mamy many years. Pretty much forgot how they work.

Glad to hear it's working now.

As for System Restore points, the system normally creates them every day,
and depending on how much space you have allocated for them, you will have
several such dated restore points, which you could use to roll back your
system to (in case of some recent unfortunate event messing up your system
which you can't otherwise resolve). You should be able to find System
Restore in the Start Menu, under Accessories, System Tools. Typically you
might have a couple of weeks or so of such restore points, and you can set
the options there for how much disk space to allow for them.

I consider it a form of an insurance policy, although it is not as good as
is making a system backup (clone or image) on another drive, of course.
That is by far the best insurance policy.

KenK wrote:

Tried refreshing Firefox because it was so slow. Did so. Now almost nothing
works. Can't switch to Gmail or Google. Refuses to do so. Says bad insecure
site (or words to that efect). Back to Iron browser. I don't like it either
- especially many web sites don't print completely. Can I return it to non-
refreshed state?

Evidently I need a good browser. Tried Windows browser - won't run. I
follow instructions and get non-existant links.

I need a good browser. Which one?

Using XP Home, sp3.

No idea (no mention) if you have tried the following:

- Since you were willing to try a new profile in Firefox, why not
uninstall Firefox, delete any remnant file and registry entries, and
try a new install of Firefox.

- Load Firefox in its safe mode. Although you create a new profile,
that does not say if you installed add-ons into the new profile or are
using Firefox Sync that will reinstall them for you automatically for
a sync.

- Also test with all your security software disabled (e.g., antivirus,
firewall, etc).

- Check if the web browser is using a proxy. Internet Options -
Connections - LAN settings. You do NOT want to use a proxy (some
VPN, antivirus, streaming media capture, and other software will use a
local proxy) nor use an auto-config script (only used within a
domain).

- Boot Windows into its safe mode w/networking to make sure some startup
program is not causing the interference.

- If IE (aka "Windows browser") won't load (no details - see if Event
Viewer recorded a failure) then perhaps it is time to do a full manual
scan using an updated version of whatever antivirus software you use
and also employ a secondary on-demand antivirus scanner (to overlap
converage detection) to check for malware. "Won't run" does not say
if IE won't load (or exits immediately upon load) or a site refuses to
let you visit there with an old web browser.

KenK wrote:

I restarted FF and the tabs all work again. Wonder what happened?
Still pretty slow but I'll be better able to tell when I get back on line
Monday. Quiting for the weekend now.

Firefox (and IE) have a long-time known problem of not completely
unloading when you exit the web browser. Sometimes it leaves behind
some remnant processes in memory which interfere with the next load of
the web browser. A second load of the web browser (to start a new
instance instead of trying to reuse the incomplete old stub still in
memory) gets the web browser working (but the stub remains in memory).
You have to kill off the stub left in memory so the next load of the web
browser will work okay. This has happened since forever with the 32-bit
versions of Firefox (and IE). The 64-bit versions incur this defect on
unload much less often; however, you cannot run the 64-bit version of
the web browser on a 32-bit OS so you're stuck with the old problem.

I first noticed this problem (of remnant processes left behind after an
exit that interfere with the next load) since Windows XP. Windows 2000,
and earlier, are way too long ago for me to remember if the problem
happened back then. The problem was exhibited through Vista and 7 (I
never bothered with 8 or 10 at home). Once Microsoft and Mozilla
offered 64-bit versions to run in a 64-bit version of Windows, the
problem mostly went away - but I've kept my kill shortcuts because once
in a while the problem happens.

As a consequence of repeatedly experiencing a remnant stub of Firefox or
IE left in memory interferring with the next load of the web browser, I
added shortcuts to a toolbar in the Windows taskbar that kills off all
processes for the web browser. Those shortcuts run:

For Firefox, the shortcut runs a "killFox.bat" batch file which has:
@taskkill.exe /im plugin-container.exe /f
@taskkill.exe /im flashplayerplugin /f
@taskkill.exe /im firefox.exe /f
For Internet Explorer, its kill shortcut runs the command:
%windir%\system32\taskkill.exe /im iexplore.exe /f

Since I had to kill the remnant processes about 2-3 times per week,
these shortcuts were alongside the shortcuts to load the web browsers.
If a load took longer than 6 seconds, it was a good bet it was hung due
to the remnant processes from the prior use, so I'd click on the "kill"
shortcut and re-click on the load shortcut and, voila, it loaded fine.

If you search on the problem, the most common excuse is that an add-on
is interferring with the exit of the web browser. Yet that logic fails
because I've tested with either no add-ons installed or all of them
disabled and the remnant stub processes are still sometimes left behind
when I exit the web browser.

VanguardLH wrote in :

KenK wrote:

I restarted FF and the tabs all work again. Wonder what happened?
Still pretty slow but I'll be better able to tell when I get back on
line Monday. Quiting for the weekend now.

