Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

[badcam]

I upgraded my Father's PC to TB3 and that seemed to work fine, but now all of a sudden, he's getting two instances of TB open on start up. I have TB set in the Windows Start up menu. Even if I start TB manually I get the same result. I had Minimze to Tray plus installed, but disabling and then uninstalling hasn't made a difference.

If I go into Windows Task Manager there is only ONE instance of TB running. If I right-click one of the TB windows in the Taskbar and choose Close, one of the Windows closes and everything is as it should be. But, a restart just results in the same problem.

Here's a picture:

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5020 ... tances.png


Could someone please tell me how to stop the second instance. Thank you.

[tanstaafl]

No idea. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Run_multiple_ ... _same_time decribes how to
run multiple instances, but I doubt you accidentally set the environmental variables required to do that.
See if there is a lock file in the profile when no copies of Thunderbird are running - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use

If that doesn't help I suggest you uninstall Thunderbird on your Fathers PC and download the setup program, and re-install it. A automated upgrade sometimes doesn't upgrade correctly, though I haven't heard of your symptoms when that occurs. . Uninstalling does not delete the profile, which contains your mail, settings, address books etc. If you're worried, back it up first using Mozbackup. http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

[jivago_rey]

I have exactly the same problem. Ugraded to 3.1.2 and now, when I click my shortcut (Don't worry, I'm not a noob, it's not a dbl click problem..), it kinda opens 2 instances of Thunderbird

Look : http://a.imageshack.us/img835/9818/tbirdproblem.jpg

[jivago_rey]

Hey I fixed it! In fact, there's only 1 instance of Thunderbird but two windows who try to proceed at the same time at startup.

I noticed there was 2x "MinimizeToTray Plus" icons in the taskbar. MinimizeToTray Plus doesn't exit the program so it is impossible to really get rid of that second window... Here's what I did ;

1. Disable "MinimizeToTray Plus" in menu "Tools/Add-Ons/"
2. Exit Thunderbird (Be sure that the process is not running)
3. Open Thunderbird (In my case, I had the same two windows problem the first time)
4. Now Thunderbird runs without the MinimizeToTray Plus add-on.
5. Close one of the window.
6. Re-enable your "MinimizeToTray Plus" add-on
7. Exit and restart

Voilà!

Somewhere in the registry I guess, the software remembered it has two Windows and MinimizeToTray Plus prevented me (the user) to close one of these. Hope it will work for you guys.

[Guest]

Thanks jivago_rey, this worked for me!

[mistaknly]

@jivago_rey

+1

Worked for me too with MinimizetoTray Revived.

[nemopeti2]

Thanks!

It worked mee too.

[tanstaafl]

I added a "Two MinimizeToTray Plus icons in system tray" section to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Run_multiple_ ... _same_time

[the dood]

PERFECT!! thanks

[ucandog]

My thunderbird version 3.1 just started opening two copies when i click on the shortcut or the start menu. one shows my google calender and task list,the other doesn't. they work and sync but why two all of a sudden. i don't have the minimize to task bar add on so hoping someone can help me figure it out. i did roll back to when it was working fine with system restore as i am running xp

[Cin Ruhi]

It seems to be working. Thanks.

[Guest]

My thunderbird version 3.1 just started opening two copies when i click on the shortcut or the start menu. ... they work and sync but why two all of a sudden. i don't have the minimize to task bar add on

I have also just had the two Thunderbird windows problem, and I have no Minimize to Taskbar add-on. Running windows 7.

Also noticed that it seems to be running slowly or lagging, and I noticed that folders were not being highlited as I dragged messages into them... strange behaviour

[Tiago Keim]

Thank you, jivago_rey!

[wsmwk]

My thunderbird version 3.1 just started opening two copies when i click on the shortcut or the start menu. ... they work and sync but why two all of a sudden. i don't have the minimize to task bar add on

I have also just had the two Thunderbird windows problem, and I have no Minimize to Taskbar add-on. Running windows 7.

Also noticed that it seems to be running slowly or lagging, and I noticed that folders were not being highlited as I dragged messages into them... strange behaviour

there have been rare reports of this happening if you start thunderbird from quick launch

[Quickie1001]

Thank you for the excellent fix!