Many Firefox users got really excited to hear that Mozilla made available a new Firefox (Metro) Nightly version specially designed to take advantage of Windows 8 chromeless UI. But many users are reporting in different websites and in forums that the new Metro style version of Firefox is not working when they trying to launch the Nightly tile from the Start screen, and instead the default version of the browser launches.
Of course, we all know that the newest build of the open source software still in the early stages and there are many bugs to be worked out and no one should expect this Metro version of Firefox to run perfectly, but at least you should be able to get a taste of it.
Before we dive on the alternative fix make sure that Firefox is set as the default browser — Windows 8 only allows one “modern” app to access the web –. Secondly, the Mozilla Nightly channel releases update pretty often, so make sure you double-check that you are running the latest version (Nightly button > Help > About Nightly), and remember that you cannot use this software on any Windows RT device. Having said that let’s proceed:
Instructions
Like many of you, I did come across this problem, but doing some testing and trying to explorer alternate options, I found out that Firefox Metro is currently having some conflicts with Internet Explorer 10 and somehow is not registering itself correctly as the default browser.
Now if everything you tried didn’t fix the problem, the last thing you can try is to turn-off Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8. This solved the problem for me and I think it will work for users wanting to test the latest version of Firefox.
To turn-off or “uninstall” IE10 is pretty simple:
1. While in the Start screen, type Turn Windows Features on or off, using the Settings’ filter and launch the tool.
2. Uncheck the Internet Explorer 10 and click OK.
3. Restart your computer.
Once you sign-in back in Windows, you’ll know right away that is working, because you will see in the Start screen a modern icon Nightly tile like the one in the featured image in this article.
In case you are concerned about IE being gone, don’t be, chances are you’ll only be using the Metro style Firefox for a while and then you’ll wait until a stable version is release. You can always get the Microsoft’s web browser back following the same steps above, but in step #2 simple check the IE option and restart.
Gallery
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].