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How do I disable the tab prompting users to update to the newest version of firefox?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 96 views
  • Last reply by James

snguyen
snguyen
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I work for an IT department for a university. We would like to manage updates on our own.

When users open firefox, a tab pops up informing users that they version of firefox they are using is out of date. We would like to disable this tab because, updating and installing firefox requires administrative power.

As far as I know, I have not found any preferences in about:config that would mitigate this. Thanks.

I work for an IT department for a university. We would like to manage updates on our own. When users open firefox, a tab pops up informing users that they version of firefox they are using is out of date. We would like to disable this tab because, updating and installing firefox requires administrative power. As far as I know, I have not found any preferences in about:config that would mitigate this. Thanks.

All Replies (4)

WilIP
WilIP
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Hi snguyen, have you tried the advanced update settings under options? I'm not sure how you would implement this over a whole network though. But anyway here's how to do it for a single instance:

  1. Click the orange Firefox button in the top left (or 'Tools' if you don't have the button)
  2. Go to 'Options' > 'Options' (or just click 'Options' if you clicked 'Tools')
  3. Click the 'Advanced' heading/tab
  4. Click the 'Update' tab within there
  5. Select 'Never check for updates' from the list of radio buttons
  6. Click 'OK' on that window to finish

Please let us know how you get on.

snguyen
snguyen Question owner
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I'm aware of that option, but performing that routine over several classrooms of computers is in no way feasible. I'm looking for a configurable preference file we can push out to every computer in our domain via a powershe script.

WilIP
WilIP
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OK, you have to set app.update.enabled to false and this will achieve the same effect as 'Never check for updates'.

I assume by the fact that you get prompts for updates that you currently have app.update.auto set to false, but this only stops automatic updates and Firefox will still check for updates and prompt you to update unless app.update.enabled is set to false.

As long as app.update.enabled is false, the value of app.update.auto shouldn't matter.

James
James
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You may want to consider using the current ESR which is based on Firefox 24.0. The current update is 24.4.0 in line with Firefox 28.0 release. When Firefox 29.0 is released at end of month the ESR will update to 24.5.0

The next major version ESR will change to will be based on Firefox 31.0 and 24 esr should still get a couple security updates then.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

Modified by James