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How to block Firefox update notifications

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My god, this is driving me nuts. I will decide if and when I want to "update" a program, excepting of course the steaming pile that is Windows 10 where they cram it down your throats, often at a profoundly inconvenient time.

But after doing some upgrades to an old computer and installing v. 86 of FF, two days later it's in constant nag mode. I've shut off everything I can, I've tweaked about:config so much it's a wonder it still works at all. Everytime I start up the computer it displays a notification about do I want to allow FF to make changes. Not no, it's hell no. Everytime I start up FF I get a popup, (uh, wasn't FF supposed to have eliminate them?) nagging at me to upgrade. Then if I'm on for a while it nags me again. The more I get nagged, the more I push back. Now I may break something, FF, keyboard, whatever, but nagging me will not result in me doing what the nag wants. "Updates" over the years have made so many more things worse than better I can't even count. I've been using FF for ~15 years, generally been happy with it, but this is driving me nuts. How to I fix it? Fix, as in repair so it works like I want it to and like it used to. It's broken. Or should I just migrate to another browser?

My god, this is driving me nuts. I will decide if and when I want to "update" a program, excepting of course the steaming pile that is Windows 10 where they cram it down your throats, often at a profoundly inconvenient time. But after doing some upgrades to an old computer and installing v. 86 of FF, two days later it's in constant nag mode. I've shut off everything I can, I've tweaked about:config so much it's a wonder it still works at all. Everytime I start up the computer it displays a notification about do I want to allow FF to make changes. Not no, it's hell no. Everytime I start up FF I get a popup, (uh, wasn't FF supposed to have eliminate them?) nagging at me to upgrade. Then if I'm on for a while it nags me again. The more I get nagged, the more I push back. Now I may break something, FF, keyboard, whatever, but nagging me will not result in me doing what the nag wants. "Updates" over the years have made so many more things worse than better I can't even count. I've been using FF for ~15 years, generally been happy with it, but this is driving me nuts. How to I fix it? Fix, as in repair so it works like I want it to and like it used to. It's broken. Or should I just migrate to another browser?

All Replies (9)

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Check that Firefox isn't set to run as Administrator.

You can open the Properties of the Firefox desktop shortcut via the right-click context menu and check the "Compatibility" tab.

Make sure all items are deselected in the "Compatibility" tab of the Properties window.

  • Privilege Level: "Run this program as Administrator" should not be selected
  • "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" should not be selected

Also check the Properties of the firefox.exe program in the Firefox program folder.

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Wow, thanks for the quick reply!

No on Admin. All deselected in Compatibility. No on "Run this program as Administrator" No on "Run this program in compatibility mode"

Now in the program there is a exe named "maintenanceservice" which when double clicked does launch the update notification in Windows about do you want to allow this to make changes... Would deleting that eliminate the update nag? Or would it continue and or repopulate after every launch?

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Off the top of my head, windows 10 has a user account feature that monitors how freedom an application has to modify the o.s.

So maybe the setting is set too high?

pic attached

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It's windows 7, but I get what amounts to the same notification. Perhaps I phrased it a bit off, but I don't want the notification because I don't want it trying to update all the time, I'll decide, I don't want to be prompted all the time.

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It's hard to figure out why you have this issue.

Attached is a screen pic of FF's options for updating.

Your's should look similar to it.

The settings in the pic do not nag me into updating.

So hopefully they will help you too.

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oops. forgot to attach pic to above post.

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That's odd, with the exception of Use a background service... I have the same settings. But I get a Windows dialog box asking if I want to allow it to make changes and a FF box every time I start FF. And occasionally during the day if I haven't closed the program.

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Click the menuClick OptionsScroll down until you see "Firefox Updates" (it's the next thing after the words "Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content")Select, "Check for updates but let you choose to install them.

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raoehtesham8 said

Click the menuClick OptionsScroll down until you see "Firefox Updates" (it's the next thing after the words "Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content")Select, "Check for updates but let you choose to install them.

Yep, that's the way I set it up and it's still set. It doesn't install, but it sure tries hard.

Modified by doesn't suffer arrogance well