hello david, the firefox updater is not performing any fancy action other than replacing files in the firefox installation folder and the registry related to firefox that would "cause" the problem you have described - so at first hand such a link sounds rather unlikely. can you reference the threads you've come across at ms answers about this subject?

Phillipp,

Originally, I thought this was a windows problem. I went to http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us, logged in and searched on 'unauthorised version of windows".

You asked for a thread. There isn't one in particular, just a pattern in the many responses to that search term that are there. You'll need to read more than just a few of the entries to see it.

The search turned up lots of user entries with statements like "I've used a fully activated windows for years and suddenly it's telling me the windows version is unauthorised. why?" A common question by MS in reply is what did you last install or upgrade before the event, and many of the users replied Firefox. . . . The MS suggestions seemed to usually involve safe mode and uninstall actions.

I haven't done any of that - no need to yet - the unauthorised version message hasn't re-appeared, but once bitten several times shy. I know several users who have not had the problem also, so it looks to be very irregular, however the list of users with the unauthorised version problem citing firefox are not isolated cases either. My reaction on reading those posts would have been - if I did not already use FF - don't go near it. Software relies on reputation and those who have a bad experience with a program often do not advise the programmers of that - just steer clear and tell others to do the same. So I am telling you about it . . . .

The reality of FF being implicated in some way in these unauthorised version messages is clear in the entries on the MS website. It's possible that Mozilla has never seen them or heard of the issue, but that doesn't make the problem non-existent. The point of my message is that Mozilla needs to get its act together in this space, identify what can cause that message (talk to MS??) and ensure that it does not happen during new version testing.

You guys have a better link to the developers than any other I have seen. Pass this along.

Davidk03

hi david, i still don't think that your conclusion that the problem would be related firefox is correct and in this form the problem is certainly not fit to be put forward to any mozilla developers, for the following reasons:

• i tried searching for the keywords you have mentioned on the windows section of answers.microsoft.com, went trough many dozens of questions but couldn't find any threads that would hint at any involvement of firefox (that's why i have asked for direct links in my prior reply).
• even if many users did answer the question "what did you last install or upgrade before the event" with "firefox", this won't be enough to establish any link of causation to the problem - firefox is a popular software used by hundreds of millions of users which updates regularly. so you might get the answer with any problem when you ask this same question.
• over the last few years there hasn't been a single question or bug report at mozilla support about this issue except yours.
• a firefox installation or update doesn't touch anything remotely related to windows system activation. so the hypothesis that firefox would be responsible for this problem is highly unlikely and therefore would need to meet a high bar of proof (like reproducible steps or log files that show such an involvement) before you realistically can expect someone out of developement to take a closer look on it - anecdotal evidence is not enough!
• as the windows activation checks are proprietary and closed source it's up to microsoft to investigate and fix any issues with it...