Installed Mozilla, now Netscape won't open

[Marcia]

If I try to open Netscape Navigator 7 it's Mozilla that opens instead and I really would like to get to use Netscape again.

How to fix: re-download or reinstall or uninstall Mozilla?

[tedster]

I found a pretty solid reference from ATT:

[home.att.net...]

Seems like Netscape will not completely uninstall with just the regular Uninstall function, so their recommendations about further files/folders to delete are essential. If you just reinstall without those critical deletes, the spaghetti code just gets more tangled.

[Marcia]

It's the latest versions just downloaded. What I'm concerned with is that if I go to reinstall both I'll end up having the same thing happen all over again.

It also messed up IE which I've *never* had a problem with. I can no longer view source on web pages and I totally need to.

[tedster]

If you were updating from a previous installation, the files they mention may have already been getting convoluted. I had this problem a year back or so (NN not opening after a Moz install) and I ended up with a fix something like this. My memory is hazy at this point - senior moment, I guess - but the folder names look very familiar.

IE getting messed up, too? Sheesh, that makes little sense to me. But my IE 6 has been messed up for 16 months, and no re-install has ever fixed it, not from disk or the web. The problem even survived a total reformat, so it most be related to a software conflict between programs that I always re-install.

[Dudermont]

Hey Marcia,

for your IE issue. Delete temporary files and possibly history in your internet options.

I was working on a website a few months back tried to view source, the hour glass showed up for a second, then nothing. After searching for a while (not really knowing what to search for) I found an article that said when IE hits its limit for temp storage, it will no longer allow you to view the source. I deleted the files and it was working again in minutes.

[isitreal]

It sounds like you maybe used the default install options. When I install new Gecko browsers I always first create a folder for the browser, then install into that specific folder.

Try uninstalling both, then reinstall both, making sure that they have distinct folders, ns72, moz17, firefox09 etc. Also, you may want to also set up non default users for each browser to make sure that you aren't using the same user settings.

Firefox won't have this problem because it installs itself into firefox, not mozilla folders, but with that too you want to have separate, non default folders for the applications so you can upgrade without having to uninstall.

Failure to do this will often lead the installation to look for the default paths, which will be the same, so only one version will open.

[pixelkat]

Netscape 7 and Mozilla run off of the same browser engine. It is very difficult to run them both on a single machine. For whatever reason, even if you carefully create an additional profile BEFORE installing the second of the two browsers, and install each browser in a different location on your machine, the profiles somehow become corrupted.

I found it to be much more trouble than it was worth. I selected to load Netscape 7 rather than my favorite, Mozilla, because a larger percentage of non-IE users were likely to be using Netscape 7, and since I'm a web developer, I need to develop in the browsers used the most, irregardless of whether I prefer another browser or not.

It was necessary for me to alter the user.js file to get rid of all the AOL crap, NetPhone and to install the ad blocker string, as well as other preference tweaks, but other than the image filter, there are no noticable differences in the performance of Netscape 7 relative to Mozilla.

I read somewhere that the new interface in NN 7 causes interference with Mozilla as well. I switched to the old traditional appearance and was able to use both for a while. but the problems started up again when I cleared my browser cache in NN7. after that, I couldn't open Mozilla any longer and the problems began again.

just an fyi, I've had problems with FireFox when either Mozilla or Netscape is on the machine. not everybody does. might be a Win98 SE thing.

I run FireFox and NN7 and NN4.76 on my new machine running XP. as long as only one of the aforementioned is open at any given time, I've had no problems so far.

kat