Firefox 3.5 Starts Up Very Slow on Windows – Workaround / Solution

Do you face issues with the slow start up of Firefox after the recent upgrade? Sometimes Firefox 3.5 takes  long startup time of the order of 10 seconds to a few minutes. This is identified as a bug and is expected to have fixed in Firefox 3.5.1, in a few weeks time. mozillalinks has posted a tip as a workaround for this issue.

The procedure involves scanning some temporary folders looking for bits normally added by OS and other applications operations. Firefox 3.5 looks for more files and deeper (more subfolders) for increased randomness, but it has led to unexpected results for users with too many temporary folders or files resulting in slow startups.

Until the 3.5.1 with the permanent fix is out, you can follow the workaround mentioned below to have a noticeable improvement by deleting temporary folders and Internet Temporary Files.

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1. Delete all files from the following folders

On Windows XP and Below
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\History
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Recent

On Windows Vista / Windows 7
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
%TEMP%

2. Delete Internet Explorer Temporary Files
Go to Control Panel -> open Internet Options -> Browsing History tab, press the Delete… button, check all the options and press Delete.