Manual update?
Hello :-),
someone reported to me that they were prompted to update Firefox inside Firefox (somewhere in the top right corner), but they said they weren't redirected anywhere (like a page with a blue background for example). They also say that it wasn't a full width bar and that there was no heart icon.
When clicking on that 1 or more windows opened, and they put in the admin credentials (the user doesn't have admin privileges).
Then after what followed the start menu link to Firefox was broken, and in the list of installed programs there was only an x86 version of Firefox listed, but without an icon. It claims to have been there for at least 15 days though. There is also a "Mozilla Firefox" folder in "Programs (x86). This is 64bit Windows 10 though and to my knowledge I installed 64bit Firefox (using the standard download button), which I would expect to be in the "Programs" folder (and so it is on other machines).
When trying to uninstall Firefox via the list of installed programs, after entering the admin credentials nothing happened.
When downloading a fresh installer and trying to install Firefox with that, when entering the admin credentials and clicking "yes" a window with a typo in it pops up saying that Firefox already had been installed and asking if it should be reinstalled. When clicking "no" the same window pops up. So after clicking no, without having entered any admin credentials (assuming that it might not work), I confirmed that I wanted to reinstall Firefox in that window, and the installer actually finished.
After that Firefox opened on its own. The start menu link is still broken, Firefox is still only in "Programs (x68)", but at least in the list of installed programs it's listed as x64 now, with an icon.
When typing "Firefox" in the search and examining the location of that program, it says it's in AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe. I currently only have a Developer Edition to compare it to but abstracting from that I would expect it to be in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe.
What is going on?
I don't recall ever being prompted to update Firefox inside Firefox. Of course though since the user doesn't have admin privileges that might be interfering with the normal process. I've experienced updates failing due to a lack of admin privileges before though on other computers, and I had to start Firefox as admin and search for updates via the "Help -> About" menu to get them to install.
Is the behaviour described above legitimate? Aside from all that being kinda weird everything seems to be working now (with Firefox running from AppData\Local though). We don't wanna take any risks.
Thanks!
Okulungisiwe ngu hhtech
All Replies (9)
A few initial comments:
(1) Is it normal in your environment that admin credentials are requested? That is not my experience. It could be the Firefox shortcut has "run as administrator" set.
(2) As you may know, the important user data is stored under
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox
You could back up that folder "just in case." Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.
(3) Until about a year ago, Firefox preferred 32-bit Firefox on 64-bit Windows, and that changed sometime around the initial update to Firefox 56. To avoid disruption to paths, the 64-bit installation went into the same folder as the 32-bit installation. This causes the program to be under
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\
instead of
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
If you want to change that, see "Clean Reinstall" below.
(4) Firefox's installer would never use Local AppData for anything but temporary/disposable content like cache and staged updates. Firefox shouldn't launch from there. You can flush the folder and Firefox will gradually rebuild it.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox
(5) If Firefox is set to notify of updates instead of updating automatically, a little panel should drop from the application menu button ("3-bar" or "hamburger" button) with that information. Some devious sites now fake this dialog so if you suddenly see one, or any other inducement to download and install software, be suspicious.
Clean Reinstall
This takes about 5 minutes. It's not about your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. It's not essential to uninstall Firefox, but you can if you like, saying No to any request about removing personal data.
It only takes a few minutes.
(A) Download a fresh installer for Firefox to a convenient location:
https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/
(B) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).
If you use Microsoft Office, please change your default browser to Internet Explorer temporarily before the next step.
(C) Using Windows Explorer/My Computer (hold down the Windows key and press E to launch it), right-click > rename the program folder as follows (you might have one or both):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox =to=> C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox =to=> C:\Program Files\OldFirefox
(D) Run the installer you downloaded in step (A). It should automatically connect to your existing settings.
Any improvement?
Hello,
thank you very much for your help, jscher2000 :-)
(1) Yes, it is normal in this environment that users have to enter admin credentials to install programs, or do anything that admin credentials would usually be required for. It is set up like this for security reasons.
(2) Thanks. :-) We don't need any of that though.
(3) Thank you, I didn't know that. The system in question was installed last year in October.
(4) That sounds reasonable. I took another look now and turns out that the folder (AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox) contains pretty much everything that I saw in C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\ before, which obviously doesn't sound right.
I also found another folder "AppData\Local\Mozilla" which looks more like an actual Mozilla folder. My conclusion is that unless something weird is going on with the official Firefox installer, the first folder containing a full Firefox installation shouldn't be there.
