I-Firefox Community Forum

I was on the ESR channel and after the recent updates to 142.01 or 141 the ESR is missing from the about Firefox. I had got the tab groups option a few updates back and liked it. This latest update changed how a tab group collapses, instead of showing only the tab group name and collapsing all the tabs it leaves one open wasting space when I have several other tabs open. At least I don't see any sign of the annoying AI junk getting in the way yet. I thought you had a choice to stay on the ESR channel according to this link and others. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-support-windows-10-end-support I'll probably be forced to update to Windows 11 to do my taxes next year but I thought at least I could stay on the ESR channel to avoid new features getting in the way.

How can I download an older version of Firefox ? Version 140.0.4 is full of issues , i.e. slow loading pages that were faster in the old version , shrunk images on some sites , log in problems on others.

I am aware that Windows 10 will continue seeing support for the foreseeable future, but what about older versions and builds of 10?

I ask because I'm currently on a machine that physically can't update beyond version 1909 build 18363.1198 due to an issue that occurred on my machine in November 2020. So I've been stuck at that version and build of 10 for basically the last five years. While I'm trying to see if I can update it to 22h2, the last known version of Windows 10 with the hopes of enrolling in the extended security updates, that may not be feasible due to how old the mahcine itself is. Will Firefox continue to support all versions of 10 for the foreseeable future and not just those on the ESU? If so, great. If not, what version will be the last that can support the version I'm on? I don't have a Windows 11 machine yet on a full time basis (I'm testing an 11 machine out, but I may not end up keeping it) and I prefer 10 to begin with, so I would like to know when I need to stop updating Firefox itself, so that I can be sure I'll be able to keep using the browser with my current OS.

Hello Everyone,

I am using actually 140.9. ESR. How can I cange to the "normal" Version?

Or could I use browser-VPN in ESR too ?

Many Thanks for answering. Chris

Up until version 141, the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit Firefox installers wasn't noteworthy, though it has clearly been slowly increasing overtime. However, starting from version 141, the difference between them doubled from 5MB to 10MB, meaning a nearly 13.5% larger installer for the 64bit version than the 32bit one.

Why is that? What happened? Are there are feature differences that would warranty such a large gulf in their installer sizes? It's the AI isn't it? 32bit users were spared the bloat of the AI.

I also see that starting from 115.16 Firefox suggests users that aren't on Windows 7-8.1 or MacOS 10.12-10.14 should use other versions. Given both x86 and Windows' immense reputation surrounding backwards compatibility, is this really a concern? Is there REALLY something supported by Windows 7-8.1 that wouldn't function on 10?

I get the window shown in the attached image when I launch Firefox now that I have updated from the ESR 140 versions to the ESR 153 versions.

If I click OK, it takes me into Firefox but it appears that the settings in my auto config are not being set suggesting that the configuration file that cannot be read is the firefox.cfg file that the instructions for auto configure (https://mzl.la/3pb4w0I) tell one to create with all the settings. It appears that the autoconfig.js file that is in "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref" is being read correctly as the two settings show properly in about:config.

I have set the specs on autoconfig.js to have be:

• end of line as LF and not the Windows/DOS standard of CRLF,
• the text encoded in UTF-8, and
• I have tried with BOM and non-BOM.

I have also tried these specs on the firefox.cfg file even though the the auto configure instructions do not say what specs to use on that file.

As I mentioned, things worked fine while I was using Firefox ESR 140.x, where x could be completion of any of the valid version numbers. Now that I have upgraded to Firefox ESR 153.x, this problem seems to have surfaced.

From the auto configure instructions, firefox.cfg is to be placed in "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox", however, in doing a web search, I came across and article on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2023fix-firefox-failed-read-configuration-file-error-andrew-m) from about three years ago that indicates firefox.cfg is to be in the same directory as autoconfig.js. Given it worked as described in the auto configure instructions before ESR 153, I figured this was wrong but tested it anyway by moving the firefox.cfg file. It changed nothing.

This is a problem for all my users on each of their individual domain accounts. I have tested and it makes no difference whether I'm running it on a Win10 or a Win11 computer.

I am using auto config for those settings that cannot be changed through Group Policy.