How to stop Firefox nag screens
I have been a happy Firefox and Thunderbird used for many years, but the constant unnecessary tweaking and fiddling with the GUI has begun to spoil my user experience. Each update seemed to change something that was working fine and didn't need changing... the last straw was making the on-screen font so small that it was nearly impossible to read.
It took me quite a while to find a way to change the font size and appearance back to something usable. That was when I decided to disable automatic updates. Now, every time I open FF or TB I get a nag screen and this is beyond annoying. There does not appear to be any way to stop this happening outside of doing complicated stuff in the registry that I am not prepared to do.
So basically, I am looking for a recommendation on the best alternative browser and mail app that I can use when I delete FF and TB. Chrome seems to work OK for a browser and although I don't like the GUI, Gmail is probably the logical choice as I use Gmail addresses. I don't need apps that work on phones as I work on a PC, so a simple clear GUI is more important to me than all kinds of clever features that I will never use :)
Cheers... John D
All Replies (6)
Can you please attach image of the nag screen you see. It should be helpful for giving you a better result.
I am providing the requested information
Thanks a lot for providing the information requested. I find it you are not comfortable with getting your FireFox updated. But, I suggest you to have a trial with the latest updates. You can also find the custom setting of the font size in the latest version. If you still get a couple of errors or so, I request you to try uninstallation and re-installation of FF. I hope this works out well and resolves all your issues.
I appreciate that allowing the app to update is one way of removing the nag screen, but that is not the correct answer. The correct answer would be to provide a means to decline updates without getting a nag screen. The very fact that I took the time to make a post on this forum should be a clear indication that I (and many others like me) have found it offensive that FF is using a nag screen to force users to update.
If Mozilla wishes to grow its customer base, perhaps it would be better to actually implement improvements based on customer feedback rather than on the latest whims of the designers. Change for changes sake and constantly fiddling with the GUI without producing any real benefit for the user is annoying. Many people such as myself, like to stay with a familiar interface, and prefer to be able to choose if and when they update. Please take this onboard for your next review.
Cheers...
Hi,
The people who answer questions here, for the most part, are other users volunteering their time (like me), not Mozilla employees or Firefox developers. If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link. Your feedback gets collected by a team of people who read it and gather data about the most common issues.
You can also file a bug report or feature request. See File a bug report or feature request for Mozilla products for details.
Thank you for the response. Unfortunately even the nature of your reply highlights the frustrations that FF users face when trying to submit feedback on common problems. The Mozilla organisation is obviously staffed by highly skilled people and assisted by knowledgeable volunteers such as yourself. This appears to have lead to a developer focused corporate culture that operates at an advanced level far above the understanding of the average PC user. Following the link you provided leads to such a place, and is essentially unintelligible to an ordinary user.... I signed in, looked around and gave up.
If Mozilla really wanted to receive feedback there would be an easy to find "Submit Feedback" button that opened a large textbox where the used could simply type in their feedback without being forced to use pre-formatted answers. This is not hard to do and is common among customer focused commercial organisations.
From searching various online forums related to FF support, I have seen countless posts from users complaining about issues arising from FF updates and seeking help. In general, the only response comes from bots or other users who have tried various fixes with little or no success. There is a curious absence of any official response, interest or concern from Mozilla. In the commercial world this is a surefire way to lose customers.
I don't see any way forward with this discussion as there does not seem to be any accessible gateway to someone in your organisation who can look at what is happening from a user point of view. However, if you have some internal communication channel that you can use, please feel free to convey my comments on behalf of all frustrated FF users.
Cheers...