I downloaded the official installer from here https://www.mozilla.org/de/firefox/ and here https://www.mozilla.org/de/firefox/new/, which both results in a file called "Firefox%20Installer.exe".
Which brings me to my next point. I renamed both Mozilla folders in AppData\Local ("AppData\Local\Mozilla and "AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox") and also the Mozilla Firefox folder in C:\Program Files (x86). I even tried moving the "AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox" folder into the user's Documents folder (the start menu link still works, it just gets updated everytime I move the folder).
Then I ran the installer again.
And still after entering the user's admin credentials, this window with a typo pops up saying that it had been installed before, asking if it should be reinstalled (image attached). When aborting entering the user's admin credentials, the window also pops up. As I've mentioned that's how it happened before, too, and when I clicked "reinstall" in that, it actually installed Firefox into AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox, without needing any admin credentials.
So either someone at Mozilla set it up to be like that, or it's some form of malicious software being triggered every time I try to install Firefox. :-P
It would be nice if someone could clarify what's going on. If it's normal for Firefox to install into the AppData\Local folder when no admin credentials are provided and providing admin credentials would install it into the correct spot, that would be really good to know, because then it might have been set to "manual update", then maybe it got broken when trying to update and everything would actually be ok now.
(5) I don't know what it was set to but the version installed now that can freely be moved around all over the place is set to automatic updates. I suppose the only way how it could have been set to manual update is if it prompted me during the install and for some reason I chose manual updates for that particular PC.
Thanks!
Okulungisiwe ngu hhtech
I edited this post because I found the answer to this specific question. Basically I was just worried about a Firefox profile folder that I must have forgotten about, located on the Desktop, that Firefox had apparently been using and that was updated during the install too. Nevermind.
Okulungisiwe ngu hhtech
It seems very suspicious to me and you probably want to clean out all installations of Firefox, preserving the important data I mentioned before.
I don't know what you mean by "clean out". As I've said I already tried your suggestion to rename the folder. I also did that with the folders in AppData. Nothing changed though, when I run the installer, it still pops up a window saying that Firefox has been installed before and asks whether I want to freshly install it (and reset my settings and whatnot). I didn't think deleting the folders would make a difference, so I didn't try that.
I haven't tried clicking "neu installieren" with admin privileges yet, I don't know if I want to though. I would just like to know if that popup with the typo in it is an official firefox popup, because if it's not, something would be keeping the actual installer from running (that I downloaded from the official website and clicked on) and putting itself on my screen, which sounds somewhat unlikely to me as a n00b.
If it's the official Firefox installer, why does it pop up after I click "no" when I'm prompted to enter admin credentials, instead of aborting the installation, and why does it then install Firefox to AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox.
I'd just like to know before I go through the effort of reinstalling the system. I don't know exactly what the computer user clicked on, so if what I described isn't normal and the user put in their admin credentials after being asked to manually install Firefox, there could be anything on that computer probably.
And not only that, if it was a legitimate update notice, the update would have had to break Firefox for some reason, which sounds like it might be a known issue, if it's the case.
Thanks for the help so far (I marked your other post as helpful)!
Trying to uninstall it didn't do anything last time. I could try that now. By the way, now I have two installations listed (62 and 62.0) in the list of installed programs, both without an icon. one x86 and one x64. The first one seems to be the broken one I had from the start. I currently can't try it out because I don't have the admin credentials but I assume that it wouldn't do anything still (also I renamed the Mozilla Firefox folder in Programs (x86)) .
Okulungisiwe ngu hhtech
scan your system with:
use malwarebytes in safe mode and normal mode.
We don't have a license to use AdwCleaner.
What I mainly wanted to know though is if Firefox installing itself into the AppData folder when no admin credentials are provided is intended by the Mozilla developers. Since the window with the typo in it is in German I repeated my question on the German forum.
I'll probably reinstall the whole system.
Thanks.
Someone on the German forum here (https://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=126201&p=1094181#p1094181) with the username Zitronella found the answer to the AppData question:
https://support.mozilla.org/de/questions/1048515
Also I tried it out on a neutral computer and when denying the installer admin rights, it starts installing anyways.
Still I have two broken installs of Firefox now after uninstalling the one installed into AppData, which seems to not have worked fully, and I don't know what the user clicked on exactly (that could be unrelated), so I'm gonna reinstall the system.
Okulungisiwe ngu hhtech