Firefox freezing on Windows XP (add-ons guilty?)

[trimadoubtplz]

Old PC (Windows XP) with these add-ons:

Adblock Plus
HTTPS Everywhere
Disconnect
Privacy Badger

Firefox freezes quite often while playing a youtube video (even at a low resolution).
Should I disable/uninstall any of these add-ons?

Tyfyt!

[DanRaisch]

Try disabling all extensions but one and then close and restart the program. (Disable them by using menu path Tools->Addons->Extensions->click on "Disable" for every extension but one.) See if the problem is present. If not, enable an additional extension and close and restart the application. Repeat this procedure until the problem reappears. The last enabled extension will be the cause of the problem.

[dfoulkes]

Also take a look at this extension to take the place of Adblock... works fine and takes up much fewer resources.

uBlock Origin :: Add-ons for Firefox

[Reflective]

Your best bet would be to download Firefox ESR which will full support Windows XP until early next year. Although FF52 will continue to be supported until September 2017 for Windows XP and Vista users, it only applies to security updates. This means all other components may not function properly anymore in those two operating systems. See this support page for more info: https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Install- ... ta-p/31270

You can download the ESR version from here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/ You'll need to install the 32-bit version though since 64-bit versions are only supported in Windows 7 or higher.

[trimadoubtplz]

I appreciate all your comments. The problem is that the PC is not mine, it is not currently with me and I have no opportunity to test which add-on might be causing the freezes. Do you have any guesses for my best course of action? BTW, I've read that Firefox ESR will be automatically downloaded.

[DanRaisch]

Best course of action is to test in Mozilla Safe Mode as suggested above. Simply installing the ESR version will not automatically resolve issues that are already present. It will only prevent those issues that would arise in the future due to newer versions of Firefox no longer supporting XP or Vista.

[therube]

Freezes, permanently?
As in you have to kill FF & restart it?

If so, check & see how much RAM FF is using when it is frozen.

[James]

Your best bet would be to download Firefox ESR which will full support Windows XP until early next year. Although FF52 will continue to be supported until September 2017 for Windows XP and Vista users, it only applies to security updates. This means all other components may not function properly anymore in those two operating systems. See this support page for more info: https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Install- ... ta-p/31270

You can download the ESR version from here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/ You'll need to install the 32-bit version though since 64-bit versions are only supported in Windows 7 or higher.

Bug#1319164 Message XP/Vista users to inform them that support/security updates have ended (2018 Q1)

The person who filed above bug made a earlier vague comment about support ending in Sept 2017 with nothing to go on and the article was written to say it ends in Sept around.

Firefox 52.8.0 ESR will be out when Firefox 60.0 is released as the ESR channel generally gets eight updates and not four.

It would be silly to drop support for WinXP/Vista as of 52.5.0esr, 52.6.0esr, 52.7.0esr, and 52.8.0esr as Fx 52 ESR is only for security and allowed stability fixes.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar
https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/faq/

[trimadoubtplz]

Freezes, permanently?
As in you have to kill FF & restart it?

If so, check & see how much RAM FF is using when it is frozen.

Sometimes the PC got non-responsive and we've had to reboot it those times. Last time the freeze was undone by just refreshing the page (at 240p, I think). We've had no issue since we got to 144p, but this resolution is clearly too low for a projection.

Thank you, I'll do that!