How did you learn of an update? A pop-up?

For the last five months, an epidemic of Fake Update Notices have been popping up all over the place. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/i-found-fake-firefox-update

You may have ad / mal-ware. Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.

Many thanks, Fred. I will follow your suggestions. As usual, I'm the last one to find out anything!

Seems to me that in the last few months I have taken other Firefox updates, but this is the first problem I have encountered. In the future, how can I tell if a Firefox update is legit?

Firefox updates from within itself. If you ever get an update notice for anything, close it. Then check with the website of the true owner of the program. Ex: Mozilla, Microsoft, Adobe . . . . . . . .

Ran the malware programs, allowed Superantispyware to delete all cookies. No other invaders were found. Hope there are no further problems. Thanks again for your assistance!

Give it a few days. If everything works out,

Hello,

I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, please select the answer that solves the problem. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution more easily.

Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.

Well, I think I shot myself in the foot. After running the debugging programs my issues with Firefox were not resolved, so I did the "refresh Firefox" thing. I did take note of my one add-on (uBlock Origin) so as to replace it, but I have lost all my bookmarks. are they recoverable?

Follow-up- just discovered the bookmarks are not lost, they just do not appear across the top of the page as before. Now trying to figure out how to restore them.

Follow-up to follow-up- just now got b-marks restored to the top of the page. Time will tell re the original issues, I'll post back.

Good luck.

FredMcD said

Good luck.

Thank you. Currently seems to be ok, even though no malware found, just 50+ cookies.

With some time having passed, I see that the original issue of multiples of web pages' opening is still happening. There do not seem to be any other problems and no invaders were found after running the previously mentioned cleanup programs. I'm now wondering if this is a glitch in the latest version of Firefox (49.0.2).

This is an option. Look for the directory of the version that you want. Install an older version of Firefox {web link} But remember that old versions may have security issues.

FredMcD said

This is an option. Look for the directory of the version that you want. Install an older version of Firefox {web link} But remember that old versions may have security issues.

Thank you, Fred. Since nothing bad seems to be happening, I think I'll just put up with the multiples as they are not disruptingly frequent anyway.

Slowpoke47 said

This week I accepted a Firefox update

Since then I have had various browser issues, including multiple loadings of tabbed sites and intermittent lack of response to input- dialog boxes, etc

You may have ad / mal-ware. Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.

Slowpoke47 said

Since then I have had various browser issues, including multiple loadings of tabbed sites and intermittent lack of response to input- dialog boxes, etc.

Slowpoke47 said

With some time having passed, I see that the original issue of multiples of web pages' opening is still happening.

Could you describe this in more detail -- what are the steps leading up to getting multiple copies of the same page in different tabs (if I am understanding what is happening)? For example, does it occur when clicking a link (with or without holding down the Ctrl key), or using the address bar, or a bookmark, etc.?

The glitches do seem to be only occasional since running the malware scanners a while back. The glitch usually consists of two instances of Firefox opening in response to my Firefox tray icon, or a similar double response when opening a tabbed or bookmarked site. Also, but rarely, I have right-clicked and opened a page in a new window from the context menu, and when I later close it using the red button on the upper right, Firefox closes also, leaving only the desktop.

I have already run the scanners as previously suggested by Fred, as well as bookmarking the Firefox malware article. These glitches are minor in nature, and I can live with them unless there is a reason to go further.

My thanks to both FredMcD and jscher2000 for the assistance.

Have you checked what your homepage / startup page settings are?

FredMcD said

Have you checked what your homepage / startup page settings are?

As far as I can tell, everything looks ok, also I have not changed anything there that would correspond time-wise with the subject of my initial question.

What should I be looking for?

Type about:preferences#general<enter> in the address bar.

There are two settings;

• When Firefox Starts

When the browser is started, what do you want to display? Many of us choose Show My Home Page.

• Home Page

When a new page is opened, what do you want to be displayed?

1. Use Current Page. Use what ever page(s) are open at that time.
2. Use Bookmark
3. Restore To Default. about:home shows a Mozilla home page with tools.

You can use any of these that you wish;

about:home (Firefox default home page), about:newtab (shows the sites most visited), about:blank (a blank page),

or you can enter any webpage or about: page you want.

Thanks for your suggestions. I took care of those selections when I first started with Firefox a couple of years ago or so. Used the Options icon in the upper right and ran down all the choices, including history, cookies, etc.