# Firefox Issues with Vista **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308 "2010-01-17T12:33:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/1 "2010-01-17T12:33:39Z")
This isn’t about the message board per se, so I figured this should go here. Every so often, after I’ve had Firefox open for a while and I’ve closed it … when I try to open it again, I get a dialogue box going on about, “You already have Firefox running, please close the previous application before continuing,” and pretty much my only alternative to get back into Firefox is to re-boot. I’m wondering if anyone else has run into this. And if so, … um … what the hell is going on? ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/2 "2010-01-17T12:51:12Z")
I actually get the same kind of thing occasionally in Linux. What I think happens is even though you shut it down, there’s still something running. Go into “task manager” and find it on the applications tab & end it. Then you’ll be able to restart Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/3 "2010-01-17T12:55:22Z")
Actually, I had an after thought to my problem, but I haven’t checked it out. I know that nothing shows up in the task list – first thing I checked – but I didn’t look to see if it was in the Running Processes list. I’ll have to see if that’ll do next time it happens. Even still … not a very elegant solution. Get Bill Gates on the line, I have a bone to pick. ---
**Author:** ![Wallflower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Wallflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallflower)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/4 "2010-01-17T13:21:24Z")
nevermind ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/5 "2010-01-17T16:32:41Z")
It happens to me occasionally. I have to close it through the task manager (running processes) maybe once a week. I don’t know what causes it. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/6 "2010-01-18T10:49:12Z")
This happens a lot on my laptop - nearly every session and it’s fuggin annoying. Need to open the task manager to open firefox. I’m more inclined to blame it on my system, though, as the laptop is getting a bit past it. If there was a simple fix to stop it happening in the first place I’d love to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/7 "2010-01-18T13:24:16Z")
It happens to me almost every time I shut down Firefox. It just leaves the process running in the background and I have to manually terminate it before I can re-start. It’s mildly annoying but I haven’t really been motivated to try to hunt down solution (yet). ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/8 "2010-01-19T01:54:21Z")
In my case it’s just firefox having all its memory being deallocated, and when it finally clears it all out the process disappears. I usually find that it was taking up 500+ MB of ram, and it takes a while for it to dwindle down. But I can see the memory decreasing until the process finally goes away on its own. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/9 "2010-01-19T02:14:10Z")
Which Vista are you on? I’m on the 32 bit version, and this has never happened. On UNIX when it happens you sometimes have to delete a lock file, but I haven’t had this issue in quite a while, ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/10 "2010-01-19T02:57:37Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > This isn’t about the message board per se, so I figured this should go here. > Every so often, after I’ve had Firefox open for a while and I’ve closed it … when I try to open it again, I get a dialogue box going on about, “You already have Firefox running, please close the previous application before continuing,” and pretty much my only alternative to get back into Firefox is to re-boot. > I’m wondering if anyone else has run into this. And if so, … um … what the hell is going on? I’ve gotten this problem quite a few times, my solution is always to open the task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and then go over to processes, scroll down to firefox.exe which is usually down there somewhere, and end task it. It may take me one or two tries of clicking on it and then I’ll get the pop up saying “are you sure you want to” and i say yes. It’ll then close firefox.exe, and then I can just click on firefox to restart it. Much easier than rebooting the computer. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-issues-with-vista/525308/11 "2010-01-19T04:51:57Z")
I just upgraded from XP to Windows 7, and I’ve had it happen on both systems. On my old, slow laptop it was a nuisance, and Firefox would sometimes take a full minute or two to actually be finished after I closed it. Now on my sleek new laptop it still does the same thing but finishes up a lot quicker, so it’s not that big an issue.