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When I try to open "Start Tor Browser.exe" the error message

"Firefox is already running, but not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

It appears that I don't have any Firefox window open and in the taskmanager there is no Firefox process until I try to open Tor. The process is firefox.exe and the description says "TorBrowser". When I close the error message this process disappears. I read in other questions, that this problem is connected with Tor being installed in the "program files" folder, but I installed it in a different folder on the hard drive.

Yesterday I installed the newest available Version of Firefox (i.e. 28.0) and of the tor-browser-bundle (i.e. 3.5.3). Yesterday I could use it without problems. Then I hid the folder and turned off the computer. And today it didn't work no matter if the folder was hidden or not. I also tried to restart the computer.

I'm working on Windows 7 64 bit. Does anyone has an idea how I could solve this problem or what the cause could be?

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  • What do you mean when you say "The Browser Bundle is the newest version as well as Firefox". Please elaborate on what version of TBB and specially what version of Firefox you are referring to?
    – Roya
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 21:26
  • I also had same problem with Windows 8.1 when installed in c:\program files(x86) To resolve the problem simply lunched the application with Administrative right and it worked.
    – user3365
    Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 14:24
  • Run as an Administrator helped me!
    – user3633
    Commented Sep 13, 2014 at 7:21

7 Answers 7

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The tbb does not need to be installed like forefox. And you do not need firefox installed to use tbb. When you get this message I would open up the task manager (right click on task bar, click task manager) click on programs and look for multiple versions of firefox. It could be your regular version of firefox is running in the background in an attempt to run an update. Look in your startup folder (click start >> programs>> startup folder) and see if firefox is in there (it shouldnt be) Instead of hiding the tbb folder, you could just download the latest version each time you want to use it and throw it in the trash after you are done.

Another thing you can try is right clicking on tbb and selecting 'run as administrator'

I'm not sure what method you are using to hide the folder but that could be something to look at next.

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When I see that error message, I remove Firefox's profile lock. Here is the link to the website I found the solution from: http://www.howtogeek.com/131004/how-to-fix-the-firefox-is-already-running-error/

This works for me every time. The connection to this website is not encrypted however!

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I had this same error. Start Tor browser. Finish, then close it. Second time to try start it, I got that error. It appears the browser wasn't properly stopped. Task manager was used to stop all Tor processes, and it then worked again. It didn't make sense, but someone suggested I move the bundle location from the desktop to another location, and I haven't had that problem since.

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Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) has a version of Firfox embeded in it. You do not need to use Firefox version 28.0 with it. Actually it does not use Firfox version 28.0. I believe somehow you thought you need the latest version of Firefox (version 28.0) per your question to run Tor Browser Bundle (TBB). All you need to do is to download TBB and execute the "Start Tor Browser.exe" file. Do not do anything with Firefox. Wait about 30 seconds or so and TBB will open its own version of Firefox for you automatically.

P.S. sometimes it may take longer than 30 second for TBB to open its own version of Firefox specially if it is the first time you start the newly downloaded version. Be patient.

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You more than likely opened Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) twice. Close Tor, and reopen it. That should solve the issue.

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Tor browser uses two executable files at once, and if one of these is running, but not the other, the Tor browser displays that same message for me when I try to start it up. (Sometimes when I close Tor Browser, it ends one of these processes but not the other for some reason.)

To shut down the processes, open the task manager, click the "Processes" tab, and find "tor.exe *32," and end the process, also find "firefox.exe *32" and end it.

Since you've said you restarted your computer and now have this problem (usually restarting the computer ends both of these processes), I would guess that torouter is correct in saying that you have a background process of firefox trying to update or something like that, and you will need to end it, too.

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ctr alt delete than click that manager or whatever is called. click services and find Tor and Firefox and close them.

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  • In the question it is stated: ...in the taskmanager there is no Firefox process until I try to open Tor. The process is firefox.exe and the description says "TorBrowser". When I close the error message this process disappears.
    – pabouk - Ukraine stay strong
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 10:08

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