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

Updating thunderbird without administrative privilleges

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 273 views
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė gacuxz

more options

Hello. Problem We can't update Thunderbird with user without administrative privileges: after downloading update through Thunderbird itself and restarting Thunderbird after, Update.exe is asking for administrative account password. If canceled, Thunderbird shows up "Thunderbird can't update to the latest version" and offers to download Thunderbird manually. Mozilla Maintenance Service is up and running. We're trying to update from 91.7.0 (64-bit) to 91.8.0 (64-bit). Thunderbird isn't installed in the default directory "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" but in "C:\Soft\Mozilla Thunderbird" because of secure policy. What we've tried We compared the permissions including owner with Thunderbird installed in "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" with installed in "C:\Soft\Mozilla Thunderbird" and made them consist, but with no success. Workaround We noticed, that if Thunderbird is installed in the default directory "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird", update completes successfully. So the non-default install directory may be the problem. Questions Is there anything we could do or try at this point? Could this be a bug? Is anyone experiencing the same behavior when installing Thunderbird to non-default directory.

Hello. '''Problem''' We can't update Thunderbird with user without administrative privileges: after downloading update through Thunderbird itself and restarting Thunderbird after, Update.exe is asking for administrative account password. If canceled, Thunderbird shows up "Thunderbird can't update to the latest version" and offers to download Thunderbird manually. Mozilla Maintenance Service is up and running. We're trying to update from 91.7.0 (64-bit) to 91.8.0 (64-bit). Thunderbird isn't installed in the default directory "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" but in "C:\Soft\Mozilla Thunderbird" because of secure policy. '''What we've tried''' We compared the permissions including owner with Thunderbird installed in "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" with installed in "C:\Soft\Mozilla Thunderbird" and made them consist, but with no success. '''Workaround''' We noticed, that if Thunderbird is installed in the default directory "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird", update completes successfully. So the non-default install directory may be the problem. '''Questions''' Is there anything we could do or try at this point? Could this be a bug? Is anyone experiencing the same behavior when installing Thunderbird to non-default directory.
Pridėtos ekrano nuotraukos

Chosen solution

WIndows requires administrator to update all non standard root folders on the C: drive. If I recall correctly I think this was something that arrived with windows 2000 on the general desktop having come from Windows NT.

The internet has many many articles on modifying widows file and folder permissions for systems administrators. I would suggest you look again at why your are not using windows default file locations and security. You are making securing your systems significantly more difficult by trying to make your own storage locations, without any tangible saving in time or effort from doing so.

Skaityti atsakymą kartu su kontekstu 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

WIndows requires administrator to update all non standard root folders on the C: drive. If I recall correctly I think this was something that arrived with windows 2000 on the general desktop having come from Windows NT.

The internet has many many articles on modifying widows file and folder permissions for systems administrators. I would suggest you look again at why your are not using windows default file locations and security. You are making securing your systems significantly more difficult by trying to make your own storage locations, without any tangible saving in time or effort from doing so.

more options

Thank you, Matt! I didn't know about this Windows 2000/Windows NT behavior that lasts till these days. We noticed, though that if Thunderbird is installed in non-default directory like "C:\Soft\Mozilla Thunderbird" AND permissions for Everyone are Full control, the update completes successfully. Has anyone any idea which user/group could be added instead of Everyone so that update could be made successfully too? I've found "Interactive user" group which makes this work, but it seems like every Windows user is already automatically included in this group so it's like giving Full permissions to everyone altogether.