Firefox download manager not showing up

Problem:

Was recently having trouble with Firefox: the download manager would not showup when downloading files. Also, when brought up using the Tools | Downloads menu, the download manager would contain nothing at all.

Solution:

had to delete the downloads.rdf file in my firefox profile (located in C:\Documents and Settings\<windows logon profile>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profile\<firefox profile>

http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.firefox/browse_thread/thread/f5cabe2f4325ba07/930c8ea25b5cdd85