Leery of Firefox

It might have been even longer than that. I downloaded from mozilla, through a redirector as I recall. But I really can't say for sure. It may not even have been 1.5. Maybe I should wait until the final version is out or maybe wait a little longer and see what IE7 is all about.

I've been using Firefox as my primary browser for well over a year, since version 0.8 was released, and used it occasionally before that. In all this time I've experienced numerous browser crashes and errors (though none so far with version 1.5, which came out a little over a month ago), but never anything that extended to Windows crashing or unrecoverable errors. Thus, I find it hard to believe Firefox was the culprit, though anything's possible. I'd suggest giving Firefox another try, downloading it directly from Mozilla's new site by clicking here. I have no doubt you'll have a better experience than previous, and if you have any questions we're always here to ask.

As to IE7, I've been using it for a while (currently in Beta 1 for developers) and am so far unimpressed. While it does have built-in tabbing and a few other features, it's pretty much the same old IE with a few modifications to make it seem more like Firefox. However, with limited third-party support, continuing security issues, and a lot of bugs that still need worked out (at this point it has problems that IE6 doesn't), Firefox's position is pretty much secure. If you want to get a look at it yourself, you can expect a public beta (Beta 2) available in February, with the final release coming sometime later this year. (I believe they're shooting for this summer, before the launch of Windows Vista.)

Hope this helps,
John

Hello jayfin

I can see why you would be reluctant to try Firefox again. It's not usually that troublesome though. Do both computers have a good amount of memory? Firefox can sometimes be a bit demanding in that respect. This might account for the troubles. Other than that, I can't think of much that would cause difficulties almost right from the time Firefox was installed. The uninstallation problem is a mystery too. It usually will uninstall easily and cleanly.

Could there have been any other factors with the computers that may have caused the faults? Perhaps older generally well used OS installations where, over a long period of time, a number of programs have been installed, tried out then uninstalled? That kind of thing might have a bearing on matters.

As far as memory, both computers have 512MB; my computer was fairly well used and a number of programs were installed and uninstalled and in some cases reinstalled. But my wife?s computer was newer and had very little in the way of software on it.

I need to clarify my act of uninstalling Firefox via Safe Mode. I might well have been able to uninstall it without going through Safe Mode. It is just my opinion that when something is giving you trouble, it is best to go through Safe Mode.

If you want more info about my computer it is located in my profile.

Jayfin

Uninstalling Firefox using Windows Safe Mode is a way of doing it but it's not usually necessary. In normal mode, uninstall using Add/Remove Programs and restart the computer (even restarting isn't particularly needed but I usually do it). When the computer boots back up, manually delete the Mozilla Firefox folder in 'C:\Program Files' and the Mozilla Profiles folder in Application Data. Firefox is pretty much gone after that.

I haven't tried totally uninstalling the latest version of Firefox (1.5) but a change in the default location of the cache is worth noting.

Cache location in 1.0.7

C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default

(xxxxxxxx represents a random string of letters and numbers)

Cache location in 1.5

C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default

So the mozilla folder containg the 1.5 cache may also need deleting manually.

Thanks Charles,

I think I will probably stay with IE since I am familiar with it, and with any of its quirks. Familiarity is important to me. I am still using MS Office 2000 (even though I have 2002)because I am familiar with it and when I tried the newer version, I had problems trying to figure out things particularly in Excel which I use all the time.

John