User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1 Some example file names: places.sqlite, compreg.dat, XPC.mfl, Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Open Firefox on Vista. 2. 3. Actual Results: This Toshiba laptop is less than 10 days old. I download the latest version of Firefox. It successfully installs and once I either minimize the window or close Firefox, there are all those files, about two dozen of them. I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times. This is happening on one of the computer's user's account, "Admin," but if I switch users to Guest, it doesn't happen for that user. Expected Results: No stuff left behind on my desktop when I use Firefox. As above.

Installer doesn't do anything with profiles which is what is happening here... over to startup and profile system for further triage

Firefox apparently thinks that your desktop is your profile folder. What if you create a new profile? Click Start -> Run and type firefox -p If you want a different location then default, first make a new empty folder on that location.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#Make_a_new_profile

Hi, I did make a new profile and it did remove all the files from my desktop, BUT... I don't know how there could be a connection yet, subsequently, files not related to Firefox also were removed, not only from my desktop, but the entire hard drive (personal Word docs, 4000+ pictures, iTunes, etc.). I can restore them from a backup, but they just disappeared apparently... Any thoughts?

I should have warned you more explicitly about the danger that the Profile Manager would delete the whole profile folder (in your case the desktop) but it didn't cross my mind. I thought you would reuse those files in your new profile and delete them manually from your desktop. I think this is a case similar to Bug 278230, Bug 340457 or Bug 302087.

Uh...yeah, that (warning) would've been very helpful. :-) thx. d.