Reports are pouring in from Firefox users to Mozilla on support forums and social sites that Avast prompted them to remove language pack add-on informing it has a bad reputation and a very poor rating, doing so, caused Firefox to start with a yellow background with the text <window id =”main window” ^ displayed. Avast or AVG users who followed the antivirus suggestion and removed the reported add-on, facing difficulties to open browser normally, don’t worry! This is fixable and Firefox browser can be made to function like before.
Browser Cleanup it self-has bad reputation
The Browser Cleanup tool integrated into Smart Scan of Avast/AVG was never reliable, in the past, it has automatically deleted Firefox add-ons without user consent, this is not happening now, after receiving bad add-on warning user directed antivirus to remove the add-on. The bug titled ‘Avast/AVG deleting language packs rendering the browser unusable’ is quite misleading, to be honest. Mozilla has fixed the issue from happening again in Firefox 64, we’re expecting the company to ship fix with Firefox 62.0.2.
A user affected with this issue posted on Firefox support forum said “Avast decided to remove the language resource pack, now Firefox boots as a white panel with <window id=”main-window” ^.”
“Yesterday on opening Firefox, Avast (virus protection software) browser cleanup tool stated that language resource pack was disreputable (2/5 starts). Avast said I should remove it, so I did (yes, probably I should have checked, but I was in hurry)” he added.
Here is what happened
1. The built-in browser cleanup tool in Avast, that checks browsers regularly for add-ons/toolbars with bad user ratings, warned users about language pack add-on as not a good one,
2. When the user clicks ‘Remove selected’
3. The add-on was deleted by Avast. For instance, if you’ve installed the Japanese language Pack in Firefox, you might be alerted to remove ‘[email protected]’.
And see what Firefox users now left with below screen, the browser doesn’t start as a crucial file in profile which is necessary for the functioning of Firefox has been deleted.
Note: The antivirus is also alerting ‘Telemetry Coverage’ in Firefox and IDM Integration add-on for IE as bad ones, check the screenshot below.
To fix this issue and to open Firefox normally
1. Hold the Shift button and click on the Firefox icon on the desktop to run browser in Safe Mode.
2. Click on option, enter the safe mode, visit about:config, reset intl.locale.request preference by right-clicking on it.
3. If that doesn’t help, open Firefox profile folder and delete addon.startup.json.lz4
Now try to launch Firefox, it will start normally, hope that helps.
Uninstall Browser Cleanup from Avast
Coming to Avast, you can prevent Browser Cleanup tool from scanning for add-ons or you can also able to get rid of the tool from antivirus.
Visit Avast UI > Components > Browser Cleanup > Customize > Check my browsers regularly for toolbars with bad user ratings
Or you can disable the browser cleanup component altogether from components window, which will then also gets removed from Smart Scan,
Avast UI > Components, click on Browser Cleanup and click ‘Uninstall Component’.
Avast users never happy with browser cleanup tool, it is hunting them, users should always proceed with caution before proceeding with actions suggested by antiviruses.
Avast and AVG, same company, are mentioned in the dictionary under the definition for irresponsible.