Mozilla plans to release Firefox 106.0.3 Stable later today, if you are reading this on October 31, 2022. The new release for Firefox addresses a crash and a hang issue that may affect Windows users.
Select Menu > Help > About Mozilla Firefox to display the version that is installed currently. Firefox runs a check for updates when the window opens and will download and install a new version automatically. Note that Firefox 106.0.3 will be released later today and that the browser won’t pick up the update if you run the check early on October 30, 2022.
Firefox 106.0.3
Firefox 106.0.3 is an update that is relevant to Windows users only. It addresses two issues on Windows. The first fix addresses a startup crash for some users on Windows machines. The linked bug report, bug 1797464, reveals that Firefox is throwing an access violation exception on affected machines.
Enable/disable window occlusion only when compositor session exists on Windows
When compositor session exists, gfxConfig is already initialized.
If first AppWindow is destroyed in nsAppShellService::JustCreateTopWindow() because of error, the first window could be destroyed before calling gfxConfig::Init()
The bug affected Firefox 106.0, Firefox 106.0.1 and Firefox 106.0.2, and newer development builds of the browser. Firefox ESR 102 is not affected by it. The update to Firefox 106.0.3 addresses the issue, so that Windows users should not experience startup crashes anymore after updating.
The second fix addresses an issue with Windows 11 version 22H2 new Suggested Actions feature. The feature displays hover actions when users copy a date, the time, or a phone number on the operating system. The feature is controlled in the Settings of the operating system under System > Clipboard.
Mozilla noticed an incompatibility with Suggested Actions on the new Windows 11 version that could result in a hang in Firefox when copying text on webpages. The linked bug report, bug 1774285, reveals that Firefox could freeze for over 20 seconds when copying text, e.g., the URL of the address bar.
The browser freezes for a period of time (over 20 seconds), during which the entire window (chrome, viewport) is unresponsive to user input. Video and animation appears to continue playing. After a while, the browser becomes responsive again. The amount of time is variable, and seems to depend on the number of extensions loaded – my default profile can freeze for minutes.
The next major version of Firefox, Firefox 107, will be released on November 15, 2022.
Now You: did you run into any bugs lately when using Firefox?
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