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Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem

Premium Member

[Firefox] How to totally turn off the Firefox auto-updater in Firefox 65?

How do you do that?

I'd been running v.65 for quite a while with no problems. Then finally let FF update to v.66 two days ago. Ever since it has frequently locked up when visiting CNN. Locked up so tight that I can't even close FF in Task Manager.

So I uninstalled v.66 and reinstalled v.65. Now FF wants to update itself constantly, saying "close browser to update".

Are there changes that can be made in about:config to totally stop the unwanted updates to FF?

BTW, the Mozilla Maintenance Service is not installed.

ltsnow
Premium Member
join:2006-04-08
Valdosta, GA

4 recommendations

ltsnow

Premium Member

Yes, install this policy generator and you can set policies for all kinds of things, including blocking updates. Works great. Just follow the directions.

»addons.mozilla.org/en-US ··· nerator/
kersey
join:2017-12-22

2 edits

2 recommendations

kersey to Gem

Member

to Gem
The quickest way is to add a registry entry that disables automatic updates:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox]
"DisableAppUpdate"=dword:00000001

You'll then see it in options that updates are blocked. I prefer to do it manually so this works perfectly for me.

ltsnow
Premium Member
join:2006-04-08
Valdosta, GA

ltsnow

Premium Member

Where do you find this registry entry? I don't have it.
kersey
join:2017-12-22

1 edit

2 recommendations

kersey

Member

If it's not there you'd have to create it.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies then right click the Policies key to create a new key Mozilla. Then right click the new Mozilla key and create another key Firefox. Right click the Firefox key and create this dword:

DisableAppUpdate

Double click on that and add 1 to disable updates.

ltsnow
Premium Member
join:2006-04-08
Valdosta, GA

ltsnow

Premium Member

OK, that now makes sense, but before you had the number "1" where software should have been.
kersey
join:2017-12-22

kersey

Member

said by ltsnow:

OK, that now makes sense, but before you had the number "1" where software should have been.

Yes my mistake, I loaded the hive from Win 7 and forgot to change it. :--)
Frodo
join:2006-05-05

3 recommendations

Frodo to Gem

Member

to Gem
Go into services.msc and disable the maintenance service.

Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

2 recommendations

Gem

Premium Member

Thanks all.

I tried all the suggestions and appeared to stop the actual updates, but was still getting the UAC notice on opening Firefox that the Firefox Updater wanted to make changes on my computer each time Firefox was opened.

To stop the UAC notices from the updater I renamed it from an .exe file to a .bak file just in case anyone is interested.
Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel to Frodo

Premium Member

to Frodo
I do not have the maintenance service installed and it still tells me when there is an update available

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

2 recommendations

therube

Member

Regardless of what the "Service" may happen to say, it does nothing to "secure" or "update" FF.

You'll have to try some of the means mentioned above to actually block updates.
Frodo
join:2006-05-05

1 recommendation

Frodo to Sentinel

Member

to Sentinel
said by Sentinel:

it still tells me when there is an update available

It used to be, there was an option to check manually and they got rid of that much to my ire. They like network connections to the mothership.
Right now, in addition to disabling that servioe, I have my update settings like this:


I'm hearing that Mozilla is screwing around with updates, so I'm thinking the situation could deteriorate further.
quote:
Good news: Full background update functionality is in the works.

That sounds to me like the service thing that I currently have disabled. My problem with 3rd party services, aside from incompatibility with my particular setup is, they typically don't perform service hardening. Instead, they run with unrestricted privileges as SYSTEM, and hence, the cure is worse than the disease.
bbear2
Premium Member
join:2003-10-06
dot.earth

bbear2 to Gem

Premium Member

to Gem
Not knowing anything about this (don't use that version) but if there is a separate update process or update probe that looks for an update - which there often is - can't you add a firewall rule to block it? I do this with many apps that phone home looking for updates. Once in my permanent firewall block, never have to worry about it again.
Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel to kersey

Premium Member

to kersey
said by kersey:

The quickest way is to add a registry entry that disables automatic updates:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox]
"DisableAppUpdate"=dword:00000001

You'll then see it in options that updates are blocked. I prefer to do it manually so this works perfectly for me.

One question because I prefer to do manual updates myself also. After doing this reg edit can you still do a manual update?
kersey
join:2017-12-22

2 edits

2 recommendations

kersey

Member

said by Sentinel:

One question because I prefer to do manual updates myself also. After doing this reg edit can you still do a manual update?

Manually in my case is downloading the program and running it that way. I actually never install firefox but rather download the zip file, unpack it then run firefox.exe directly from the firefox folder so there are no mozilla maintainance services or crud like that installed. I don't bother with the releases, just the nightly but this works for releases too that are installed.

If you mean selecting Menu > Help > Check for updates and manually doing it that way I wouldn't know, all you can do is try it but it would probably have to be done in the admin account even if it does work.
Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel

Premium Member

Ah, OK. Yes, that was what I was referring to.
Thanks for the answer.
Sentinel

Sentinel

Premium Member

In case anyone was curious ... doing this results in the dialog box in options to state that "updates are disabled your administrator". So you are unable to manually update in that manner.
My guess is that you could go to that key and change it from a 1 to a zero and then run the manual update and then change it back if you desired, but that sounds like a pain.

Possibly a good way to do it would be to download the full new version and install it over the existing version. Maybe that would be a better update anyway. Anyone know if that would be better or worse?

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

2 recommendations

therube

Member

Theoretically there should be no difference between a .mar (update update) & a full download & install (update).
Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel

Premium Member

I hope so because I think that is how I am going to update from now on. I'm just going to download the full exe and install over the top of existing.
Sentinel

2 recommendations

Sentinel

Premium Member

Just tested it out ... in case anyone is interested.
I have the update stop registry edit in place which finally stops all auto-updating. So the newest update would not download and/or install. I then went to the Mozilla website and downloaded the full downloaded and ran it over the existing install. Worked fine. Updated me to the latest version with no discernible side effects.
tlbepson
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
dc metro

2 recommendations

tlbepson

Premium Member


sentinel:
>>I have the update stop registry edit in place

Did that Registry entry get overwritten when you did the overlay install?


Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

2 recommendations

Sentinel

Premium Member

No
tlbepson
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
dc metro

tlbepson

Premium Member


sentinel:
>>No

Neato keeno!!! '-}}