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

"unauthorized to make changes to this (binary) file" WHAT ? ? ?

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

Have Firefox, trying to upgrade to 4. Download starts, message pops up that I am not authorized to make changes to the file. What's up with this?????

Have Firefox, trying to upgrade to 4. Download starts, message pops up that I am not authorized to make changes to the file. What's up with this?????

All Replies (1)

more options

Check that you do not run Firefox as Administrator.

Right-click the Firefox desktop shortcut and choose "Properties".
Make sure that all items are deselected in the "Compatibility" tab of the Properties window.

  • Privilege Level: "Run this program as Administrator" should not be selected
  • "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" should not be selected

Also check the Properties of the firefox.exe program in the Firefox program directory.

If you can't make the changes then you need to start Windows Explorer as Administrator.