Can't open Mozilla Firefox

[oldberkeley]

My daughter has a Lenovo T510 Thinkpad using Windows 7. She downloaded Mozilla Firefox from the Mozilla site. When she clicks on the icon to open it, this window appears:



“Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.”


We uninstalled it and tried again, same result. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[MilesAhead]

What type of account does she have? It may not have sufficient privilege to install programs. Try installing Firefox for all users, from your account.

 

[ShamrockRig]

Yeah it basically means its either a broken/old shortcut or firefox isn't installed on the pc

 

[oldberkeley]

It's her laptop, she is the user, she has installed programs before with no problem.

Any other specific suggestions?

 

[ShamrockRig]

Does she have admin rights then yes?
You can go into the programs list and see if its def installed by doing start>control panel>uninstall a program.
Note: we aren't trying to uninstall anything, just seeing if its there or not.
You can also check by doing start>Computer>C drive>Program files(x86 and just "Program files) and check that way

 

[oldberkeley]

Yes, it is installed. As I said in my original message, we even tried uninstalling it and then reinstalling it.

It is installed, but when we try to open it the "windows cannot access..." window appears.

 

[ShamrockRig]

hmmm, strange, can you go into the directory where it is installed and run it from there?

 

[oldberkeley]

I'm afraid that I'm not very computer-savvy, and I don't know how to do that.

 

[ShamrockRig]

Look at post #5 and follow 2nd set of instructions(bottom of post) and see if you can locate it there

 

[oldberkeley]

Tried it from there, the same "cannot access" message appears.

 

[MilesAhead]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html

After doing that tutorial, right click on Program Files (x86) in Explorer and click Take Ownership. If it still won't start then right click on the Firefox shortcut, click Properties, Compatibility Tab, Run As Administrator. It seems every OS after XP is touchy about letting programs access files in the Program Files folder trees.

I just had to do the same thing on Windows 8. Programs could not write files in their own install folders.

Edit: Just a precaution.. do not run Take Ownership on the Windows folder as would happen if you ran it on the entire C: drive etc... Just the Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders. It recursively acts on every contained subfolder.

 

[ShamrockRig]

When that message appears, it means you do not have the rights to access it aka you dont have admin rights.

System accounts and their restrictions aren't my strong point but il look into it for you, bit busy at the moment so it'll be around half an hour before i get back to you cheers

 

[oldberkeley]

Milesahead: I looked at the Take Ownership info and I'm afraid that it is more than I am capable of understanding and comfortable doing (I'm not a computer person.)

 

[cottonball]

oldberkeley,

Give it a whirl, an easier way...

Click on the Download icon.
A Save as... prompt appears.
Make sure you save the file to the Desktop, and click on: Save

On the Desktop...
Right-click the downloaded file, and select: Extract all

In the prompt that appears, look at the area that says: Files will be extracted to this folder
Make sure the entry shows the following, except it will have your User name (your daughter's) instead of mine:
C:\Users\cottonball\Desktop\Take_Ownership

If the above location is not what is showing, use the Browse button to get to it.

Once you have the Desktop as the destination, press: Extract all
The files are extracted to a folder on the Desktop, and it is named: Take_Ownership

This folder should open on its own, and there are 2 files contained in it:
Add_Take_Ownership is the one you want!

Right-click Add_Take_Ownership, and select: Merge
Agree to the prompt to do so.

Now, right-click Start, and select: Open Windows Explorer
On the left side of the prompt that appears, click on the C: drive to open it
Look for: Program Files

Right-click Program Files, and select: Take Ownership

If you have any problems with the above, just post back on what is happening,
and we will get you there...

 

[MilesAhead]

Milesahead: I looked at the Take Ownership info and I'm afraid that it is more than I am capable of understanding and comfortable doing (I'm not a computer person.)

It's only Vista and later I noticed this. I don't understand the "benefit." But we work around what we can't fix.