Firefox (and IE) have a long-time known problem of not completely
unloading when you exit the web browser. Sometimes it leaves behind
some remnant processes in memory which interfere with the next load of
the web browser. A second load of the web browser (to start a new
instance instead of trying to reuse the incomplete old stub still in
memory) gets the web browser working (but the stub remains in memory).
You have to kill off the stub left in memory so the next load of the
web browser will work okay. This has happened since forever with the
32-bit versions of Firefox (and IE). The 64-bit versions incur this
defect on unload much less often; however, you cannot run the 64-bit
version of the web browser on a 32-bit OS so you're stuck with the old
problem.

I first noticed this problem (of remnant processes left behind after
an exit that interfere with the next load) since Windows XP. Windows
2000, and earlier, are way too long ago for me to remember if the
problem happened back then. The problem was exhibited through Vista
and 7 (I never bothered with 8 or 10 at home). Once Microsoft and
Mozilla offered 64-bit versions to run in a 64-bit version of Windows,
the problem mostly went away - but I've kept my kill shortcuts because
once in a while the problem happens.

As a consequence of repeatedly experiencing a remnant stub of Firefox
or IE left in memory interferring with the next load of the web
browser, I added shortcuts to a toolbar in the Windows taskbar that
kills off all processes for the web browser. Those shortcuts run:

For Firefox, the shortcut runs a "killFox.bat" batch file which has:
@taskkill.exe /im plugin-container.exe /f
@taskkill.exe /im flashplayerplugin /f
@taskkill.exe /im firefox.exe /f
For Internet Explorer, its kill shortcut runs the command:
%windir%\system32\taskkill.exe /im iexplore.exe /f

Since I had to kill the remnant processes about 2-3 times per week,
these shortcuts were alongside the shortcuts to load the web browsers.
If a load took longer than 6 seconds, it was a good bet it was hung
due to the remnant processes from the prior use, so I'd click on the
"kill" shortcut and re-click on the load shortcut and, voila, it
loaded fine.

If you search on the problem, the most common excuse is that an add-on
is interferring with the exit of the web browser. Yet that logic
fails because I've tested with either no add-ons installed or all of
them disabled and the remnant stub processes are still sometimes left
behind when I exit the web browser.

I've had the same problem, but didn't know it was a known issue. I
never googled the problem. But, I did inquire within Task Manager and
saw that there was an instance of the browser(s) still running. Once
killed, I could launch the browser(s) again.

Your shortcuts are very cool. I just used them to make my own (although
I haven't had this problem in a long, long time). I tested out the
shortcuts, and they work great.

Thanks,.

"Bill in Co" wrote in
:

KenK wrote:
"Bill in Co" wrote in
:

KenK wrote:
Tried refreshing Firefox because it was so slow. Did so. Now almost
nothing
works. Can't switch to Gmail or Google. Refuses to do so. Says bad
insecure
site (or words to that efect). Back to Iron browser. I don't like
it either
- especially many web sites don't print completely. Can I return it
to non-
refreshed state?

Evidently I need a good browser. Tried Windows browser - won't run.
I follow instructions and get non-existant links.

I need a good browser. Which one?

Using XP Home, sp3.

TIA

I think your best bet is still with Firefox, which works fine over
here. It sounds like something else is going on with your setup.
Why don't you try uninstalling Firefox, rebooting, and then
reinstalling it, for a clean slate? (this is assuming your browser
is the culprit here, which may not necessarily be true, as something
else may be going on - perhaps even some malware)

Right. I restarted FF and the tabs all work again. Wonder what
happened? Still pretty slow but I'll be better able to tell when I
get back on line Monday. Quiting for the weekend now.

As for IE, I don't think you can use it on many sites anymore since
it's so old and unsupported. At least that has been my experience.
IE8 was the last version that works on WinXP, so you can't use IE11.
And like you, I'm still using WinXP.

I'll throw in one other idea, which may be a long shot: if this
situation just recently happened, you could alwsys consider using
System Restore to roll back to a date preceding this "event", to see
if that helps. That assumes you have a few such restore points
available, of course.

I don't know if I have any recent restore points. Haven't used
restore points in mamy many years. Pretty much forgot how they work.

Glad to hear it's working now.

As for System Restore points, the system normally creates them every
day, and depending on how much space you have allocated for them, you
will have several such dated restore points, which you could use to
roll back your system to (in case of some recent unfortunate event
messing up your system which you can't otherwise resolve). You should
be able to find System Restore in the Start Menu, under Accessories,
System Tools. Typically you might have a couple of weeks or so of
such restore points, and you can set the options there for how much
disk space to allow for them.

Now I'm remembering. Thanks.

I consider it a form of an insurance policy, although it is not as
good as is making a system backup (clone or image) on another drive,
of course. That is by far the best insurance policy.




I do that on the first of every month. I have quite a collection of them
on a large seldom used external drive.



--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.