Firefox 1.0.7 to 1.5 RC3 failed

I downloaded the latest Firefox release candidate, 1.5 RC3, in order to try out the new features. I had tried the 1.5 beta releases but ended up just using the stable 1.0.7 release. I liked the 1.5 beta so I thought the latest release candidate would be nice to try out and see if the extensions I use would work out.

I didn’t uninstall 1.0.7 first because I wanted to see if the update would work. It didn’t. After running the installation for 1.5 RC3, I clicked the the Firefox shortcut but nothing happened. I checked the running processes (Windows XP Pro) and didn’t see firefox.exe listed.

The way I got it to work was to go into the directory that Firefox was installed in (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox) and delete all the files. Renaming the directory would also work but there wasn’t anything there I needed to save because extensions and bookmarks are held in the profile directory. After the files were deleted, I ran the 1.5 RC3 installation again. This time, it worked without a problem.

The latest version of Firefox seems to be a little faster than 1.0.7. All the extensions I use, Forecastfox, Web Developer, Gmail Manager and Tab Browser Preferences, all work without a problem. The IE Tab extension looks interesting because it embeds Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab so that you can view a page using IE without having to open IE in a seperate window. I haven’t tried this one out, yet, so I make no claims on how well it works.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. – Buddha

21.Nov.05 Browsers, Technology

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4 Responses to “Firefox 1.0.7 to 1.5 RC3 failed”

Lineman | November 21st, 2005 at 8:14 am
I didn’t have any trouble updating in Linux. Haven’t made the attempt in Windows yet.
Zarggg | November 21st, 2005 at 9:31 pm
In all fairness to Mozilla, they *do* tell you to install the RCs to an empty directory.
wyckedone | November 22nd, 2005 at 6:31 am
I know. I just wanted to see if an upgrade from a previous version would work. That’s why I didn’t rant about how awful the installation was but I did say how I fixed it (just in case someone else tries it).
Bryan Price | November 22nd, 2005 at 12:09 pm
I upgraded without any issues. A bunch of extensions won’t run, but I rather figured that.

Currently RC3 runs slower than how I was running my 1.0.7. I can’t say that I’m surprised. I’ve got all sorts of weirdness happening to my system now that I let my daughter on my system for one day. Sigh. An example is Bloglines. Clicking on the collapse button was instantaneous. Now it’s up to about 10 seconds. Of course, under 1.0.7, opening a new window (versus a tab) took longer to open than first getting Firefox to open. Winamp now dumps after playing from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, and Explorer today dumped on me (curiously enough, working with some music files…)

I’ve ran three different virus scans (not much to be found), a couple of rootkit scans, Adaware and Spybot. I’m clean, I just have something corrupted. And as I’m running 2000, it’s time I got running something a little more modern so that I actually don’t have to feel like a noob looking at an XP system. (Yes, the family computer is XP, but I rarely touch that one.)

This installation is 13 months old. I’ve got my eye on a 200 gig hard drive that goes on sale Friday, and so this weekend I get to a) rearrange my computer room, because it needs it, and b) install Server 2003 and use it as a workstation.