I can't KILL (firefox.exe process under Win 7)

[ohland]

After upgrading to Firefox 36 recently, I've enjoyed a zombie process after the screen saver is activated after inactivity. What is left under Task Manager is firefox.exe *32 (244K), which is supposedly a 32 bit process under WOW. I can't kill it under task manager, either with kill process or kill process tree. Killtask /IM firefox.exe /F (also tried /PID wxyz in place of /IM firefox.exe) replies that the task has been terminated, but Task Manager shows that it isn't. Tried /T to kill child processes. (32 bit under Win 7 64 bit? Odd...)

Why the bother? Firefox uses a 0 byte file parent.lock to keep track of how many instances are running. So if that file isn't deleted on exit, Firefox thinks one instance is running already, so it won't load. Profiles.ini is another issue, tried doing an explicit path to the default profile, but that also locks up as well. Just tried setting

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0 (it was 1)

Let's see how this works.

PS. To those confused about what all this means, as long as the zombie process of firefox *32 is running, FireFox will refuse to come up until the firefox.exe *32 process is either killed (hahaha) or you hard reboot your system. VERY annoying. Oh, forgot, as long as the zombie process is running, Parent.lock and profiles.ini are locked, as they are in use by... firefox.exe *32.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

[Cmm_3940]

I quit using vanilla firefox because I find their recent design decisions to be annoying.

Take a look at Pale Moon:

http://www.palemoon.org/

it's basically Firefox without all the bloat and annoyances.

[khmer6]

Not sure about this issue. But try using pskill from the pstools suit. Most browsers are only 32 bit processes even on a 64 bit OS. I gave up Firefox years ago. Could try a complete uninstall and reinstall it. Just be sure to back up your profile database

[A pause for the COZ]

I quit using vanilla firefox because I find their recent design decisions to be annoying.

Take a look at Pale Moon:

http://www.palemoon.org/

it's basically Firefox without all the bloat and annoyances.

Hey thanks!!! Just what I was looking for.

[ohland]

Not sure about this issue. But try using pskill from the pstools suit. Most browsers are only 32 bit processes even on a 64 bit OS. I gave up Firefox years ago. Could try a complete uninstall and reinstall it. Just be sure to back up your profile database

Well, that makes two of us...

I tried a winternals app that identifies processes and it was the same result as task manager. NO difference, not even an error. firefox just sits there but won't respond. Grr.

Thought of the uninstall/install, tried a new install over the existing one, no, that didn't work. Not really fired up over the idea of stripping it down to the frame and reinstalling. BUT... this looks suspiciously like the results of code reuse.... (IMHO) the writers are not cleaning up the code, they just use the old libraries, maybe some new ones, and try to bludgeon their way through problems the old brute force way.

One day I will not be able to work around the programming kludges and it will be time to change browsers.

[ohland]

After watching the amazing Belle and the falling squirrel, I came back up, signed back in, and FireFox was as unresponsive as a frat boy after binge drinking...

[ohland]

Went onto the Mozilla site, seems to be an issue with Privacy Badger (and a few other apps) under 36 and 37 beta, or so it seems. Privacy Badger used to work well blocking scripts and now all it does is say "loading", other than that, no response from PB. Pity, it has some nice abilities.

[garandsrus]

You might want to download "rkill" and see if it will remove the process.

[ohland]

Changed over to pale Moon with Privacy Badger (from EFF) to stop most of the clutter. Rebuilding my links. Old set of bookmarks was ginormous.

Kill the Budda! The dead hand of the past is no more...

[Cmm_3940]

Pale Moon has a seperate tool on their website to automagically import all your extensions and bookmarks from Firefox...

[ph4570]

I terminated use of firefox as well. Currently using chrome.