Firefox copy/paste issue

TyphoonTycoon · Post by **TyphoonTycoon** » July 19th, 2006, 3:43 am

I've checked repeatedly for Trojans, spyware and the like and have not been able to detect any viruses let alone this infamous 'pushow' trojan. I've even tried this on a totally fresh install of windows XP and can still replicate the problem. At the moment, I'll try and retrain myself to use CTRL + N and new window rather than launching from the start menu as I have always done (I'm regularly needing to switch away from Firefox to other applications and often the quickest way to launch a new Firefox window when you are in another application is to go to the start menu and click on the Firefox shortcut).

I should also reiterate that this bug can also come about even if you click on a link which spawns a new firefox window.

Mikeyd · Post by **Mikeyd** » July 19th, 2006, 6:47 am

Hi,

I had this cut and paste bug when FF upgraded itself (without asking my permission I might add) from 1.5.0.1 to 1.5.0.2. The problem I had was in intermittent failure of the cut an paste facility as described here, including the edit menu items being greyed out and the inappropriate context menus others have noted. I tried renaming the FF executable with no effect. I have no files whose names begin with pushow on my system and have run 3 different virus scanners with negative results. I upgraded to first FF 1.5.0.3 and then FF1.5.0.4, both these upgrades had no effect on the problem.

The workaround I used for a while was when c&p failed to paste into another program (usually notepad) then c&p would start to work again in FF.

In the end I removed FF completely and installed FF 1.5.0.1 from the file I had originally installed it from. Result : Problem gone !

Phew !!

DIAGNOSIS : Release 1.5.0.2 introduced a bug in FF which has persisted through to the current version. Please can someone regress the 1.5.0.5 source tree to be exactly the same as 1.5.0.1, after this check that the problem is still gone. The by adding back in all the recent changes one at a time, checking as you go it will ensure the cause becomes known.

Thanks,

Mike

Post by **trolly** » July 19th, 2006, 7:12 am

A bit much work. You have to check 1337 bugs - at the moment - and probably a much higher number on individual checkins. This would last months and no one has the time for that.
You can always try FF 2.0 Beta 1 to check if the bug is gone.

FlyingPenguin · Post by **FlyingPenguin** » July 19th, 2006, 10:12 am

I usually refuse to install Betas of anything, but in the interests of trying to resolve this I will probably install the beta on my main workstation this weekend (after making an Acronis image of my boot and apps partitions) and see what happens.

I went ahead and rolled back my older "Front Porch" P3-700 laptop to FF 1.0.8 last night to avoid the issue on that one, and to which also (pleasantly) improved performance in FF dramatically on that older system (BTW those of you who also want to roll back to 1.0.8 - most of the older versions of the most popular extensions have older versions archived that work with 1.0.8 (newer versions don't). I found older copies of SpellBound and FlashBlock with some quick googling last night.

I too would like to state - as others have - that while I'm a die-hard FF user, and truly love it, I feel Mozilla needs to take care not to let it get code bloated. It's a beautiful app, but please keep the code streamlined. One of my original attractions to FF 3 years ago when I switched was how much faster it loaded, and loaded pages compared to IE. I think FF has lost that edge lately.

I will report back on the results of upgrading to the 2.0 Beta release.

Thanks for your time.

TyphoonTycoon · Post by **TyphoonTycoon** » July 19th, 2006, 11:02 pm

I've install the Firefox 2.0 beta and have tried to replicate the situation I have outlined and have not been able to do it, so this is a promising sign.

I'll continue to use the beta for this period and see if it comes about again. Fingers crossed that it doesn't.

raptorion · Post by **raptorion** » July 22nd, 2006, 11:39 am

I've also been having this sporadic bug, and I'm relatively sure my PC is spyware free.

Related Issues:
I've noticed that when copy/paste functionality goes down, the arrow keys also stop working (i.e., I can't use up/down arrow to scroll in the browser). Also, if I am typing in a form field, and I press the apostrophe key (single quote), it acts as the "Find" hotkey and opens the find bar at the bottom of the browser window (this behavior is only appropriate when NOT in a text entry field).

Anyway, I hope these related issues can help someone trace down the root of the problem. Cheers go out to the Mozilla dev team for all their hard work.

