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When installing, get "Error! Can't initialize plug-ins directory"

williamcraig5
williamcraig5
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Began having problems when opening Firefox and trying to make Firefox the default browser. Windows 7 updated, AVG up-to-date and virus scans clean, MalwareBytes up-to-date and scans clean. Troubleshooting finally caused me to uninstall and try for clean install ... normal Windows 7 uninstall process successful. Made sure Firefox folder in "Program Files" was deleted. Downloaded "DownloadApp_1_7_5_198_Setup" (29,442 KB) from Mozilla website and run ... get "Error! Can't initialize plug-ins directory. Please try again later."

Began having problems when opening Firefox and trying to make Firefox the default browser. Windows 7 updated, AVG up-to-date and virus scans clean, MalwareBytes up-to-date and scans clean. Troubleshooting finally caused me to uninstall and try for clean install ... normal Windows 7 uninstall process successful. Made sure Firefox folder in "Program Files" was deleted. Downloaded "DownloadApp_1_7_5_198_Setup" (29,442 KB) from Mozilla website and run ... get "Error! Can't initialize plug-ins directory. Please try again later."

Chosen solution

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forum.../error-cant-initialize-plug-ins-directory-please-try-again-later/ What are the permissions on your Temp folder?

Looking to see if there are a few cases on this, brb.

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All Replies (6)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hello, the file name you have referenced is no genuine download from mozilla. please only download firefox from the official location at mozilla.org!

williamcraig5
williamcraig5 Mwenye swali
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I went back to Mozilla and downloaded both the stub and the full version .... now I get "can not create temp folder archive". I have cleared out the temp folder and run the install as the administrator. Any other ideas for me?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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According to this forum thread this could be a problem with the NSIS installer and could indicate a problem with the temp folder

Error! Can't initialize plug-ins directory. - Winamp Forums:

The plug-ins directory is a temporary directory for the installer.

Try to delete the Windows temp folder (%TMP% or %TEMP%)

williamcraig5
williamcraig5 Mwenye swali
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Deleted \Windows\Temp and rebooted. Same result. Windows recreates the temp file on reboot so I deleted folder and retried. Same result. Then I tried unchecking the "read only" attribute and retried install. Same result. Also tried to do same with \Users\Bill\AppData\Temp with same results.

guigs
guigs
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Suluhisho teule

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forum.../error-cant-initialize-plug-ins-directory-please-try-again-later/ What are the permissions on your Temp folder?

Looking to see if there are a few cases on this, brb.

williamcraig5
williamcraig5 Mwenye swali
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Thank you guig2! Followed your bleepingcomputer.com link above and found the problem was my permissions on C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local/Temp. It was not "Full Control" for my User or Administrator. Updated the two lines to permit full control for folder, subfolder and files. Ran perfect.