How to reset or refresh Firefox
Browsers can be customized; you can change the way they look by installing themes and you can add or extend features by installing add-ons. Firefox is no different. In fact, Firefox offers users access to more customization options than most other browsers.
Reset or refresh Firefox
Browsers are often the target of malware. Malicious apps will hijack a browser. The infections are hard to get rid of and most users will have to uninstall and reinstall the browser to fix the problem. This is why browsers now have a reset or refresh feature.
Reset/refresh vs clean install
A reset/refresh is different from a clean install. It resets every single configuration to the default configuration. It will also remove all add-ons. It will still use the same profile folder and some of the same configuration files. It isn’t quite the same as a clean install and it may fail if the browser is too damaged.
The information stored will be deleted though you can recover it if you have sync enabled in Firefox. You will have to sign in again to your Firefox account to sync the data again. It is worth mentioning that if the malware synced to your profile, it may come back.
How to reset or refresh Firefox
Firefox has the reset/refresh feature built-in. It offers a simple GUI for resetting the browser.
- Open Firefox.
- Click the hamburger icon at the top right and select Help from the menu.
- Select More troubleshooting information from the sub-menu.
- On the page that opens, click Refresh Firefox at the top right corner.
- Confirm you want to refresh Firefox.
- The browser will close and re-open.
- When the browser opens, Firefox will be refreshed.
New profile folder
Firefox will create a new profile folder but the old ones will still be there. When you set up the browser again, the new profile folder will be used. If you’ve removed the malware from your system, the new profile folder should not be infected again.
Conclusion
If your system or your browser has been infected, you should remove the source of the infection before you start fixing the damage that has been caused. Once you’ve removed the infection, run a full system scan to make sure no residual files are left from it. They can interfere with the repair or they might infect the system all over again. If your browser was infected, make sure you scan the profile folders that it created.