-p

largemilkyway · Post by **largemilkyway** » July 25th, 2006, 5:29 am

If you follow these you will be able to copy information and paste it into a word document using firefox. I am not responsable for any lost data if you do this its at your own risk. But it does work

1. Important! Close all Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer windows.
2. Run "regedit.exe"
3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
4. On the right-hand side you should see a String called “AppInit_DLLs” with a value of “pushow*.dll” where * is a random number.
5. Right-click on this String and click Delete and then exit regedit.
6. Open "C:\windows\system32\"
7. In that folder there is a file called "pushow*.dll," where * is the random number you saw above. Delete all pushow*.dll files.

cheto4493 · Post by **cheto4493** » July 27th, 2006, 11:09 am

I've had this problem since I started using FF. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. I find mine is related to arrow keys not working, and / and ' not working while in text boxes such as this forum reply box. My main fix is that when one of these items is messed up, I go to TOOLS>OPTIONS and then hit the OK box without having to change anything. I go back to the text box and all is fine. I've checked for trojans/spyware checked for the "Pushow.dll" -it isn't on my system but yet the problem still is.

Post by **trolly** » July 27th, 2006, 12:36 pm

@cheto: This looks more like the FAYT (Find as you type) bug which seems to be a focus problem.

krick · Post by **krick** » July 29th, 2006, 6:30 am

raptorion wrote:I've also been having this sporadic bug, and I'm relatively sure my PC is spyware free.

Related Issues:
I've noticed that when copy/paste functionality goes down, the arrow keys also stop working (i.e., I can't use up/down arrow to scroll in the browser). Also, if I am typing in a form field, and I press the apostrophe key (single quote), it acts as the "Find" hotkey and opens the find bar at the bottom of the browser window (this behavior is only appropriate when NOT in a text entry field).

This is exactly what I'm seeing. It's unbelievably frustrating. It still happens in 1.5.0.5. I can't deal with this bug anymore. I'm going to try going back to FF 1.5.0.1 and if that doesn't fix it, I gotta give up on Firefox and go back to IE.

Lost User 84957 · Post by **Lost User 84957** » July 29th, 2006, 9:21 am

I've never experienced this bug using ff 2.0a2 ff 2.0a3 ff2.0b1. That differs from old Firefox behaviour. So I suppose the issue has been resolved.

FlyingPenguin · Post by **FlyingPenguin** » July 29th, 2006, 9:48 am

I used to have the copy/paste bug. I've been using the FF 2.0 beta for a few weeks now and am happy to report that the bug appears to be gone.

The beta also seems very stable. Most of my favorite extensions (now called add-ons) have been upgraded to work with FF 2.0:

DownThemAll
FlashBlock
BugMeNot
IE View Lite

Spellbound doesn't work with it but since 2.0 has it's own spell check it's not missed.

RBLevin · Post by **RBLevin** » July 31st, 2006, 5:04 pm

Try installing the AutoCopy extension. It seems to fix this bug.

krick · Post by **krick** » August 1st, 2006, 1:20 pm

RBLevin wrote:Try installing the AutoCopy extension. It seems to fix this bug.

Nope. It didn't fix it. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Jamespeters · Post by **Jamespeters** » August 2nd, 2006, 8:11 pm

raptorion wrote:I've also been having this sporadic bug, and I'm relatively sure my PC is spyware free.

Related Issues:
I've noticed that when copy/paste functionality goes down, the arrow keys also stop working (i.e., I can't use up/down arrow to scroll in the browser). Also, if I am typing in a form field, and I press the apostrophe key (single quote), it acts as the "Find" hotkey and opens the find bar at the bottom of the browser window (this behavior is only appropriate when NOT in a text entry field).

Anyway, I hope these related issues can help someone trace down the root of the problem. Cheers go out to the Mozilla dev team for all their hard work.

-p

MY GOD! You have outlined exactly what I've been going through for months and months!!!

You need to understand that I am a VERY patient and layed-back man, but this bug has been able to turn me into a monsterous freak. I go crazy: I start steaming, smashing the mouse and keyboard, and start looking around the room for things to destroy. It has brought me to tears of frustration.

Please for the love of God, fix this error!!! I can only imagine what so many other users have gone through. At first, I tried to search it out on the net, but found nothing - I thought it was just a problem with my installation, but it's been here upgrade after upgrade. The only coping mechanism now is switching to a different application and back, which fixes the problem (until the next time).

I see that the 2.0 beta may have fixed this issue. Man I hope so, because this is a huge issue for the whole Firefox project.

I understand I shouldn't bitch since it's free and yada yada, but you can't expect Firefox adoption with a problem like this.

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