I started Firefox and it started downloading an update. It’s not supposed to do that, I had it configured to “ask every time”. So I hit escape. Bad idea.
Now it won’t try to run, shows a message about “cannot find firefox.exe.” When I look for firefox.exe in the Firefox folder it isn’t there.
Fortunately I have a basic version of Explorer on the computer and I found the Mozilla page to download legacy versions. I use Win XP so I’m not looking for the latest versions. I thought I had version 43 but looking at the release date it seems pretty old. I did try a newer version once and immediately went back to my old version.
So is there a file somewhere to shows what version is (or was) installed? Any recommendations for a version that runs well on Win XP?
If the firefox.exe file is gone, the only possibility to find the version would be to do a system restore. But those will have other side effects.
You’re honestly better off running the latest Firefox that runs on Windows XP: Firefox ESR 52.5.0. You can get it here. Get the 32-bit Windows version in your preferred language.
There are some changes from Firefox 43, but not so much that I think there would be a problem. And you really shouldn’t run older versions of web browsers if you can help it. This will allow you to stay up-to-date until July of next year. The updates should be quite minor and not mess anything up.
After that, I believe browser support for XP will be dead. No more updates, no new versions. Of any browser.
I’m using Firefox 42. And I immediately embarked on a scorched earth policy to prevent updates, by finding the file containing the channel=update info — within a few seconds of installing, because Firefox is so vile they try to force updates immediately no matter what you’ve instructed [ and particularly always if you ever go to ‘About Firefox’ to check the version number ] — and changing the channel to nothing.
So. Find your Mozilla directory, which contains your profile[s]. Leave it there but make several copies for luck, just in case.
Uninstall Firefox.
Reboot
Install the version of Firefox you prefer. Check your profile was picked up. At the very worse you may have to install all your extensions over again.
You can always try other private variants of the open-source browser, which mostly stick to the good old ways, than which there is none better.
I like IceCat, but PaleMoon and WaterFox are OK. WaterFox only runs on 64bit, which is unlikely if you’re using XP, but try a number out.