FireFox running , but Invisble... Help please!!!

[Abraxas]

I have a major problem . It's to do with FireFox, and I can't figure it out.
I'm going to sound like an idiot maybe, but I'll try to list whats happened and maybe some one will be able to make sense of it all and kindly offer some advice.This has turned out like a small novel, sorry . 
1. System is a P3 (666Mhz cpu) / 256 RAM / 10 GB HDD / Win XP sp2 Pro . All MS updates .
Avast! Home, Zone Alarm free , Ad-Aware SE , Spybot S&D , SpyWare Blaster.
O.K. I installed the full trial version of Ewido security suite , and found it seems o.k. 
It has a guard , like resident protection, but it didn't conflict with Avast! so I left it enabled and had no probs.
 
2.An  Ewido System scan detected a saved FireFox profile as having 6 infected cookies .
I was sceptical but put them in quarantine . A few days later, after Ewido had updated a couple of times, I scanned the FF profile in quarantine, and cookies came up positive again. As I'm new to Ewido I didn't know whether the fact that no other scanners detected these cookies; ( Avast! , AsQuared, spyBot, Ad-Aware se, Trend micro "sysclean", Dr.Web Cureit on demand scanner ) , meant Ewido was showing  a false positive.
I used "Mozbackup" to make the profile backups initially.
So I "restored " the profile and ewido detected it again. I quarantined again. I put the profile in a folder on the desktop and scanned it, came up positive with Ewido So I deleted the profile. Thats when everything started falling apart.
I had  3 other saved FireFox profiles / (MozBackup) which didn't show up as infected after scanning.  Firstly I used Mozbackup to restore the most recently saved FireFox profile backup I had. Then I had to re-configure my internet connection as  wasn't able to get online .   I did a sytem restore ( ahhhh !!! ) Restarted a few times during all of this, after each change to system settings. The system was hanging after Sys.Restore.  Ran Chkdsk , Defrag , then deleted FireFox 1.0.7 completely, and Ewido suite. FireFox is broken now, even after re-install  There's more going on than I can figure out .
 
Have two accts. , Administrator , and my personal profile , which is part of the Admin group anyhow, and has all my personal settings. Before deleting Firefox (latest version ) , and after re-configuring my Internet connection I went into administrator profile and tried running FireFox there. It worked .
It ( FireFox ) didn't run in my personal user profile with Admin. rights though !
Also I've been running an app. called DropMyRights which runs in between shotcuts to programs which access the Internet. I had IE , Outlook Express and Mozilla Firefox set up with DMR. There's been no trouble with it . It makes a program loose Admin rights so if a virus / trojan gets in it can't act with Administrative rights.
Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator
 
With a small HardDrive, 10 GB , have to be careful of disk space so I dont generally use the Administrator account. it's there by default in pro ; Plus I'm new to XP pro, as you can tell and are really stuck. I also restored a "sytem state backup" from 4 days ago, off a CD  I made  before installing Ewido , with no resulting sytem fix.

3. Cleaned all saved FF profiles , and the registry of FF and Ewido ...So I re-install FireFox 1.0.7. , from a disk I had saved  it to. What I noticed before deleting it was that the task manager said Mozilla FireFox was running ? Nothing was showing though . Nothing at all ! This was after double clicking the desktop/ Start Menu shortcut. I had to stop it running with TaskManager, as FF is invisible. Tried running  it with DropMyRights and without.
Thought a re-install would fix this , but it hasn't. Downloaded a fresh setup file from Mozilla also . 
All the deleting and re-configuring and killing of processes ( I've killed something else it seems ); was done in my user profile, which is part of the Admin. group which shouldn't matter. I'm alluding to some ADMIN. setting in My user Profile being wrong. Not sure what's going on, I don't think I ever had an infection, I've deleted Ewido suite. I've stuffed something up in the process of all these changes. Internet Explorer works , Outlook Express , all programs , except no visual display of FF. I try it and nothing happens , except a tiny flicker in the Taskbar.
FireFox is running now , as I'm using Internet Explorer and posting , says; "Task Manager/ZoneAlarm & Winpatrol". I can't see a GUI though .
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

 

[Lisandro]

Sometimes, although, Firefox crashes and it keeps running in background. Not invisible, but into Task Manager you can kill it.
Using the Safe Mode link for Firefox I could return to use it. Maybe you can remove some extra extensions (the general problem) or even Themes.
But, ok, it's strange 

[DavidR]

Ensure that you remove firefox completely, including the program folder and the profile folder, usually in the "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles" folder. Then I would suggest that you run a registry cleaner to ensure every last reference is removed.

