Need workaround for another Firefox improvement.

ignatzatsonic said:

Is it your understanding that the Toggle application has the same effect as the following instructions and code? I have been using this code for a week and it has defeated the nag popup, but I am not clear on whether or not it also defeats auto-updating. I'd prefer it did and that updates are ONLY on demand.


Create a directory called "distribution" in the same directory as your Firefox executable.
Using Notepad, create a file called policies.json in that directory and put the following in it

{

"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}

Ok. There's a small problem with that... when I updated FF to 88.0 it erased the distribution folder.

But just putting it in there again and re-starting FF fixes it.

I use a little bit different code.

Code:

{
	"policies": {
		"AppUpdateURL": "http://127.0.0.1/",
		"DisableAppUpdate": true,
		"DisableFirefoxStudies": true,
		"DisableSystemAddonUpdate": true,
		"DisableTelemetry": true,
		"ExtensionUpdate": false
	}
}

Here's the complete file already in the "distribution" folder, that you just need to drop into...
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox, or where ever you have FF installed.
Then just restart FF and you're done.

distribution.7z

Virustotal scan: VirusTotal







/edit

I tired the registry edit.. didn't work on FF 88.0, even after a reboot and restart of FF.

ignatzatsonic said:

Not quite clear on your edited response, Ghot...

You say my single line of code does NOT survive a manual update. Could be. Have not attempted an update and don't currently want to. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that I could NOT manually update unless I first remove that code.

Does your 6 lines of code survive an update?

If not, what's the advantage of 6 lines?

Do you have to manually remove your distribution folder and the 6 lines of code to do a manual update?

NO.

MY code did not survive an update. The update deleted the "distribution" folder.
I put MY distribution folder back and restarted firefox... and all was well again.

I have no idea what the advantage of 6 lines is.
The only things I notice are that MY code also disables things like telemetry and FF studies.

I didn't write the code, I just found and tested it.

The reason I quoted you was so you would know that the next FF update might break YOUR code too.
They share the same line... "DisableAppUpdate": true

ignatzatsonic said:

OK;

My code and your code are both worthless for my purposes IF they don't defeat forced updates.

So far my code has apparently defeated updates. I have not seen an update nag or a "Congratulations, you are using the latest version of Firefox" in 5 or 6 days.....ever since I inserted the code.

I didn't write my code either. The one line is as I found it somewhere in a forum, direct from a Mozilla employee/developer.

We shall see over time.

Yeah, same with mine. I started searching on the Mozillazine forums.
Previously, mine worked also... I just double checked it today when I saw the reg edit post.
I noticed it was "checking for updates" again.

I tried the reg edit.. that didn't help. I looked in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox ...and to my surprise... no distribution folder.
So I put it in there again, and restarted FF, and you can see the result from the pic above.

RickC said:

I'm still on FF 86.0.1 so only looked at what the toggler did in the registry (using Process Explorer) then removed the registry setting completely without restarting.

After the 'fun and games' you folks have been having... I think I'll stick with this version a little longer.

I note that since disabling the 'Mozilla Maintenance Service' I'm not getting the nags every hour or so to update now. Is this service not part of the jigsaw?

Yeah, the Maintenance Service adds to the issue. I never check that box when updating FF.
I always do manual updates.

The info in post #41 or post #43 will stop the updates.
We're just not sure if after the "next" update, we won't have to put the "distribution" folder back into...
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

I always manually download the updates from here: Download the Firefox Browser in English (US) and more than 90 other languages


We also have a topic just for the latest FF updates here: Latest Firefox released for Windows [2]

Having got tired of the oh-so-frequent updates of FF, I rather like the idea of adding group policy templates - and there's a lot of them.

Here's the result- a visible reminder:


How to Install and Use Firefox Group Policies in Windows

Thanks for the link @Callender !