I must preface this posting with a warning

....you are taking to a somewhat computer illiterate person who came to this technology late in life.
I believe I downloaded this Firefox software at one time in the past but then had trouble opening a number of files that I had saved that required Explorer to open them. Could that be true?
I think it sort of took over my computer and started changing a lot of things?? Its been awhile, so the memory of has faded.
If so how do I avoid that?