If you don't get rid of the profile and program folder you will inherit any potential problem from either the profile settings or extensions.

Hopefully starting from a clean slate should resolve the problem.

[polonus]

Hello Abraxas,

A thing that can work is delete the shortcuts to the program, and re-establish them (copy from within the program to the desktop).
Not everyone knows that cookie programs and programs managing cookies as such, only work and look for the IE cookie folders. FF has another system. Use a cookie manager inside FF like cookieculler and you can manage them inside. Or you can manage the cookie file, which is a text file, empty it, when reopening FF sets another cookie from its opening page and leaves the folder empty. I have found for instance that Ad-Aware only looks after IE cookies and does not bother with those of FF. For general info on cookie handling in FF see:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/psm/help_21/using_priv_help.html

greets,

polonus

[Abraxas]

Hello Tech, DavidR & polonus. Thanks for reading all that and for all the useful information 
It seems that somehow I've messed up the Admin. and user settings , which are pretty complex on Win XP pro.
I've been happily running FireFox in My personal acct. for months .
After tidying up the registry and re-installing Fire Fox I can Run FireFox in The Administrator account. If I go to my User acct. and use the shotcuts it Runs, as I see in the TaskManager, but doesn't launch. It's in the Administrator account that it would be "visible" as far as operational , Gui etc. So using the Normal method of clicking a shortcut  in  My user means having to Kill FF in Taskmanager, . Not a good idea if done too often.
Therefore ...
Done a lot of reading and can Launch FireFox in My User account.
This from the windows help file:
To start a program as an administrator.
1. In Windows Explorer, click the program executable file that you want to open.
2.Press SHIFT and hold, right-click the program icon, and then click Run as.
3.To log on using an Administrator account, click The following user.
4.In User name and Password, type the Administrator account name and password that you want to use.

This a crazy way to Run FireFox. Opening Win Explorer: Click on FireFox .exe / Hold Shift / Right click & select Runas / select Admin profile/ type password . Then it's launched and running .
Running a Browser with Admin. rights is a Big No No !!!
Will look into the advice you guy's have offered and figure it out , I hope ...
Thanks .

[Abraxas]

DavidR

Ensure that you remove firefox completely, including the program folder and the profile folder, usually in the "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles" folder. Then I would suggest that you run a registry cleaner to ensure every last reference is removed.

If you don't get rid of the profile and program folder you will inherit any potential problem from either the profile settings or extensions.

Hopefully starting from a clean slate should resolve the problem.

You were absolutely right  DavidR
It's done , you'd be surprised how many locations Firefox inhabits, or maybe not 
I figure 2 hours of "Cleaning" with Jv16 Powertools , within Admin account ,and User acct. , plus another hour searching / deleting manually, another hour of reading about Admin & User settings and configuring , and Firefox is fired up and working well ! Hell I learn't a lot 
"DropMyRights" and the job will be complete. 
polonus:

Not everyone knows that cookie programs and programs managing cookies as such, only work and look for the IE cookie folders. FF has another system. Use a cookie manager inside FF like cookieculler and you can manage them inside. Or you can manage the cookie file, which is a text file, empty it, when reopening FF sets another cookie from its opening page and leaves the folder empty. I have found for instance that Ad-Aware only looks after IE cookies and does not bother with those of FF. For general info on cookie handling in FF see:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/psm/help_21/using_priv_help.html

I use CCleaner or Winpatrol to cleam cookies beforehand , I'll check out cookieculler as you suggest .
Thanks for your support guy's.

[DavidR]

Your welcome.

I'm a little late but you could probably have used this as an opportunity to install the firefox 1.5 RC1 (release candidate 1) version, not technically a beta version usually the one before final release in a few weeks.

I've just read a short write up (Scot Finnie's newsletter) on should I install 1.5 RC1 and the general consensus is yes.

[Abraxas]

I'm a little late but you could probably have used this as an opportunity to install the firefox 1.5 RC1 (release candidate 1) version, not technically a beta version usually the one before final release in a few weeks.

I've just read a short write up (Scot Finnie's newsletter) on should I install 1.5 RC1 and the general consensus is yes.

Something to look forward to.