Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/invisible_firefox

Comment #425

2012-03-05T16:18:01Z

Thanks, Conrad. It is a sad reflection on the current spam situation that I almost deleted your comments because the second was laudatory. Usually a commenter who praises my blog also wants to sell me fake designer handbags, counterfeit passports, or worse. But your comments were actually related to the post topic, so I took the time to determine that you are a real person. :)

Comment #424

2012-03-04T10:23:12Z

I just read about your site, woah. I knew there was something about the way your FireFix Invisible Window question was just so thoughtfully worded. (And solved.) `It's not about winning the argument, it's about progress` - is something I have now got to take away with me to work on Monday as well.

Comment #423

2012-03-04T10:13:49Z

Thanks for the Alt-Space hint. That sorts it for me. I just had to select maximize. To shrink the window again once this problem has struck, the only way is to drag the title bar, the minimize option puts you back in trouble otherwise. Thanks for this quick and clear cause plus solution.

Is considering writing a script to just reset or restore the X and Y when they get toasted.

In my case I suspected the problem was remote-desktoping software causing pain, since I don't use a docking station... But turns out I do someimtes plug a monitor into my laptop for LCD presentations :-(

Comment #422

2011-11-07T16:33:33Z

In my case I could see that when I tried to restore it appeared to be going down below my start bar in Vista. So I tried using the Move command for the window as suggested with the arrow keys and it moved right up.

Thank you all.

Comment #421

2011-09-20T10:11:10Z

Thank you very much, PdA.

Comment #420

2011-09-20T01:08:16Z

OK, let's try again:

Based on what is suggested above, here is one solution that worked for me:

CLOSE Firefox.
Open localstore.rdf in Notepad.
Near the beginning, my file contained:

RDF:about="chrome://browser/content/browser.xul#main-window"

               screenX="-32000"  

               screenY="-19"  

               width="885"  

               height="799"  

               sizemode="maximized"

Reset screenX= and screenY= to zero.
Save the file and restart Firefox.

Comment #419

2011-09-19T10:33:58Z

Sorry, PdA, we seem to have lost the rest of your post. That sometimes happens if you include html that is either incorrect or one of the commands not allowed here.

Comment #418

2011-09-19T03:08:25Z

Based on what is suggested above, here is one solution:

Close Firefox.
Open localstore.rdf in Notepad.
Near the beginning, my file contained:

Comment #417

2011-07-31T20:30:46Z

WOW, I had this problem and tried the many things suggested to me all over the place and this finally helped. Seems the page had ended up shrunk to next to nothing and I was fiiiinally able to get at it. Thank god, since it was the one for my school paper.

Comment #416

2011-06-17T17:51:54Z

After scrolling through the program windows with Windows+Tab or Alt+Tab, stop at Firefox, then press the F11 key. That at least gets you in there till you do whatever maintenance or saving you have to do. But the localstore.rdf fix did the trick for me also. Thanx.

Comment #415

2011-04-08T12:29:27Z

In my case the problem turned out to be a window off-screen, and fixing localstore solved it in a tangential manner. But for the future, and in the name of the many folks who end up here with Firefox problems, I thank you.

Comment #414

2011-04-08T11:45:43Z

I found deleting localstore.rdf to be the cure. In gratitude to this forum, here's a link explaining the source of the problem:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Corrupt_localstore.rdf

Thanks!

Comment #413

2011-03-28T00:00:34Z

I had the same problem with only a notebook running Windows 7 Starter involved and through trial and error found out that I could bring back a visible display of the window by opening Firefox twice. Once my homepage and window was visible again, I closed the first window.

This just happened and so I don't know whether it is a permanent fix but it is working right now.

Comment #412

2010-11-02T22:49:14Z

It has nothing to do with FF. Go to control panel, screen resolution, where it says "multiple displays", select "show desktop only on 1". That did the trick for me.

Comment #411

2009-12-24T17:45:30Z

I had a similar problem and through this post quickly realized it was because I just set up a new TV as a second monitor. And of course FireFox was opening on the TV and seemingly broken due to 'invisibility' on the monitor. I may have eventually thought of this but I was going to try re install FireFox until I spotted this post. Thanks to the OP.

Comment #410

2008-07-17T11:35:05Z

This has nothing to do with Firefox, but I'm putting it here so I can find it again. Some of my programs open windows on the alternate screen that have no accessible taskbar button. In that case, use ALT+SPACE then M then arrow keys to move the window onto the laptop screen. (This won't work if the window is maximized on the alternate screen. In that case, first use ALT+SPACE then R, then ALT+SPACE then M.)

Comment #409

2006-09-04T17:24:12Z

UPDATE: YES! The problem happened yet again, and this time Porter had an inspiration, one that solved the problem and explained why the system "broke" somehow between a normal shutdown one day and a normal bootup a few days later. The critical piece of information is that sometimes the laptop is used freestanding, and sometimes in a docking station. More to the point, the docking station has its own monitor, so that Porter can use a double-screen desktop. The Invisible Firefox (or IE, or whatever) Probem occurs if he exits a program that is displayed on the external screen, and at some later point used the laptop outside of the docking station, or with the external screen turned off. This explains why the invisible program was acting as if it was offscreen -- but I couldn't drag it back onscreen. Windows can be dragged from one screen to another, but ONLY if they are not minimized or maximized.

Recovery procedure: (1) If in the docking station, turn on the external monitor; problem solved. (2) If away from the docking station, right click on the taskbar button to reveal the shortcut menu; choose "Restore." This may have to be done more than once, until the "Move" option is available on the shortcut menu. When you can choose Move, do so. Then use the arrow keys to drag the window back onto the laptop screen. Whew!

Comment #408

2006-08-31T21:02:13Z

UPDATE: The problem happened again, with no apparent cause, only this time it affected, in the same way, both Firefox and Internet Explorer. This time I didn't reinstall Firefox, but just added a new profile, which worked. Then I tried replacing various files in the corrupted profile with ones from the good one, and the offending file was "localstore.rdf." I haven't figured out what to do with IE yet, nor what might be causing the problem.