BleepingComputer.com: firefox running... but won't appear on taskbar or open

Seen this happen with other programs in the past. My dad's laptop does it with IE.

What causes it?

I've re-installed firefox. It will open when I click "run firefox now" but if i close it and then try to re-open it I get a brief timer then nothing. Task manager however tells me that it's running.

EDIT: This is firefox 2, by the way. And It's not as if ending the process corrects the problem.

If FireFox/IE is appearing in the task manager at startup, you may have the same infection I had. The Poison Ivy Trojan. Read that article for information about it, and if it describes your symptoms, please either post in the Hijackthis forum or the Am I Infected? forum. I would strongly recommend posting in the Am I infected forum first however, because if they cant sort you out they will move it to the HJT section.

Personally, I just followed the removal instructions on the link I posted earlier ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox.exe_always_open ) and it sorted out my problem. It still left some remnants however, so I got expert help in HJT section. Here is my old topic for the infection.

It doesn't appear when I start up and only firefox is affected.

I seem to have a lot of stuff n the task manager though. One of many svchost.exe is using 20+k, I don't know if that is anything to worry about?

Other things I've never seen before include tfswctrl and E_FATIAIE.

svchost is a legit process, you should have more than 1 in task manager. tfswctrl is also legit. E_FATIAIE.exe seems to be associated with Epsom Status monitor 3. (http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/e_fatiaie/) I am not sure about what that file does however.
Have you tried updating to FF3? I remember having a similar issue with FF2 but it eventually corrected itself.

I don't like Firefox 3 very much and would like to avoid it.

I just reinstalled 2 again, and when it came to the "launch firefox now?" it opened. I closed it, it left task manager. But when I tried to reopen it won't, but sits in task manager.

Hmm....well I did a little looking and found this here is a quote from it.

Quote

I'll continue to look for an answer and get back to you.