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Firefox 3.5 and Win7-x64

post #1 of 11
12/7/09 at 11:42am
Thread Starter 
Note: this applies to users of firefox 3.5 and windows 7 x64.

There is a known bug in firefox 3.5 where if you do any modifications to firefox's "Private Browsing" settings, such as set them to all on, or even to customized settings, windows explorer will stop working if you right click on anything. I am putting this up on the board because it happened to me and for the better part of a week I thought there was something severely wrong with my system.

Here's the documentation:

Mozilla Support - Firefox

MozillaZine Article

Bugzilla Article

Currently, the best workaround is to go to Firefox 3.0.15, which, because it does not have private browsing, will not make windows 7 systems crash, per source #1. Firefox 3.6b4 has the same problem, however Mozilla claims to be working on it as well.

Just a PSA for windows 7 users to look out for this.

Jason
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post #2 of 11
12/7/09 at 1:33pm
Have you tried first 3.5.5 under Safe Mode? Then reviewing the add-ons? I had to disable a few add-on relating to the menu bar to make in order to get a stable environment.

Adding note: Currently using Minefield 3.7a1pre with no issue on W7 Professional Premium 64bits.

cheers ...
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post #3 of 11
12/7/09 at 2:21pm
Thread Starter 
it's an issue with the firefox itself. There's a bug that pertains to the way the clipboard in MS and FF3.5 interact that cause the explorer.exe crashes. I know this b/c i called Sager for days on end haranguing them about it until I found this problem on firefox's bug site.

3.7 may not have this problem, but 3.5 has it, and 3.6b4 does too. This is with zero add ons as well.
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post #4 of 11
12/7/09 at 2:28pm
Good catch then. Let me try again on my Gateway the next few days on 3.5.5 with the current add-ons that I am using on 3.7

Any particular things that I need to pay attention to bag it? Number of tabs/windows? Certain sites? Streaming video watching? ...

cheers ...
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post #5 of 11
12/7/09 at 2:32pm
Thread Starter 
qhn

set private browsing to on or custom settings, use it for a bit, then close it, and right click about randomly. That should trigger "windows explorer has stopped working" and send your win7 reliability rating to the basement.
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post #6 of 11
12/7/09 at 5:46pm

FF 3.5.5 issue!

FF 3.5.5 issue!

Ok. This is what I experienced. Testing on Vista Home Premium 64Bits and Windows 7 Professional 64bits; machines P-7811FX/Acer 7738G; Avast on Gateway, MSE on Acer; standard Windows firewall and defenders.

. 3.5.5 - Installed with all current Addons and Themes/Turn on Private Browsing and turning it off as suggested.
- instability found as described, but at random.

. 3.5.4 - same as above, after completely removing 3.5.5
- ZERO issue after 1 hours plus of usage.

Observation:

- 3.5.5 definitively has an issue

- 3.5.4 is clean

cheers ...
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post #7 of 11
12/7/09 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
FF 3.5.5 issue!

Ok. This is what I experienced. Testing on Vista Home Premium 64Bits and Windows 7 Professional 64bits; machines P-7811FX/Acer 7738G; Avast on Gateway, MSE on Acer; standard Windows firewall and defenders.

. 3.5.5 - Installed with all current Addons and Themes/Turn on Private Browsing and turning it off as suggested.
- instability found as described, but at random.

. 3.5.4 - same as above, after completely removing 3.5.5
- ZERO issue after 1 hours plus of usage.

Observation:


- 3.5.5 definitively has an issue

- 3.5.4 is clean

cheers ...
I got it with all 3.5 versions.... dunno why though.

Jason
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post #8 of 11
12/8/09 at 7:13am
I am stumped here Jason. Earlier in the office we ran over 30 minutes test with 3 other 64bits machines (2 Vista and 1 W7).

One Vista we could not duplicate the issue on 3.5.5, the other 2 had the issues as we discussed here. But once cleaned out of 3.5.5 and replacing it with 3.5.4 the issues disappeared.

The machines are HP.

cheers ...
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post #9 of 11
12/8/09 at 9:57am
Thread Starter 
I think it's a sporadic thing. There were days where the problem didn't come up at all, and there were days where it wouldn't stop coming up. It really was sporadic in how it did things. I'll have to look further, but I figured to put it up as a PSA for Win7 / FF users that you may find big problems with 3.5.5 and Win7.

BTW: Vista apparently doesn't have this problem.

Jason
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post #10 of 11
12/8/09 at 12:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ganzonomy View Post
I think it's a sporadic thing. There were days where the problem didn't come up at all, and there were days where it wouldn't stop coming up. It really was sporadic in how it did things.
Agree that it is a sporadic event, but it seems that many FF users have reported it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ganzonomy View Post
I'll have to look further, but I figured to put it up as a PSA for Win7 / FF users that you may find big problems with 3.5.5 and Win7.
Absolutely the right thing to do.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ganzonomy View Post
BTW: Vista apparently doesn't have this problem.

Jason
I did some more researches this morning after yesterday tests, and it seems that Vista 64 bits users have reported this issue a few months back. So I have to say again that the current 3.5.5 FF definitively has an issue with 64 Bits.

cheers ...
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post #11 of 11
12/17/09 at 12:34pm
Firefox 3.5.6 seems to have addressed (fixed) the issue(s). Tested on both Vista and Windows 7 64 bits with the above scenarios and have yet to counter any side effects.

cheers ...
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