strange behavior: "New Haven.txt" and Firefox download folder | Tech Support | Forums

I'm seeing some strange behavior on my pc (Vista SP2 32-bit).  Don't know if these are related.  Has anyone else seen this, or know how to fix it?

1. When I use the right-click context menu, select New, then Text Document, it creates a new empty .txt file but it always names it "New Haven.txt".  This happens in Windows Explorer and other file managers I've tried.  

2. When I download a file in Firefox 3.6.6 using right-click and Save As… or Save Link As…, a dialog box asks me for the location but it always starts at root of drive C:, and not the downloads folder specified in Options.  Once I pick a location, it remembers that until I exit Firefox.  The dialog box looks different – has a firefox logo and says "save image", but appears to be a standard Windows file chooser.  I've never had to respecify my downloads folder before…

Neither of these is a serious issue but it's NOT how it worked a week or two ago and I'm worried something may be taking over my PC.  A full scan with both Avira Antivir presonal and Malwarebytes Antimalware showed no issues.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

karen said:

You can probably fix the "New Haven.txt" issue if you are willing to edit your registry.

(rest of post omitted, it's just two posts above this one)

Karen, I dug around and found "New Haven" in only one registry key, HKEY_USERS\####\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NamingTemplates

I changed it to "New Text Document" and now all is well, except I'd sure like to know what changed it in the first place!  Thanks for the advice.

Also, as for the Firefox issue, I hoped upgrading to 3.6.7 would help, but it didn't.  I'll try disabling extensions and plugins, going to take a long time to find the right one but if I disable ALL of them and the problem goes away, then I know it's one of them!

sunrise said:

if you curious about virus/trojan maybe u can download and install Microsoft Security Essential. It's a free Antivirus from Microsoft :) and so far im quiet happy with it :)

I tried MSE today, I'm surprised at how quickly it did a full scan (about 2 hours, compared to 5 or 6 for Avira Antivir personal).  It found and removed several potentially bad programs that Avira and Malwarebytes did not find.  Most were in downloaded programs I haven't installed yet.  One was Free Commander, which I've used for years, but since it doesn't work so well with large folders I decided to let MSE remove that as well.  So I'm happy with the results of the scan, but MSE seems to be seriously slowing down my computer, specifically inside a file manager called Blue Explorer.  Listing files in a folder, containing about 700 files & folders, took about 15 seconds instead of the 3-4 seconds it normally takes.  At least the "real time protection" can be turned off when needed!  So thanks again for the suggestion.

It's been a long time since my original post on this, I thought I got rid of the naming problem for a few weeks and then it came back.  Instead of "New File" or "New Folder", I was getting all kinds of things, any name that started with "New" like New Mexico, New Delhi, and about 5 or 10 others.  The names appeared to be picked at random from a list, and happened no matter what file manager I used.  I *think* the problem was caused by a relatively new ZIP program called ALZip.  I didn't do a real thorough test because I was worried about what else it might do.  Since uninstalling ALZip, I've seen NO problems with names on new files or folders.  Seems like the ALZip programmer was not very professional, I'm hoping they didn't do any serious damage.

As for the issue with Firefox ALWAYS wanting to download to C:\, I haven't fixed it yet or narrowed down a cause.  It doesn't happen when I use right-click + V ("saVe as") to save a selected picture, but always happens when I use "Save Link" or other ways to download things.  Once I select the folder I normally use for downloads, it remembers it for the rest of the session but next time I start Firefox it's back to C:\.  If I figure it out I'll try to post the cause here.

karen said:

Try this:

Type about:config in your FF address box.

In the filter field type "download".

Look for "browser.download.dir". This should be where the browser downloads files to by default. You should be able to change this to what you want.

I followed your original suggestion (waaaaayyyy up there at the top) and restarted Firefox in Safe Mode to disable ALL extensions. The folder problem went away.  Every way I tried to download a picture or program or movie, all tried to save to the correct place.

I disabled groups of extensions and tested, disabled others, tested again….  After a while I narrowed it down to the culprit:

SOTHINK FLASH DOWNLOADER, version 1.4.2.

This was installed the day before I noticed the problem and posted my first question.  How did I miss that small clue before?   When I disabled it and re-enabled all the others, downloading worked as expected.  I uninstalled it. Don't think I ever found a time where it could help me grab something that DownloadHelper could not get.

Anyway, today was the first day I had a chance to experiment.  I love all the help I can get here on DotTech, and hope my discovery can help someone else! I'll try to tell Sothink about this if there's a way to contact them on their site.

The Living Spirit said:

Just want to say that I have been using AlZip 7 on my Windows 7 laptop ever since I got a free key from them (at least three months now); and I have not personally observed any of the problems mentioned within this topic.