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Automatically update Firefox at certain day/time without opening it?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by loosus

loosus
loosus
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In our student computer labs, we use a program called "DeepFreeze," which wipes all changes made to the computer upon reboot.

Every Saturday at 1 AM to 5 AM, our computers turn on and go into a thawed mode, where changes can be made to the computers. We would like to set Firefox updates to occur during this window. Obviously, this needs to be automatic without human intervention.

I was thinking I could make a scheduled task in Windows to tell Firefox to update itself via command line, but does such a thing exist?

In our student computer labs, we use a program called "DeepFreeze," which wipes all changes made to the computer upon reboot. Every Saturday at 1 AM to 5 AM, our computers turn on and go into a thawed mode, where changes can be made to the computers. We would like to set Firefox updates to occur during this window. Obviously, this needs to be automatic without human intervention. I was thinking I could make a scheduled task in Windows to tell Firefox to update itself via command line, but does such a thing exist?

All Replies (4)

Shadow110
Shadow110
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See if anything is useful here : https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_Service_Silent_Update

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

loosus
loosus Question owner
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This is definitely on the right track.

So, which EXE do I actually call? I see "updater.exe" is listed, but it insinuates that you somehow have to call the MozillaMaintenance service first? What would be an example command-line that would do a silent update of Firefox?

Shadow110
Shadow110
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loosus said

This is definitely on the right track. So, which EXE do I actually call? I see "updater.exe" is listed, but it insinuates that you somehow have to call the MozillaMaintenance service first? What would be an example command-line that would do a silent update of Firefox?

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29768157/silently-updating-firefox-via-command-prompt-windows

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=517149

https://superuser.com/questions/376546/how-to-trigger-a-check-for-updates-in-firefox-programatically-or-from-a-command The links to the latest Firefox versions have been decommissioned, so you need to go to the update directory of the version you need. _________________ You can only update Firefox from within a browser that is running. Otherwise you would have to download the corect MAR file and apply the update manually yourself.

wiki.mozilla.org/Software_Update wiki.mozilla.org/Software_Update:Manually_Installing_a_MAR_file wiki.mozilla.org/Software_Update:updates.xml_Format

You need these three files in the updates\0 folder to update Firefox via a MAR file:

  • update.mar (renamed update partial/complete.mar)
  • update.status: pending + linefeed (0x0A) (use this data URI: data:text/plain,pending%0A)
  • update.version: xx.xx.xx (version to update to, e.g. 50.1.0)

Maybe you should be doing this : Google search using terms : firefox silent update command line and update firefox batch file ,

Best I can help, others know more.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

loosus
loosus Question owner
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So to be clear, are you saying that Firefox cannot be automatically updated via command line without opening Firefox?