Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How can I prevent users from choosing when to install updates and force them to always have auto updates enabled?

  • 7 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by jamejuan

more options

I am attempting to prevent all users in the business from preventing automatic updates. Is there any means of .cfg file, or policy that will grey-out the option for users to "check for updates but choose when to install them. Thanks for any help!

I am attempting to prevent all users in the business from preventing automatic updates. Is there any means of .cfg file, or policy that will grey-out the option for users to "check for updates but choose when to install them. Thanks for any help!
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Forcing auto-update via autoconfig is currently broken on Windows.

  • Bug 1579332 - app.update.auto set to true and locked in about:config does not lock Check box in about:preferences

(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html
)

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (7)

more options
more options

I appreciate the answer, however, it appears the policy I need to enforce "app.update.auto" is deprecated in Firefox policy settings. I cannot seem to find an equivalent setting.

more options

app.update.auto is still in about:config.

Using Autoconfig:

lockPref(prefName, value) – sets the default value of a preference and locks it. This is the most commonly used function. Locking a preference prevents a user from changing it, and in most cases, disables the UI in preferences so it is obvious to the user that the preference has been disabled.

lockPref("app.update.auto", true);

Of course, one would make sure users do not have privileges and cannot take privileges or ownership on the necessary autoconfig.js and firefox.cfg files. (I would guess that as the files are not in the user's Windows profile folder, they cannot have access to them by default.)

This should work, i think?

more options

I absolutely think it should yes, however, I just tested it with those settings locked (attached image). Initially it started updating Firefox to the newest version but I was still able to interrupt the update by selecting Check for updates but let you choose to install them.

This as some users for whatever reason are selecting this option which results in security issues.

more options

McCoy suggested to me the pref "app.update.auto.migrated" which you would have to add to the about:config, it seems.

It would look like this in the prefs.js file in the user profile, if you wanted to merge the text into file. user_pref("app.update.auto.migrated", true);

Perhaps this will help.

more options

Chosen Solution

Forcing auto-update via autoconfig is currently broken on Windows.

  • Bug 1579332 - app.update.auto set to true and locked in about:config does not lock Check box in about:preferences

(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html
)

more options

Thankyou all very much for the info.