Firefox Information

Mozilla Firefox is the web browser recommended by ENS, and is installed on all the ENS lab computers. You can obtain a free copy of Mozilla Firefox for your personal computer.

We've Customized It

On the ENS lab computers (including the Sun Rays, Thin Windows servers, and the Virtual Lab), we have a slightly customized version of Firefox. In our customized version, the profile files (including bookmarks, saved form information, and personal settings) are stored on each user's U: drive (or home drive). This allows you to have consistent settings, including bookmarks and extensions, no matter which ENS computer you sit down at. These customized settings can be applied to office computers as well; just talk to ENS about setting that up.

If you prefer not to use the customized version which saves your settings on your U: drive, you can use the non-customized version by double-clicking on the desktop icon that reads "Mozilla Firefox (local profile)".

A Solution to A Problem

On rare occasions when you try to open Firefox, you may receive one of the following messages:

"Firefox is already running, but is not responding..." or

"Your Firefox profile is already open on another computer..."

This can mean one of two things:

• You really do have Firefox open on another computer. When Firefox opens, it needs to have exclusive access to the files on your U: (or home) drive and so another Firefox session cannot also open. You can simply close the first Firefox session on the other computer or use the local profile option.
• Firefox was closed unexpectedly and the "lock" file which tells Firefox it has exclusive access to the files on your U: (or home) drive did not get removed properly. In this case, follow the appropriate procedure below.

If you are using Firefox on a Windows computer (even through a Sun Ray):

1. Open My Computer and navigate to your U: drive.
2. Browse to the mozilla folder, then the firefox folder.
3. Find the file named parent.lock, and delete it.
4. If you are unable to delete the file, contact ENS to have ENS delete the file.

If you are using Firefox on a Sun Ray and NOT Windows:

1. Open the File Manager or Command Prompt and navigate to the .mozilla/firefox folder on your home drive.
2. Find the sub-folder named with a random string of characters plus ".default" (example: jkd45adf.default) and navigate into it.
3. Find the file called .parentlock, and delete it.
4. If you are unable to delete the file, contact ENS to have ENS delete the file.