Safe mode is a great thing to use when your Windows OS is encountering problems or simply won’t run properly. It is simplified version of your operating system, that disable many function, letting you edit and adjust what is wrong.

But did you know that Firefox has its own safe mode?

Photo Credit: Thiago Miqueias – Edited by Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

This safe mode can help you verify if an add-on, theme, or toolbar setting is causing problems, by simply disabling them temporarily.

Here’s how to start and use safe mode in Firefox:

Start

• Windows

  

  Normally in your Mozilla program folder under the Start menu, you should find a shortcut called Firefox (Safe Mode). If you don’t, simply select Start>Run and enter: firefox -safe-mode.

• Mac OS X & Linux

  On Linux, you can go to your Terminal and run: /path/to/firefox/firefox -safe-mode

  On Mac OS X go to Utilities (in the Applications folder), open Terminal and run: Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode

Use

At this point, a window called Firefox Safe Mode should open, and you will be able to select through various options:

• Disable all add-ons: Disables all added themes and extensions.
• Reset toolbars and controls: Removes any made toolbar customization.
• Reset bookmarks to Firefox defaults: Replaces your bookmarks with the default bookmarks.
• Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults: Restores the default Options and preference settings and resets the default theme.
• Restore default search engines: Adds back all of the default search engines (Google, Yahoo, eBay, Creative Commons, Answers.com, and Amazon.com) , without removing any added search engines.

And here the buttons:

• Make Changes and Restart: Restarts Firefox in normal mode and applies the applied changes
• Continue in Safe Mode: Starts Firefox in Safe Mode (this will not apply any of the options selected above).