User Experience Engineering

In setting up a new Windows XP 64-bit machine, I dowload a heap of Firefox addons, some old favorites and many new ones. The disadvantage to gorging on Firefox Extensions all at once? If something breaks, it's tough to identify the culprit.

How to Determine Which Firefox Addon is Causing Crashes

1. Restart Firefox in safe mode. Explorer C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Mozilla Firefox Click "Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode)". You may want to copy this shortcut to your desktop -- you will be using it repeatedly.
2. A dialog box opens. Click checkbox "Disable all addons" and button "Continue Firefox Safe Mode"
3. Disable half of the new Firefox addons. Tools Menu : Addons Click button "Disable"
4. Quit Firefox (Safe Mode). Make sure the process firefox.exe quits by Opening the Task Manager.
5. Restart Firefox in normal mode.
6. If the crash recurs, repeat steps 1-5, disabling more extensions each time.
7. If the crash does not recur: You have disabled the offending extension. Repeat steps 1,2,4 and 5. Replace Step 3 with "Enable half of the disabled extensions. Eventually, you will crash again, and you will know which extension caused it. Restart in safe mode and uninstall the bad extension.

In my case, the offender turned out to be the addon "Load Time Analyzer".

posted by Monte Hayward  # 8:38 AM