30
Oct
06

Download Old Version of FireFox to Prevent Crashing, Freezing Up, Stalling in 2.0

By Joshua Steimle 23 Comments Categories: Reviews & How-To

FireFox Release 1.5.0.7 for Windows, English.

You, like me, were excited to upgrade to the FireFox 2.0 browser last week. You installed it, and then you quickly found out that it freezes up regularly. For me, it’s so regular that I’ve been forced to make a decision–install the older version of Firefox, or switch to IE. Since I liked the latest build, namely FireFox 1.5.0.7, I decided to switch back to it. It took me a while to find the file, but find it I did, and the direct link to download the English version for Windows XP is above.


In case you’re wondering whether you can run the older and new versions of FireFox at the same time, the answer is that yes, apparently so. I simply left 2.0 where it is, and when I reinstalled 1.5.0.7 I created a directory called “FireFox Old” and stuck it in there. Up came the older, more reliable, more stable version of FireFox. And lo and behold, when I went to open 2.0 at the same time it worked fine. There were some messages about choosing a default browser and an extension manager popped up at one point, but that’s all I had to deal with.

I’m excited to use FireFox 2.0.1 when it comes out, which I hope will be soon, because I liked some of the features I got to use temporarily in FireFox 2.0, but the issue of it crashing, freezing up, and otherwise stalling was more than I could deal with.

I’m guessing that FireFox released 2.0 in response to IE 7.0, but I’m thinking they should have waited a week or two and worked out the bugs first.

Related posts:

  1. iTunes Freezing Up
  2. Best Way to Use Quickbooks on a Mac
  3. Comcast’s Version of Customer Service
  • http://www.mergendesign.com Mike Johnson

    I have yet to notice any problems with 2.0. I am running it on my G5 (not intel) IMac.
    I have yet to install it on my Macbook pro 2.16 Intel yet though. What system are you running?

  • http://www.mergendesign.com Mike Johnson

    I have yet to notice any problems with 2.0. I am running it on my G5 (not intel) IMac.
    I have yet to install it on my Macbook pro 2.16 Intel yet though. What system are you running? Oh, wait… you are on a windows box.

  • Jerry Fisher

    I have had the same problem with 2.0, however I am running Windows 2000. I am also back to 1.5.0.7, and will stay there till I know 2.0 is working properly. I can say that no matter what happens, I will not use IE………

  • Scott Schlegel

    Sorry to hear you were having trouble. The mac version is much faster than previous versions and I haven’t had any issuse today. It is an A+ for me.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/westerndave/ bennion

    I’m running XP Pro here and haven’t had any issues with 2.0 as of yet. Just fyi. Maybe try uninstalling all previous versions and start fresh?

  • http://www.mwi.com Joshua Steimle

    Tried it, although maybe I should have been more thorough and have gone through the registry to make sure everything was truly cleaned out. Just the same, shouldn’t FF themselves take care of that?

  • heik

    My firefox 2.0 was crashing and stalling for so many times that i becomes unbearable. I am going to switch to 1.5

  • Bob Moloney

    I have been running the 2.0 since it became available on two PCs, and encountered freezing on both. One is Win XP Pro Media Edition 2005, and the other is Win XP Pro SP2.
    I am reverting both to V 1.5.07 until the freezing issue is addressed.

  • http://www.gardenside.com jerry

    Thank you so much for posting the link to get the old Firefox back. I had looked all over the web, but couldn’t find the old version.

    Firefox version 2.0 was so much trouble — freezing up, cursor not working right, there seemed to be a keyboard buffer problem (able to type only a few characters and then having to wait for the buffer to clear to continue), and so forth.

    Thank you again!!!!

  • uranutopian

    just wanted to let you know i am running tiger on an imac and am having the same issue (which mozilla is downplaying) now i’ve gotta find an older version for osx or switch browsers ;’-(

  • thank you thank you

    Thanks for posting the old version.

    The new version crashes too much.

  • cheese

    Intel Imac, freezes all the time switched to Opera fro now

  • William_Lee

    I too was excited about upgrading to FF 2.0. I’ve been running 1.5 without issues on my XP system, but 2.0 has been hanging on me nearly constantly. It freezes up so much that it is close to unusable.

    It seems like this is a pretty common issue.

  • http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.htm Chirag Patel

    Download any old firefox version http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.htm :)

  • KB

    Thanks for posting this. I switched to 2.0 for OS X (running on a MacBook) and the application isn’t just unstable, it’s actually crashed my computer several times (it just shuts off cold – I’ve never had this happen before, Firefox must be causing some sort of feedback loop that’s beyond anything I understand about computers). I stupidly threw away the old version when I downloaded 2.0, but I was able to find the dmg of the old version by starting with the url of your link, up through the 1.5.0.7, and clicking from there. Thanks for posting this – I was afraid I’d have to resort to using Safari until the next Firefox update came out.

  • http://i-nes-nes.blogspot.com nes

    I had tried to use v1.5.0.8, but it still blocked, but now thanks to you I tried this one and it works fine. Although for the 1st time firefox updated itself automatically to the latest version and there I was again… had to uninstall and re-install again, and then went straight to tools-options and set it to not look for any updates hehe :D

    hope they release a proper 2.x version soon… :)

  • Patsey

    I also upgraded to 2.0, on an older (2003) Emac – it froze and failed every time I tried to open it. I now know that the dinosaur Macs prior to Intel processors can’t use 2.0. So i am trying to find an older version that will work. I love safari, opera and omniweb, but miss Firefox.

  • http://www.brightring.com MaryAnn

    My new Firefox crashes in every session, or locks up. I would like to install the older version. I’m looking through your website for it next.
    Thanks.

  • mark

    I have the 2.0 Firefox and it seems to freeze up when clicking to jump to another tab already open. Most the time if I minimize the screen it will automatically pop back up with the tab I just tried choosing which is weird in itself. Other times I just freeze up and have to reboot the computer.
    If anybody has a fix let me know.
    splatgun@yahoo.com

  • Fati

    Mine freezes up every now and then and I have 2 use CTRL ALT Delete to end the task of firefox… looks like a lot of us here are having similar firefox problems we should somehow address this to Mozilla… meanwhile any solution would be appreciated

    fati_80@yahoo.com

  • pete

    I love using firefox, but the latest version crashed and froze up so many times for no apparent reasons i saw myself going back to IE. thanks for the post, i ma download the older version and hopefully have better luck

  • rob

    My browser constantly crashes and freezes on my IBM T42. Yahoo mail is nearly unworkable. I have since reverted to the older version that worked.

  • anoop kumar

    You are correct, i first suspected that i may be affected with some virous, but i realised that this freezes slowly and stops downloading. thanks for the links provides