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Firefox Browser vs. Mozilla Firefox Browser in Win10

bob_ferguson1
bob_ferguson1
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Last year someone asked about 2 Firefox for Android applications; I just had two different copies of Firefox installed on my Win 10 laptop (one in an attempt by Microsoft to upgrade to Win 11) where all my data was in the old app named 'Mozilla Firefox') while the newly installed app was just 'Firefox' and had none of my data. I did not attempt that new install, it seems Microsoft did ?? They also mentioned wanting to redirect the new Firefox to specific Domain Name Service servers, rather than the traditional server addresses provided by the local network. Anyone know what's going on?

Last year someone asked about 2 Firefox for Android applications; I just had two different copies of Firefox installed on my Win 10 laptop (one in an attempt by Microsoft to upgrade to Win 11) where all my data was in the old app named 'Mozilla Firefox') while the newly installed app was just 'Firefox' and had none of my data. I did not attempt that new install, it seems Microsoft did ?? They also mentioned wanting to redirect the new Firefox to specific Domain Name Service servers, rather than the traditional server addresses provided by the local network. Anyone know what's going on?

All Replies (2)

James
James
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Firefox is available on the Microsoft Store. I would say it is batter to download the full Firefox setup from Mozilla as in www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/download-firefox-windows-microsoft-store

Running Firefox installed from Mozilla and running Firefox installed from the Microsoft Store will create two separate Firefox profiles.

Modified by James

bob_ferguson1
bob_ferguson1 Question owner
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General responses: "Never use microsoft to update FireFox": I didn't 'use' Microsoft, they did that, without my input. Seemed to be part of a software upgrade. "I would say it is batter to download the full Firefox setup from Mozilla": well, I agree, but I didn't download it at all, the new copy appeared after the Microsoft software patch to Windows. I presume it was part of a patch script. "figure which one is actual mozilla/firefox and remove the Microsoft version": I concluded that the version that had my history was the previous installation, the new one had no history. The next Firefox upgrade updated both versions. But they are configured differently, so I wonder what the purpose was... "Running Firefox installed from Mozilla and running Firefox installed from the Microsoft Store will create two separate Firefox profiles": Yup, that's what happened. But why did they do that? If they added the Microsoft version for some compatibility issue with the new patch, am I compromising the patch/install by removing their version (are there unseen hooks in their version)?