451947 - Firefox doesn't open with Sysinternals Desktops

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[David]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; es-ES; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; es-ES; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

Sometimes, if I close Firefox and I open it again, it shows the next message:

"Firefox ya se está ejecutando pero no responde. Para abrir una ventana nueva, debe cerrar antes el proceso Firefox, o reiniciar su sistema"

(Firefox is still running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing process, or restart your system.)

If I use "Desktops" (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx) I get that error every time that I try to open Firefox in 2 or more virtual desktops.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Desktops (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx)
2. Activate at least 2 virtual desktops
3. Open Firefox in 2 or more virtual desktops simultaneously.
Actual Results:  
I get the error I told

Expected Results:  
Open Firefox

Comment 1

[Kai Liu]

The problem lies with the fact that Sysinternals Desktops is preventing Firefox from detecting existing instances of itself.  This causes Firefox to spawn a new process instead of reusing the existing one.  The Firefox profile can only be used by one Firefox process at a time, so when a new Firefox process is spawned instead of the old one being reused, you have two processes trying to use the same profile, which is not allowed.

One solution is to find a different desktop virtualization app that doesn't hide previous instances.  You might want to give Microsoft's virtual desktop powertoy a try, but I don't know if that works on Vista.  The other options is to run subsequent copies of Firefox with a different profile.

The best, long-term option is to contact the Sysinternals team and let them know that their method of hiding previous instances can cause problems where multiple instances try to access an unsharable resource.

Comment 2

[David]

All right... but that problem appears too some times (apparently in a random way) when I close Firefox (without virtual desktops) and the process doesn't finish correctly (these times I must kill it from task manager)

Comment 3

[Kai Liu]

(In reply to comment #2)
> All right... but that problem appears too some times (apparently in a random
> way) when I close Firefox (without virtual desktops) and the process doesn't
> finish correctly (these times I must kill it from task manager)
> 

Right, Sysinternals Desktops is just one of many ways (other ways include failed shutdown) where you can get two Firefox processes trying to use the same profile.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This is a mass search for bugs which are in the Firefox General component, are
UNCO, have not been changed for 500 days and have an unspecified version. 

Reporter, can you please update to Firefox 3.6.10 or later, create a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles, and test again. If you still see the issue, please update this bug. If the issue is gone, please set the status to RESOLVED > WORKSFORME.

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply from reporter, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.

Comment 6

[reg]

Firefox version 65.0.1 (for 64-bit Windows), SysInternals 2.0.0.0, Windows 7 64 bit, the problem still persists, no solution for 11 years now.