Fixing a Vexing Firefox Problem

I found a simple way to work around a quirk that blocks one of the key things I want to do with Firefox. I often want to open a webpage in Firefox from a link in another program. The problem is, Windows tries to open a new Firefox window instead of just opening the link in a new tab in the window I already have open.

Firefox generates the error message, "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." This may be a result of my use of multiple personalities profiles for Firefox, but I want to be able to use them too.

That's not very user friendly. I frequently open external links in Firefox from my feed reader, notepad, web clipper program, etc.. It was imperative for me to find a way to open external links without restarting Firefox.

The solution was to wake up Windows. Instead of opening Firefox directly, I open an HTML file indirectly via Windows. Once Windows has been trained, all indirect links from external programs or shortcuts open in Firefox without complaint, assuming it is your default browser .

One easy way to do that is to open a blank HTML file indirectly via Windows, instead of directly with Firefox. (Any HTML file will do, but blank is more tidy.) You probably don't have a blank HTML file, so here's one you can download.

Save the file anywhere you like [In Firefox, click "File" > "Save Page As..." > navigate to the location you like > click "Save"], and then create a shortcut to it. Double-click the Shortcut, Windows will open Firefox, and tell Firefox to open the HTML file in turn.

If you save the HTML file to your desktop you won't even need a shortcut. Just double-click the blank HTML file. Or if you like, you can make a shortcut for the file and drag it to the Windows "Start" button so that it will show up in your Start menu.

Windows 7 made it even easier by introducing "Jump Lists". Windows 7 lets you "Pin" program icons to the taskbar. Now you can open programs directly instead of using the Start menu.

In addition, when you right click a pinned programs icon, you get a jump list, which is much like a context menu. In the case of Firefox, it shows a list of recently opened files. Notice that I have pinned Blank.htm to the top of the jump list. Clicking that item opens Firefox indirectly, and Firefox opens the blank page. Now all external links open in Firefox with no fuss. Simple.