This is a direct result of the Microsoft update, that has been supplied for a time as a critical update (so may have been installed without your knowledge) but currently offered as an optional update because of these issues. Note that this platform update may also have been installed as a prerequisite for MSIE 10.
So far, this seems to affect:
- All ATI/AMD HD3000 series graphics
- All ATI/AMD HD4000 series graphics
- ATI Mobility chipsets of the same series
- Hybrid systems of Intel/other graphics and dedicated ATI/AMD GPUs in laptops
- Legacy video cards of several different manufacturers
To uninstall update 2670838, follow these steps:Microsoft wrote:[sic: about affected systems] Microsoft is currently working with AMD to find the cause of the problem and determine the appropriate fix. If you have installed the Platform Update for Windows 7 on this computer, we recommend that you uninstall update 2670838.
- Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, and then click Programs and Features.
- Click View installed updates.
- Click Update for Microsoft Windows (KB 2670838), and then click Uninstall.
- (Optional) Start Pale Moon in safe mode if you are having such severe issues the user interface is broken: Hold the SHIFT key pressed down when starting the browser, this will open the Safe Mode dialog box, select "Continue in safe mode"
- In the address bar, type about:config and press enter
- In the configuration editor that opens, use the filter text field and type in "azure"
- Find the preference gfx.content.azure.enabled and double-click it to set it to false
- Close and restart the browser
About the Platform Update and details about affected systems: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2670838
Related Mozilla bugreport: bug #812695