Firefox/MS Updates/download issue

[PDittie]

This morning my computer, configured for auto updates, downloaded the latest Security Update from Microsoft.

It promptly froze up upon installation, so I hard-rebooted, and as the disk was checked (as XP will do when one reboots) I noticed several -- five or six -- messages indicating a problem with Firefox preferences. At then end of each was "The value will be truncated."

Sure enough, when Windows came up, and I clicked on FF, it was blank. Empty. No home page, no favorites. Wiped clean.

I pondered this for several minutes, opening IE for the first time in ages (it's only around to get the Updates, mainly). I realized that if I did a clean uninstall/reinstall of MFF, it would pull over my Favorites, and I'd have something to start from.

So I did that. Uninstalled Firefox, then went to their site and clicked on the download for 1.0 (just as I had two months ago when I switched the first time).

And I got an error message from IE: "403 Forbidden".

So I right-clicked and picked "Save target as..." and the download started, but after a few seconds Windows threw up the red X: "cannot open this Internet site. Please try again later."

Which I have done basically fifty times all day with the same result.

I posted to the Mozilla Firefox support forum, and the best advice I got was to "System Restore" back before the updates, which I did.

No difference (which suggests the updates AREN'T the problem).

*pounds head on desk*

I should mention that I had the XP firewall disabled during these attempts, that my cache is clean (I keep it cleaned out daily) and I defragged on Monday in anticipation of this update. Zone Alarm (free version) also runs on this 'puter, but I disabled it and got the same result -- nothing.

I'll go buy a CD for Firefox tomorrow. Anyone got any suggestions tonight?