One of my biggest frustrations is when I get a program set up the way I like and then it breaks. This was the recent case with Firefox 2.0. I started the browser only to see that one of my toolbars was blank. You could see Firefox had allocated the space, but there were no toolbar buttons. Fortunately, Firefox has a quick fix for missing tool bars.

My early tries at fixing the problem didn’t work. I tried toggling the toolbar on and off in the View menu. I even rebooted my computer as that often clears many types of problems. Regardless of what I tried, my Firefox toolbar was still blank as the screen snap below shows.

When the usual measures didn’t work, I tried Firefox’s safe mode.

What is Firefox Safe Mode

"Safe mode" is a phrase you hear with many software programs or operating systems. The problem is the name isn’t accurate. It leads some people to think that “safe mode” is some way to run an application in a secure mode and free from vulnerabilities. Not true.

Instead, safe mode is a way to start a program without all the bells and whistles. For Firefox, the program will load without your extensions, toolbars, and other preferences. In essence, you’re safe guarding Firefox from all the extraneous items we like to add which can cause problems.

How to Start Firefox in Safe Mode and Reset your Toolbars,

1. Close all instances of Firefox

2. Click the Start button in the lower left.

3. From the Start menu, select Run…

4. In the Run dialog box, type firefox -safe-mode

5. Click OK.

Once you start Firefox in safe mode, it opens a Firefox Safe Mode dialog with more options. Most of the options deal with resetting items.

6. In my case, I wanted the option “Reset toolbars and controls”

7. Click Make Changes and Restart.

When Firefox restarted, my toolbar was restored and I could see the buttons on my del.icio.us toolbar.

I can’t guarantee this method will work for all scenarios, but it has resolved my missing toolbar problems. This problem doesn’t happen often and I’ve yet to find the cause. However, it’s worth the two minutes to try these Firefox safe mode steps.

Related Firefox Tutorials:

• Introduction to Firefox Preferences
• How to Find and Install Firefox Extensions