This article discusses how to fix a frustrating bug with the Firefox internet browser, where what you type comes out in reverse, with the characters appearing on the screen from right to left.

Has everything you type suddenly started to come out backwards? Normally, when you type something in the address bar or search box, such as an internet address or other text, the characters or letters should appear from left to right. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, everything you type comes out in reverse.

For example, let's say you want to do an internet search on Google. Normally you would type Google's URL in the address bar of your browser like so:

http://www.google.com

But all of a sudden everything you type comes out backwards like this:

moc.elgoog.www//:ptth

What the is going on? Why is Firefox Typing Backwards?!

When this happened to me the other day, my first thought was that my computer had picked up a virus. But my virus program is up to date and it did not detect anything. Also, I noticed that the backwards typing only affected the Firefox browser. I could type normally using a text editor such as Microsoft Word or my old version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Turns out the problem is not caused by a virus or any malware. It's just a glitch in Firefox caused by running Java. This simple explanation took me hours to figure out so I thought I would share this with you to make life easier for you if it happens to you.

Your Firefox browser is the culprit. Exiting the browser or even rebooting the computer will not fix the problem. The reason is that the program has gotten stuck on some bad Java code and even when you exit the browser, there is a copy of it running in the background that you do not see. When you start the browser up again, the problem is still there because actually you never really exited the program and so never stopped it executing the bad Java code.

What you need to do is manually shut down all versions of Firefox that may be running in the background. This include shutting down any other programs published by Mozilla, the organization that puts out the Firefox internet browser. The instructions below assume that you are running some form of Windows such as Vista or Windows 7 or Windows Xp as your operating system. If you are using a Mac I am sorry but I can't help you.

This is what you do:

• Close your Firefox browser.
• Press down on the Crtl - Alt - Delete keys at the same time.
• Pressing on all three keys at the same time will bring up a pup up window that has the heading "Windows Task Manager"
• At the top of the window there will be a navigation menu with tabs. Click on the one that says "Processes"
• When you click on the "Processes" window you will see a list of the programs that are currently running on your computer. You will not recognize most of them. Don't worry, it doesn't matter.
• Do you see a program running called Firefox.exe?
• If so, use your mouse to select the Firefox.exe program and click on it once. The firefox.exe line should now be highlighted or have a blue background.
• At the bottom of t he pop up window you are looking at you should see a button that reads: "End Process". Click on it.
• In a minute or so, the firefox.exe entry in the list of processes should disappear.
• When firefox.exe disappears from the pop up window, start your firefox browser back up.
• When firefox starts up again it will give you the option of recovering the tabs that you have closed. Say no.
• Try typing an internet address in the navigation bar at the top of the browser. For example try going to Google. If you can get to Google, then try typing a search. If the text comes out normal, the problem has been fixed.

If this did not fix the problem it could be because you are using other Mozilla programs, such as Thunderbird. Try the above instructions but this time shut down thunderbird.exe

I hope that you found this article on how to fix your keyboard typing backwards useful. Please feel free to link to this article [http://hubpages.com/hub/Firefox-Typing-Backwards] or Add Me. See my other articles.