I accidiently deleted the default firefox browser on my ebay purchased dell inspiron 9" mini and now have no browser. I am not tech savy at all and attempted various things but can not find a way to re install, i even created a the same linux os on a usb (followed youtube tutorial) with the hopes of giving a fresh install but have no idea what im doing. I have nothing stored on the hard drive so can either do a fresh install ??? (preferable) or get some help to reinstall a browser.

Run synaptic (from the menu) and put firefox in the search box.
select the appropriate box and click on "apply"

You may be asked for a password - enter your own password.

thanks for the reply but unfortunately i dont seem to be able to type / highlight the search bar in the menu ?

Do you know how to run a command in the terminal?

If so, type in apt install firefox

If not, open Software Manager from the start menu, enter "firefox" in the box on the top right hand side, hit Return, double click on Firefox in the list of entries, and then click on the Install button.

How did you manage to remove Firefox? Could you have caused other damage as well?

Have you made any possibly severe changes to the system?
For example can you still run any programs from your menu?

You don't indicated which Mint you have (Mate, Cinnamon, etc.) but click on the Main Menu button in the lower left and look for Package Manager. That should open synaptic and you have a Search tab in the upper right of that window. Just type in firefox in the input box. If you don't get the synaptic window, you have more serious problems than removing firefox or the version of Mint you have may not use synaptic. I don't have Mint 18 so can't verify that. On Mint 17 Mate, the Package Manager from the Main Menu opens synaptic.

If you don't know which desktop environment you are using, open a terminal and run the command below:

Fixed cmd:-

Hi again Jeremy. I restarted the dell and mangaed to run synaptic but there is no firefox listed there. I have just opened software manager and have found firfox it is listed as installed but I cant find how to use / open or add to desktop. I did also attempt to run that command you suggested in the terminal, when prompted for my password I could not enter it ? To answer your your question im not actually shore how i deleted it, I think I right click inside the software manager or ?? and than selected delete. I have only made some simple changes to to the system (firewall security) following a youtube tutorial. I guess now I just need to knowhow I can get firefox back onto the desktop so its useable. thanks

OP is running Linux Mint 18.1 which supports the apt command without sudo (it asks for your password when you run it).

ommikka, ignore all this please:

@Ztcoracat: Mint 18 has added a Python wrapper for the apt command (/usr/local/bin/apt). This adds several more apt commands, and redirects the various apt commands to apt-cache, apt-get, dpkg, etc...

One of the things that the script does is, for selected apt commands, prefix the onward request with a sudo. Thus you can call the apt command itself without using sudo.

e.g. apt install firefox

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It sounds as if you have more than one problem. What do you mean that you couldn't enter the password when you were prompted for it on the command line? What exactly happened?

Thanks all for your help, running commands in the terminal was a success to reinstall firefox, just need to work out how to add it to the desktop for ease of access.

Do you know which desktop environment you are running? If not, can you run inxi -S and paste the output here.

You can do a lot of damage altering your firewall. Customisation is almost certainly not needed on a desktop.
My modem/router contains a built-in firewall which blocks nearly all attacks.

Do you still have the original install media?
It's probably easier to re-install than to undo the effects of youtube.

Only make changes to your firewall that you fully understand the effects of.

If you want to test if your current firefox works, you could simply type the firefox command into a Terminal command entry screen.
THIS IS VERY NON-STANDARD and shouldn't normally be used!