I've tried that. Let's see what happens.

I've generally given up on trying to get help via searches; I always seem to get stuff that's not relevant. Crowdsourcing seems to do better with this.

if you still have issues after that it is time to start looking for infections.

Another thing you can try is disabling any antivirus you have and see if the problem persists.

It's working... so far.

Did you try going to Mozilla help? I have Firefox but prefer SeaMonkey.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/?utm_source=www.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&global-nav&utm_content=support

I mean, I figured uninstalling, running CCleaner, and re-installing would be it, yanno?

You would need to delete your firefox profile and start again, this means losing bookmarks etc.

You could grab a copy of MozBackup http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
Then back up the stuff you want to keep, ie bookmarks, passwords etc but not the extensions. (There is an option for this during backup).

Then I'd get Revo Uninstaller https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html
And completely remove the old firefox. Make sure you do a restore point first, and select the highest level of uninstall and scan afterwards to delete all vestiges of the profile.

After that, install new Firefox. Start it once to create a new profile, then close it down. Using MozBackup, restore your old profile minus the extensions.

On edit:
Not sure how conversant you are with the Firefox profiles, but they are stored in Documents & Settings, not the Firefox program folder. You'll need to turn on hidden files and folders to access it.

Thank you very much!

Chrome irritates me because there's no Menu Bar, and I don't like how it seems to handle my bookmarks.

Yeah, I get what you mean about Chrome. Anything Google is like a toxic giant squid in your computer, installing updaters and gawd knows what else. And yes, I like having menus too.

That MozBackup is a damn handy little program. Saved my skin many times.

Cheers

On edit:
I hadn't read your revised OP, but it certainly looks like you had something corrupt in your Firefox profile. The reason Firefox keeps your personal settings and info in a different folder is to expedite updates, so you can carry on seamlessly. This however makes it crucial to be able to re-create your profile when it becomes corrupted.

I use Firefox and do not have the extension,
and yet Firefox often freezes and I get the message "Firefox stopped working".

It's some problem with the browser itself.

Check out this Google search: "Firefox stopped working"

The computer is new (well, a completely rebuilt one about 3-4 years old) that I got in December and it was working rock-solid with Firefox until shortly after I installed the privacy extension.



YMMV

There's a computer in the break room at work that has any browser periodically freeze for no apparent reason. The computer simply isn't working well, and neither Chrome or Firefox works steadily on it.

I am adjusting quite well.
My Firefox had slowed down my computer speed gradually over time.
I didn't notice it, like that old story of putting a frog (?) in a pot of cold water and slowly increasing the heat.

Now my computer is about three times faster, using the Xfinity speed test.

Lots of page stalls, whatever. No insight here, just me not wanting to hassle or BE hassled. Have always been horribly commercial (Microsoft) no frills, am BASIC/STANDARD. No gourmet/no brewery/

But there are literally 1000's of variables why your browser and/or computer may freeze. Could be hardware related (RAM, HDD, etc) or software. Look for beginning clues in Event Viewer and report them here if you like... lots of people (including me & a lot smarter than me) are willing to help here. Or start Googling profusely.