452463 - Using Vista, Firefox drops a whole bunch of files/icons on the desktop and leaves them there even after Firefox is closed.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 302087

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Dave Mora]

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

Some example file names: places.sqlite, compreg.dat, XPC.mfl, 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open Firefox on Vista.
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
This Toshiba laptop is less than 10 days old. I download the latest version of Firefox. It successfully installs and once I either minimize the window or close Firefox, there are all those files, about two dozen of them. I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times. This is happening on one of the computer's user's account, "Admin," but if I switch users to Guest, it doesn't happen for that user.

Expected Results:  
No stuff left behind on my desktop when I use Firefox.

As above.

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Installer doesn't do anything with profiles which is what is happening here... over to startup and profile system for further triage

Comment 2

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Firefox apparently thinks that your desktop is your profile folder.
What if you create a new profile? Click Start -> Run and type firefox -p
If you want a different location then default, first make a new empty folder on that location.

Comment 3

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#Make_a_new_profile

Comment 4

[Dave Mora]

Hi,

I did make a new profile and it did remove all the files from my desktop, BUT... I don't know how there could be a connection yet, subsequently, files not related to Firefox also were removed, not only from my desktop, but the entire hard drive (personal Word docs, 4000+ pictures, iTunes, etc.).

I can restore them from a backup, but they just disappeared apparently...

Any thoughts?

Comment 5

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

I should have warned you more explicitly about the danger that the Profile Manager would delete the whole profile folder (in your case the desktop) but it didn't cross my mind. I thought you would reuse those files in your new profile and delete them manually from your desktop.

I think this is a case similar to Bug 278230, Bug 340457 or Bug 302087.

Comment 6

[Dave Mora]

Uh...yeah, that (warning) would've been very helpful. :-)

thx.

d.