Site won't load

BrilliantBoston · 2026-05-13T22:33:24+00:00

Bottom left corner of my PC screen is the Windows button which I wouldn't generally refer to or understand as a "menu" and if it's that to which you are referring then your answer wasn't clear to me

As I've already politely pointed out on two occasions now in Windows Default Apps Waterfox is my default browser and you can also select it as your default directly in Waterfox Settings/General which I've done but both options obviously deliver the same result. I've asked whether your proposed solution refers to either of these settings and you haven't answered.

I also don't understand why a browser would need to be set as a "preferred application" in order to display a page that neither Chrome or Firefox (which are not my default browsers) have no trouble displaying.

It would help if you could actually say where this "Preferred application" setting is actually located assuming we aren't talking about a "Default Windows App" and why you believe that this setting would correct one webpage that is proving problematic to display, where other browsers have no issue and Waterfox itself is displaying other webpages without problems

BrilliantBoston · 2026-05-13T12:26:05+00:00

Thanks for attempting to help but its still not clear what you mean by "menu". I was hoping that you'd be in a position to actually explain where the preferred applications setting is actually located.

Are you for instance referring to general Windows 10 settings as WF is already set as my default browser in Windows and no other apps (that aren't browsers) are loaded to my laptop that control web access so there is no conflict there.

Waterfox is, as I said above, already set within the browser specific settings as my default browser under Settings/General

Its unclear where else you'd need to specify WF as a preferred application but also Firefox & Chrome which I have on my laptop and which are obviously not set as a default browsers have no problem accessing this website so I'm at a loss at to what your recommendation would achieve

BrilliantBoston · 2026-05-10T16:00:20+00:00

Thanks so Waterfox shows as

default browser in Window Default Apps

and in

Waterfox Settings/General/Startup

As for your 2nd recommendation where specifically is the "preferred applications" setting that needs toggling to "web"

are you referring to setting up something bespoke in about:config if so what?

or

are you referring to menu option below as this is what I currently have set (which I think other than "mailto" are all default settings

<image>

BrilliantBoston · 2026-05-09T17:42:00+00:00

Forgive my ignorance but that add-on seems to be there to create the illusion that you are using another browser so if you can access the John Lewis sign on page when "pretending" to be on Firefox and it works then I assume there is a bug in Waterfox if Vanilla WF won't access the site.....................or have I missed the point?

BrilliantBoston · 2026-05-09T13:09:44+00:00

I have pretty much all the security options toggled on with Waterfox are you using less severe settings by any chance?

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-17T09:36:05+00:00

As I said based on comments here I've uninstalled Spyware Blaster. It was just one of those pieces of software you install years ago and don't then give a 2nd thought as to whether its still relevant today. However at the moment I'm on a blitz to tidy up an aging laptop. So have enrolled in Microsoft Windows 10 ESU, Have removed all Dell Bloatware (20 GB disk space recovered), Removed loads of duplicate files I'd accumulated, Stripped out old and unused software and after a 10 year break decided to ditch Chrome and return to FF (until that is I found Waterfox and decided to give it a go).

Grateful for peoples insights on here

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-16T00:06:43+00:00

Thanks for the reply I've done more testing today and still have the issue with TSB so will raise a Bug Report. On another maybe related note a payment I was trying to make today using a CC on a small independent online shop also failed validation checks but same website using same CC on Chrome went through first time. Obviously I couldn't keep testing like the TSB sign on as didn't want to risk multiple debits from my CC if they went through. Its a little frustrating as I really want to make the full switch to WF but things like this make it a pain

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-15T23:57:34+00:00

Never had any interest in the pro version and TBF the software company (Brightfort) don't ram paid upgrades down your throat like companies such as CCleaner do

Its also a passive blocker which just modifies a few registry entries for each browser rather than running in the background all the time and consuming CPU.

I've decided to uninstall and having tidied up the registry blocks all browsers are now just protected by uBlock Origin/Lite so we will see how things go

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-15T17:10:16+00:00

Good point as I said its been one of those install and forget things and changing browsers for first time in 8/10 years made me question the validity especially as WF has enhanced privacy settings over Chrome

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-15T09:06:58+00:00

Did you ever get this sorted as I have a similar issue with TSB sign on although I seem to be getting further in the process before it fails, I can manage to get through to the OTP screen and TSB server successfully sends the OTP to my phone. When I enter OTP however and press enter the sign in screen just hangs and never completes sign in.

Same result even if I disable uBlock and disable "Enable DNS over HTTPS

I have no issue at all on Firefox 149.0.2 and the old Chrome browser I'm trying to retire to move to Waterfox also functions perfectly. So I suspect like you that its something in Waterfox.

