Help! Firefox Won’t Open More Than One Window
I had a problem. Okay, I have more than one but for today we are only going to focus on just this one. Help! Firefox won’t open more than one window.
I could not convince Firefox to open more than one window at a time. After many, many days of working on my Mozilla Firefox I finally found out why I can’t open more than one (1) window. The Skype Firefox Extension v. 2.2.0.102 is blocking it. Here is how I narrowed down my Firefox error choices:
- Ran Firefox in safemode to see if I still couldn’t open a second window http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)
- Created a new user profile and checked if the error still happened http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows
- Ran through some standard diagnostic Firefox steps from here http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox
- Checked for any problematic extensions from this list http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions
- Uninstalled, restarted and then re-installed Firefox (please back up your your profile info first)
- Ran Firefox is safe mode again and checked Disable all add-ons, Reset toolbars and controls and Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)
Finally I was able to open another window in Firefox. I added the add-ons back one at a time in order of importance:
- Java Quick Starter – installed automatically with a Java update
- AVG Safe Search – installed automatically with AVG
- SEO for firefox – http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
- ScribeFire – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730
- FireFTP – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684
- Delicious Bookmarks – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615
- Google Global – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5977
- Google Toolbar – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6249
- Google Notebook – which has now been discontinued but I still have some research items in it
- OnlyWire – http://onlywire.com/
- PingFire – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8365
- Download Helper – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006
- Search Stats – http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/
- Thirty Day Challenge Toolbar - http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com/challenge/26355
- and then the Skype Extension for Firefox v. 2.2.0.102 – which blocked the 2nd window from opening. All I had to do was to disable or uninstall this add-on and Firefox worked beautifully again
The moral of the story is that if you are also having trouble opening another page with Firefox you might want to check your add-ons and your themes. Sometimes these can work against each other. I wonder…why can’t we all just be friends?
If you have found other causes for Firefox to not open a second window please leave a comment and let us know what it was and how you fixed it. Thanks in advance for your input.
Together we are making the internet a better place. 
P.S. I am running Firefox 3.0.7 with Windows XP
Popularity: 51% [?]
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thanks man.. had the same problem and solved it the same way… thanks a lot
Thank you for this guide. I recently downloaded Skype 4.0 and could not for the life of me figure out why my Firefox was not opening a second window.
Thank You! I did a restore, a reinstall (of firefox) and nothing helped until I read this page. I immediately disabled the Skype extension and I can open multiple windows again. Not that I do it often, but sometimes it’s helpful. Thanks again!
Wendy Merritt
Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Dave, You are very welcome. It was so frustrating to me when it happened I just knew somebody else out there would have it happen to them too. I’m glad to have shortened your time of irritation.
Blessings,
Wendy
Hi,
Thanks a lot for this report. It helped me to understand why I had this mistake. For me it works again since I’ve uninstalled the Skype extension. I can now again open a second window. Great!
Have all a nice day,
Balinoudel
Wendy Merritt
Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Balinoudel, You are very welcome. Happy to have helped you in some small measure.
Blessings,
Wendy
wow …thanks so much – that saved my a lot of pain and grief trying to figure it out
all the best to you…
Vicky
Thanks !!
I uninstalled Skype add-on and I could open more then one window,
I had the same problem but did not have Skype installed.
One of the below caused this error on my PC:
Download Helper
PDFescape Extensions
ZoneAlarm Toolbar
Skype was not the cause of this problem for me. This problem also impacted some of the menus… some items on the Tools menu would not display.
On my Windows 7 box it was my recently updated HP Printing software that caused the problem: “HP Smart Web Printing 4.60″. I guess it is not too smart after all.
Thanks for the posting it was a huge help.
Blessings…
Wendy Merritt
Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Bob, thanks for sharing how you fixed your Firefox problem. I’m sure your solution will come in handy to someone else.
Blessings,
Wendy