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Bug? Firefox updater does not handle non-administrative accounts gracefully

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System: Win7 both Home and Pro. - 64 bit. Plenty of memory, thoroughly scanned for virii and malware. Current as of this instant date except for IE which has been deliberately held back to IE-10.

Issue: When installed to a non-administrative account, the update process does not work, reports it does not work, and suggests a download from the main site.

Though not horrifically fatal, (it doesn't crash the system, corrupt the hard drive, give you bed-bugs, or rat you out to the IRS), it is not as graceful a way to handle updates from within a non-administrative account.

Suggested behavior: 1. The updater should detect if it has sufficient privilege to update. 2. If not, the updater should explain that the update to Firefox requires Administrative privileges and offer the user three choices: (a) Request process elevation and ask for Administrator approval (by providing an administrative password.) (b) Save the update to the user's desktop where an administrator can install it later. (c) Cancel and quit.

The current process simply indicates that the update could not install - without providing a clear reason why - and leaves the user mystified. Obviously, the user will - eventually - discover that the issue is his standard (non-Administrative), account, but that is not the friendliest or most direct way to handle it.

Additional information:

If an administrative user is at the standard user's desktop when the update request arrives - or attempts to update through the browser interface - there is no opportunity to provide process elevation and permit the installer to continue.

The only option available at this point is to navigate to the Firefox web-site and download the latest version. This version will correctly request process elevation - or can be "Run as Administrator" if necessary.

This is unnecessary and time consuming.

What say ye?

Jim (JR)

System: Win7 both Home and Pro. - 64 bit. Plenty of memory, thoroughly scanned for virii and malware. Current as of this instant date except for IE which has been deliberately held back to IE-10. Issue: When installed to a non-administrative account, the update process does not work, reports it does not work, and suggests a download from the main site. Though not horrifically fatal, (it doesn't crash the system, corrupt the hard drive, give you bed-bugs, or rat you out to the IRS), it is not as graceful a way to handle updates from within a non-administrative account. Suggested behavior: 1. The updater should detect if it has sufficient privilege to update. 2. If not, the updater should explain that the update to Firefox requires Administrative privileges and offer the user three choices: (a) Request process elevation and ask for Administrator approval (by providing an administrative password.) (b) Save the update to the user's desktop where an administrator can install it later. (c) Cancel and quit. The current process simply indicates that the update could not install - without providing a clear reason why - and leaves the user mystified. Obviously, the user will - eventually - discover that the issue is his standard (non-Administrative), account, but that is not the friendliest or most direct way to handle it. Additional information: If an administrative user is at the standard user's desktop when the update request arrives - or attempts to update through the browser interface - there is no opportunity to provide process elevation and permit the installer to continue. The only option available at this point is to navigate to the Firefox web-site and download the latest version. This version will correctly request process elevation - or can be "Run as Administrator" if necessary. This is unnecessary and time consuming. What say ye? Jim (JR)

All Replies (2)

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The Mozilla Maintenance service is suppose to take care of this by downloading updates in the background. You need to grant permission (UAC) to this service when this service is installed.

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Cor-el:

Thanks for the quick update!

Unfortunately, due to policy constraints, NOTHING is allowed to "update in the background". The automagic "kill switch" is already annoying enough.

Firefox is set to "notify" when updates are available, but is NOT allowed to perform any updates without express user and/or Administrator permission.

Given that constraint - and I am sure I am not the only one affected by constraints like this - it should be possible to configure the updater to allow for this contingency.

Firefox/Mozilla has gone far and done much to make its browser a very friendly and usable browser. Being able to handle this in a graceful manner would make my job much easier.

Thanks for all your help and support!

Jim (JR)

Modified by jharris1993