Recently I completed a clean installation of Windows XP and installed the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird for web browsing and email. However, I have now noticed that Firefox will not download any PDF, WMV, JPG, or GIF files. After right-clicking on a link and selecting “Save Link As” I selected the location where I would like to save the file but nothing happens. The Download Manager window does not even appear, despite the Download Manager being enabled. If I open the Download Manager window through the “Tools” menu > “Downloads” the list is empty. Reinstalling Firefox does not resolve the issue, nor does installing the newest version of Firefox (as an update was available between the time of the original installation and the problem). There is no problem copying and pasting the link into Internet Explorer to download the file. Even more strange is that I can download EXE files, but the Download Manager window still does not appear.

Since you are able to download EXE files, but the Download Manager window does not appear, this could indicate that the root cause of the problem is something wrong with the Download Manager. There are a few procedures we can try to reset the Download Manager, which will hopefully restore this utility to normal operation. The first potential cause of the problem is that the ?downloads.rdf? file has become corrupt. This files stores information about files which are being, or have been, downloaded (such as the file name and URL). If this file has become corrupt it could be causing downloads to not appear in the Download Manager window. To reset this file, first make sure that Firefox is closed. Then, open Windows Explorer or My Computer. The file is located in a hidden directory, so you will need to ensure that the display of hidden files and folders is enabled. Go to the “Tools” menu > “Folder Options” then select the “View” tab and ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is enabled and “Hide file extensions for known file types” is disabled (as we want to view the file extensions for files). Click OK to save and close the window. Now, navigate to your Firefox profile directory, which should be located in the following path: C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfiles. Within this directory you should see a file named ?downloads.rdf?. Select and then delete this file. Close Windows Explorer and then open Firefox. A fresh ?downloads.rdf? file will be automatically created. In Firefox, go to the “Tools” menu > “Options” and select the “Main” page and in the “Downloads” section check that “Show the Downloads window when downloading a file” is enabled. Click OK to save and close, and then try downloading a file to see whether the problem persists.

Another possible cause of the problem is that Firefox may be downloading the files to the computer, but they are being downloaded into a different (obscure) folder making it difficult for you to find the downloaded files. The default Firefox download folder is the Desktop, but if this was changed at some stage to a different folder this could be placing all your downloaded files into this different location. To rule out this cause you can reset the Firefox download location. In Firefox, go to the “Tools” menu > “Options” and select the “Main” page. In the “Downloads” section, make sure that “Save files to” is enabled and then click the “Browse” button to select the Desktop as your default download location. Click OK to save and close. It is also advisable to reset the last download folder, which is the directory where the most recent download was saved. This will require you to go into the Firefox configuration file. In Firefox, type the following (without the quotes) into the address bar: “about:config”. The Firefox configuration will appear. To find the particular setting you need, type the following (without the quotes) into the “Filter” box: ?browser.download.lastDir?. You should see the relevant preference appear in the list. Right-click on the setting and select “Reset”. Once this has been done, you can close Firefox. Then, re-open Firefox and check whether the problem persists.

Should the problem continue, the final procedure we can attempt is to completely reset the download location settings in Firefox. Go back into the “about:config” Firefox configuration, and type the following (without the quotes) into the “Filter” box: ?browser.download?. From the list of resultant preferences, find the following:
? browser.download.dir
? browser.download.downloadDir
? browser.download.folderList
? browser.download.lastDir
? browser.download.useDownloadDir
Check each of the above preferences for whether they are “user set” (this should be visible in the Status column, and the entry should also be bold). For all of the above preferences which are user set, right-click on the entry and select “Reset”. Once this has been done, re-open Firefox and check whether you are able to correctly download files.