I am not convinced that this is purely confined to a Linux system, so I am posting in the general IT forum.

I am using Firefox in Linux Mint 20. I had a series of frequently used mini icons at the bottom of my screen and somehow at one stroke managed to delete all of them. I do not know how I did it. I accessed "All applications" and reinstalled them one by one from the menu, but, they have all appeared in a different position on the right hand side bar.

They all bring up the desired programmes as before, but when when I try to minimise a window with a view to recalling it later, clicking on the minimise bar closes the programme completely and I cannot get it back.

What have I done wrong and how can I fix it?

3 minutes ago, Maybole said:

What have I done wrong and how can I fix it?

You have installed Linux. Fix it by using Windows 10... LOL  555....It's a joke!

I don't get it. Judging by description you are talking about the dock or icon tray. How does it relate to Firefox?

I am not sure if it is a roblem with the icons or if there are two problems, the second with the browser.

I am now trying a system restore to see if that will cure it (them).

Do not understand completely your description with "Firefox(FF) and row of icons at the bottom of the screen" ?

aye)Firefox offers a bookmarks bar, that indeed offers a lot of icons for frequently visited websites. It is however not sitting on the bottom of the screen but just below the address bar. You could loose all icons at once, if you would delete all your bookmarks (in a kind of spring-clean-out-rage; but don't know you did that)

In the newer versions of FF you can select for the bookmarks bar to be : always visible, or only show on new tab, or never show. So check this: click right mouse on the bookmark bar and see what is selected.

bee)if the icons at the bottom of the screen sit in the dock of Mint, for easy start of programs, I am lost how you can loose them all at once. I work with Ubuntu and  don't know Mint (though it seems to be also a Debian based distro). What Ubuntu allows is to position the dock where you want it, left,right, top of bottom ; I guess Mint has teh same option to locate the dock.

 

and BTW nowadays many Linux disctributions (Ubuntu, Mint, Meta etc) do nor require any special IT skills a normal computer user can use it as easy as WIndows, some parts even easier and most of all Linux distro's are free and mostly less buggie than Windows10.

 

Off topic and responses removed.