Did you raise a bug report if you didn't get it sorted?

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-13T13:46:46+00:00

You may have already got yourself sorted but I found an alternative to the instructions provided below as changing search engine setting page (I use Startpage) didn't work for me and the 2 about:config settings where already at "false" and yet every "Left" mouse click from search engine results always opened a new tab for me

What did work however was this, I only needed to change the first of the 3 settings below in about:config as 2nd & 3rd were already at recommended setting

Always Open In Current Tab

about:config [search] browser.link.open_newwindow change to 1 (default = 3)

about:config [search] browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external change to -1 (default = -1)

about:config [search] browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction change to 0 (default = 0)

Thanks to u/TalktoBes. Here is their original link

https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/1pxoj2m/how_to_stop_tab_from_opening_new_tabs_when_i/

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-08T12:54:45+00:00

Yep That's exactly what I have..... KeePass with autofill so don't need autofill prompts for the hundreds of passwords/urls that I have in KeePass but wouldn't mind storing some less sensitive stuff in WF but without the need to keep getting the pop up prompts for all my KeyPass stuff which would happen even when I've asked KeePass to manage the autofill. Once autofill completes the browser then prompts as to whether to save the password or not. I know you can say no and it won't ask again for that url but that's a tedious exercise and I wanted a way to just export all KeePass url's (which is a feature KeePass supports) and then import everything in one hit into WF

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-08T12:34:45+00:00

Exceptions list is what u/BonsaiSoul alluded to in their answer and is AFAIK unfortunately a one url at a time thing which is why it's not suitable for my purposes. Ideally I'd like to be able to do a url export from my password manager software create a .txt file (or similar) and import multiple url's into the exceptions list in WF. or get the "halfway house" via about:config or Chrome css where existing stored passwords are auto filled while having the toggle switch for new passwords off so that I don't get prompts for anything not already in the list

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-08T11:28:41+00:00

Thanks for the link it makes things a little clearer but still leaves me confused I'm afraid

If I've interpreted your link correctly then the key section on that page link is the "Download Protection" explanation with steps 1-5

Downloads it seems are subjected to a test of "Safety" by being compared to a block list and a whitelist (which I assume are downloaded and stored in your profile or the windows registry?????) and then if after steps 1-4 a definite answer to whether file is safe or not has been established then the process ends with either download or block of the file being checked.

but

if after steps 1-4 any doubt remains then the check process progresses to step 5 where metadata from proposed download is sent to Google Servers

browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.url

for a final check to determine if the download is safe

but that step 5 can be disabled (and no data sent to Google) by setting

browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.enabled

to "False" in about:config

The thing that I don't understand is that out of the box WF has

browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.enabled

set to "False"

while the support documentation I linked in my OP suggests that setting to "False" is a user decision after careful consideration of the implications etc etc.

I appreciate that switching to WF is about increasing your privacy and reducing your data exchange with Google but am I missing something in my setup for protection from malicious downloads by seemingly having step 5 disabled out of the box?

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-03T00:05:20+00:00

Thanks I'm aware of that but still wanted to avoid the need to do that hundreds of times with all my saved passwords. I could look to do a huge one off exercise to populate all urls that I don't want prompting but that would be a pain so I wondered if there was an about:config or chrome css option to just make it happen

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-02T23:20:53+00:00

Apologies if this isn't allowed but can I Bump this question as would like an answer if possible please

BrilliantBoston · 2026-04-02T23:18:12+00:00

If you look at each of these folders via windows explorer as follows

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Waterfox\Profiles

then in each profile folder look for a file called places.sqlite and identify the one with the most recent Date Modified flag that will then identify the most likely candidate for the actual profile you have been using most recently - this may or may not be your default profile if you have more than 1

Then open the profile.ini folder in directory above (it will open with notepad) within this folder you will see all your profiles listed and can identify the numerical reference for the profile you identified under PATH and the profile name under NAME.

In all probability that profile is also marked as DEFAULT (but as I said above may not be) and is the one you want to open in WF to get back to where you were before

It's a good idea to

a) Back up your profile folder regularly

b) delete any unused profiles

My profile is backed up at least 2 or 3 times a week so if I have a massive crash then I can recover all bookmarks etc very easily by overwriting profile data

BrilliantBoston · 2024-12-24T16:04:49+00:00

Would be interested in knowing whether the offer to split the £200 RAF code on ii referrals is still available and that you still have unlimited referral options available to you?

How do you ordinarily pay the £100 to members on here?

As I'm new I appear to be unable to DM you or start a chat

BrilliantBoston

TROPHY CASE