Odd tor browser behavior I haven't seen before

Symptoms: Upon opening tor shortcut (firefox.exe) as admin, sometimes if I am lucky, I get the normal purple start with tab title “About Tor”), but neither DuckDuckGo search nor direct url bar entry gives a page response.
Additionally - sometimes at startup, I just get a blank “new tab” page. There is a Connecting/Connected message in the title bar that then goes away. When it is in this state, I can access pancake bar, but nothing happens when I select “Setttings”.
If I close the browser, and then start it again, I get the message that “Tor browser is already running but is not responding. The old Tor Browser process must be closed to open a new window”. Letting it proceed (or killing the tor process stack in process explorer brings me back to the same issue above.

Operating System: Windows 10 (fresh installation)
Tor Browser version: 12.5.3 64-bit( fresh installtion of torbrowser-install-win64-12.5.3_ALL installed as admin)
Tor Browser Security Level: running as admin
Tor browser reports Internet: Online, Tor Network: Connected
No bridges (default install option)
Nord VPN installed on machine but NOT running.

For testing, I’ve tried:

  • disabling windows virus protection (not running any 3rd party at this time)
  • disabling firewall
  • deleting the TorBrowser folder and reinstalling from scratch

Sample Tor log:

2023-08-31 17:37:12.327 [NOTICE] New control connection opened from 127.0.0.1.
2023-08-31 17:37:12.327 [NOTICE] New control connection opened from 127.0.0.1.
2023-08-31 17:37:12.329 [NOTICE] DisableNetwork is set. Tor will not make or accept non-control network connections. Shutting down all existing connections.
2023-08-31 17:37:12.330 [NOTICE] DisableNetwork is set. Tor will not make or accept non-control network connections. Shutting down all existing connections.
2023-08-31 17:37:12.349 [NOTICE] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9150
2023-08-31 17:37:12.349 [NOTICE] Opened Socks listener connection (ready) on 127.0.0.1:9150
2023-08-31 17:37:13.336 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 5% (conn): Connecting to a relay
2023-08-31 17:37:13.425 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 10% (conn_done): Connected to a relay
2023-08-31 17:37:13.514 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 14% (handshake): Handshaking with a relay
2023-08-31 17:37:13.776 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 15% (handshake_done): Handshake with a relay done
2023-08-31 17:37:13.777 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 75% (enough_dirinfo): Loaded enough directory info to build circuits
2023-08-31 17:37:13.824 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 90% (ap_handshake_done): Handshake finished with a relay to build circuits
2023-08-31 17:37:13.825 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 95% (circuit_create): Establishing a Tor circuit
2023-08-31 17:37:14.188 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 100% (done): Done
2023-08-31 17:37:15.028 [NOTICE] New control connection opened from 127.0.0.1.
2023-08-31 17:37:30.866 [NOTICE] New control connection opened from 127.0.0.1.

Can anyone help?

Have you considered trying Tails?

Windows comes with it’s own set of convoluted problems and remote exploits patched frequently I would not trust using it with Tor. A spyware POS OS released by a convicted monopoly.

Maybe if you have a spare USB lying around you could give Tails a go. Much simpler - no antivirus conflicts or strange things which don’t seem to work right…[1] Windows is such a mess.

[1] Not to suggest Tails is perfect but it’s sure a lot better than running Tor in Windows.