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Firefox 52.9 ESR wont stop updating to Quantum

Tiny4409
Tiny4409
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I am using a couple plugins that we need for our imaging system so I need the old version of firefox, which is why I have had the ESR installed for several months now. Well, Monday 75% of the machines updated, not all just most of them. I went around and re-installed 52.9 ESR on all of the effected machines, then Tuesday they updated again. So Yesterday, I went back to an older 51 ESR version, double checked it was set to never check, and verified that all the services were set to not update. I come into the office today and guess what... updated AGAIN!

I have attached the Firefox data from my PC, which also updated to 60.1.0esr. Also, after the update, Firefox is now set to automatically update.

I know there was something supposed to happen on July 2nd for the ESR version and an EOL date of Aug 31st 2018, but why are these PC's updating even though I have told them not to?

I am using a couple plugins that we need for our imaging system so I need the old version of firefox, which is why I have had the ESR installed for several months now. Well, Monday 75% of the machines updated, not all just most of them. I went around and re-installed 52.9 ESR on all of the effected machines, then Tuesday they updated again. So Yesterday, I went back to an older 51 ESR version, double checked it was set to never check, and verified that all the services were set to not update. I come into the office today and guess what... updated AGAIN! I have attached the Firefox data from my PC, which also updated to 60.1.0esr. Also, after the update, Firefox is now set to automatically update. I know there was something supposed to happen on July 2nd for the ESR version and an EOL date of Aug 31st 2018, but why are these PC's updating even though I have told them not to?

All Replies (3)

Shadow110
Shadow110
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Hi, they are being forced.

No idea behind the reason but suspect too many versions to provide support to and is to get everyone standardized. Just my thought.

Search for Updater.exe and rename it to Updater-old.exe

James
James
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The Firefox 52.9.0 ESR from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/ was just released on June 26 along with the 60.1.0ESR.

There should not be a update from 52.9.x ESR to 60 ESR until 60.2.0 ESR out on Sept 5th. The legacy 52 ESR will then be EOL with no more support then. Any updates for 52 ESR should be 52.9.x for security and or stability fixes in meantime.

There is no 51 ESR version as that was Release only. ESR versions were based on 10.0, 17.0, 24.0, 31.0, 38.0, 45.0, 52.0 and now 60.0 Releases.

Modified by James

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
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On Windows PC's the Mozilla Maintenance Service (MMS) might be forcing those updates. I think there is a "back-door switch" that can be enabled on the updates server, which allows Mozilla to overrride the "Never check for updates" user set preference and it uses the MMS "feature" to be able to do that, IMO. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-mozilla-maintenance-service

Open the Firefox program files folder and look for maintenanceservice.exe and maintenanceservice-installer.exe. If you find those files, delete them. IMO, Firefox program updates can be "force-fed" by Mozilla. I have been caught by that on a few occasions in the past. On my previous OC running WinXP, I had every version of Firefox installed that was released from 2008 up thru 2015 (when I stopped using that PC as my primary device) - that MMS sure wreaked havoc until I figured out what was "forcing updates" and deleting those two files.

Also, I null the URL for the app.update.url preference to stop Firefox from knowing where updates come from.