What is the Mozilla Maintenance Service?

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  • Revision id: 23323
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  • Creator: Underpass
  • Comment: since the service has not been introduced yet, it is weird to find it "given" at the beginning of the article ;)
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  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: AliceWyman
  • Is approved? No
  • Is current revision? No
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Note: The article only applies to Windows.

Firefox now installs an optional service called the Mozilla Maintenance Service. This service allows Firefox to install updates without requiring you to click yes in the Windows User Account Control (UAC) dialog.

No UAC
Note: 64-bit versions of Windows do not use the Mozilla Maintenance Service.

How does the Mozilla Maintenance Service work?

Once Firefox has downloaded an update, the Mozilla Maintenance Service gets permission from Windows to allow the update to be applied without requiring you to click yes in the Windows User Account Control (UAC) dialog. Until that time, the service doesn't run so it doesn't use any computer resources. And once the update process begins, the service quits.
Note: Even though Windows XP doesn't include the UAC dialog, the Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed so that we can further streamline the update process in the future.

Want more technical details? Check out the Mozilla wiki.

Disabling the Mozilla Maintenance Service

If you'd like to be prompted to authorize Firefox updates, you can disable the Mozilla Maintenance Service.

  1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings. .
  2. Click the Advanced panel.
  3. Click the Update tab. The update options are displayed.
  4. Uncheck the box next to Use a background service to install updates.
  5. Click OK to close the Options window.
Note: You can also uninstall the Mozilla Maintenance Service through the Windows control panel.