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Question

Firefox issue - Container.exe

Aug 6, 2016 8:50AM PDT

I am running Windows XP, SP3 on an older computer. I cannot upgrade without replacing the computer, which is definitely due, but not in the budget. My question is, why am I receiving messages saying that Container.EXE has encountered a problem and has to close (which apparently crashes Firefox)? I find this very annoying. Is there any fix for this? I also get a message every time I boot up the computer that says (simply) "Failed to run service." with an OK button. What isn't being run, or how do I find out, and is it related to the container.exe problems?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I just took an older XP laptop all the way to Windows 10.
Aug 6, 2016 9:04AM PDT

It was a Dell Inspiron e1505 with 2GB RAM. Since it's from 2006 and a slow HDD I snagged a bigger SSD 120GB for 30 bucks from Amazon. The office had a spare W7 license so the Dell got its BIOS up to date and then I installed W7. So far so good.

I took the W10 upgrade and it's running great without any driver hunts so I'm good to go.

Boot time is 33 seconds from power on to a google result from Firefox.

As to your issue, Firefox from what I've read isn't supporting that OS anymore so try cleaning off Firefox and all Firefox addons and Firefox folders then install the last version that supported XP but don't install any addons. Do not install Flash support.

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Firefox - container.exe issue
Aug 6, 2016 1:35PM PDT

I'd like to give that a try, but does anyone know what was the latest version of Firefox that supported XP? I just went to Firefox Help to find out what version I have and, surprise, it is downloading an update. I have version 47.0.1 currently. Which brings up another question - if I roll back to an earlier version, how do I keep it from automatically updating itself? I have a Dell Dimension 3000 with 2 gb ram and a 60gb hard drive with 14gb free. I took the online test to see if my computer would handle the W10 upgrade and it came back a resounding "No". It wouldn't even take W7.

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I had to go check it out.
Aug 6, 2016 1:49PM PDT
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-no-longer-works-some-versions-windows-xp says SP3 is required

I don't look into this very often but just did.

As to your W10 comment, the test came back with a resounding no but after the BIOS update, SSD and actually running W10, it's quite the fast PC now. I see new PCs that can't boot and get on the web in it's fairly blazing 33 seconds.

I know folk that won't spend a dime on their old PCs. Shame.