Tips for Troubleshooting a Problematic Internet Browser

Firefox For Dummies

Occasionally, you may find yourself faced with a wonky looking browser. Most of the time, there’s an easy fix for your problem. If your browser looks odd, try these tricks:

If the web page looks garbled, click the Reload or Refresh icon (the circular arrow in the website address field at the top of the browser page) to load the page again.
If the whole top of the window is gone — you have no window title bar or menu bar — you’re in Full Screen mode. In Windows, press F11 to return to normal. On a Mac, hover your mouse at the top center of the screen until an icon appears in the upper right corner of the screen; click it to get your screen back to normal.
If the browser restarted and is telling you which fabulous new features it now has, it probably just downloaded an updated version of the program and had to restart itself to complete the installation. Read the message appreciatively and then close the tab or window.
If your browser is just acting weird, close all your browser windows, take a few deep breaths, and run your browser again. If the situation is ugly, try restarting the computer. (Save any unsaved work first.)
If your browser still looks strange, especially if it’s showing a lot of ads that you didn’t ask for, your computer is probably infected with spyware.