You're using a development version which has alpha quality, and as the name suggests, is updated daily. It is not meant for production use in any way. Use the release version if this is a production system. The current release version is 24.6.0. Version 31 will be released very soon.

I started using Nightly because about a month ago after a Windows update TB ver 24 would whilst using it stop responding I would then have to end the task (Task Manager) and start TB again It would only then only work for a few minutes then freeze again This update also affected Firefox and I then started using Nightly and have not had any problems using this since installing Nightly I am using Windows 8.1 on a Toshiba Satellite A850D

The Nightly development channel builds of Firefox and Thunderbird are meant for Testers and devs and not meant for regular use.

They get checkins almost everyday so therefore there is a update each of those days. Occasionally there can be regression issues with some checkin(s) that can last for build or longer until it is either fixed or reverted.

The bug in question should be solved with today's Daily update. However, I'd agree with the recommendation to go with 31.0 once it's coming out next Tuesday, or at least use the beta versions (once per cycle) as a compromise between stability and getting the more recent features and platform updates.

I will limp along and ignore the update message and also have a look at what google has to offer