Section 2.6. Help

2.6. Help!

Of course, anything made by humans is going to be imperfect, and Firefox is no different. Problems will crop up with the browser, and it's important that you know how to resolve them.

2.6.1. Installation Gotchas

Installing Firefox shouldn't present any issues at all. If something with the installer doesn't worklike, for instance, you click on the installer and nothing happens, or the installer crashes while it's installing Firefoxyou're probably dealing with a bad download. Throw the installer in the Recycle Bin and download a fresh copy. It should work.

If it doesn't, you have two choices: have a friend download the installer and burn it to a CD or drag it onto a storage device for you (these days, I prefer a USB flash drive), or order an installation CD from the Mozilla Organization. You can place your order at http://www.mozillastore.com/products/software/firefox. It costs only $5.95 (cheap!), and it will benefit a good cause, so you might want to go this route anyway.

About the CD

In addition to Firefox, the CD also includes the complete Mozilla Suite (the Mozilla browser, email program, address book, and web page composer), as well as Thunderbird, a free, open source, email client developed by the Mozilla Organization to complement Firefox. Thunderbird is a great email program, and I highly recommend that you try it out.

If neither the installer from your friend nor the Mozilla Organization's CD works, you have bigger problems than just a Firefox issueit's time to call in your local Windows expert for a gander at your machine.

2.6.2. Firefox Won't Start

If you install Firefox but it won't open when you double-click on any of the program's icons, try starting it from the command line, using the instructions I provided earlier in this chapter in Section 2.3. If Firefox will start from the command line but not when you click on an icon, you need to right-click its icon, choose Properties, and change the installation path to the one you used on the command line. Hit OK and then click on the icon again, and you should see Firefox open before you.

If Firefox still won't start, uninstall it (go into the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, then find and remove Firefox) and install it again. When that's finished, try opening the program again. If it still won't open, you need to follow the advice I gave in the previous section about a bad installer. If a fresh copy of the installer doesn't help, I'm afraid that you've got Windows problems, not Firefox problems, which means a visit from someone who can fix Windows.

Startup help

If Firefox used to open but won't any longer, you should take a look at the mozillaZine article, "Firefox : Issues : Firefox Won't Startup," found at http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Firefox_:_Issues:_Firefox_Won%27t_Startup.

2.6.3. A Little Help from Your Friends

Don't forget that there's a community of developers and fellow users out there who can help you. When you post a question or bug report, stay calm and provide as much information as you can when you ask for help. What operating system version are you using? What version of Firefox are you trying to install? Have you ever had Firefox installed on this computer? If so, what version? Did that version work, or was it problematic as well? Are you upgrading Firefox, or is this a clean install from scratch? What have you already tried as a fix?

To find these communities, see the Section 1.9 at the end of this chapter.