397562 - Firefox loads & runs with default features when launched by another application

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Ocie Hudson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7

When I click on a URL hyperlink or use a feature of another application such as Thunderbird to launch Firefox, it loads with what appears to be the default configuration.  Only the Navigation toolbar is loaded, the back/forward arrows are on the extreme left, there are no buttons for extensions, and the Google search field follows the Location field.  If I then reload Firefox, it displays   the same features as if I executed it via the Start Menu (Navigation & Bookmark toolbars, Google search feature on the Bookmark toolbar under the Location field of the Navigation toolbar, and buttons for many of the extensions that I use, etc.).  This behavior began after I upgraded from version 2.0.0.6 to 2.0.0.7.

NOTE:  if Firefox is already loaded and running, then it will open a "tab" for a  hyperlink, irrespective of whether a tab is appropriate, instead of launching another instance of itself.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Execute Thunderbird.
2. Find an e-mail message that contains a hyperlink.
3. Double-click on the hyperlink to load and execute Firefox.  NOTE:  if FF is already loaded and running, then it will open a "tab" for that URL, irrespective of whether a tab is appropriate, instead of launching another instance of itself.
Actual Results:  
As described in Details above.

Expected Results:  
That Firefox will load and run with the features and their configuration that I have specified, as it does when run from the Start Menu or desktop shortcuts.

I use the default Firefox theme.  There are no error messages or other indications of an error state, excepting, of course, the appearance and features of Firefox itself.  The remedy is to reload Firefox, but it is possible that it will lose the location it is initially displaying.  In that case, I'm not sure that it will be on the History list.

Comment 1

[Ocie Hudson]

Most often I launch Firefox from an application called BOINC.  BOINC is a "manager" for the Climate Prediction Data Network (CPDN) climate model that is being executed by my computer.  That is, I run boincmgr.exe, which runs boinc.exe, which runs the "CPDN monitor" which then runs the climate model program itself.  A feature of BOINC is a menu which has entries such as "Help Desk" and "User Forum".  These are, of course, hyperlinks to websites, and selecting one of them launches Firefox (if it is not currently loaded and running) to access the corresponding website.  But in that context, Firefox is not loaded with the configuration that I ordinarily use, but what appears to be the default configuration.  I have to use the File/Reload feature to get the normal configuration.

Comment 2

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

re: comment 0 step 3, opening a link is not a double click.

I don't know of any way to start FF in a "default configuration" except by defaulting to or specifying a profile at startup time. And you haven't supplied any links that cause you trouble. 

And if you are missing FF UI then you've got something funky going on that you *really* should seek help first in a support forum 
http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/

If you still see problem after trying FF3 and results of consulting support then please reopen the bug.  For now this sounds like a configuration problem, => invalid

Comment 3

[Ocie Hudson]

So far, I have not found the problem to occur while using Firefox 3.0.

FWIW, recently I inspected the entire Windows XP (SP3) directory/subdirectory tree of C:\Documents and Settings\.  It's a wonder that either Firefox or Thunderbird finds any, let alone all, of the data files that it _should_ be using.  This leaves one to wonder just which sets of data files _are_ the ones that they should be using (as well as to wonder just which sets of data files that they _are_ using).  Why are there subdirectories for multiple profiles when the software has never had more than one person using it?  I doubt that "support" can either answer that question, or correct the cause if they did find it.

If "opening a link is not a double click", then what happens when somebody does double-click on a hyperlink??  In my experience with almost all of the non-game software that I use, a double-click is necessary to do just about anything and everything.  A single click is, usually, simply ignored.  I've always thought that a rapid double-click is normally required because any toddler can make a single click with a mouse.  In effect, a single click is an accident waiting to happen.