Join the Mozilla’s Test Days event from Dec 2–8 to test the new Firefox address bar on Firefox Beta 134 and get a chance to win Mozilla swag vouchers! 🎁

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Can I install Firefox in a manner that it will never check for an upgrade for any user?

  • 7 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by epuariea

more options

In a VDI environment of about 500 VMs I would like to turn off the check for upgrades for all the VMs' users. We can't upgrade Firefox until we have made sure that the new version works with specific tools. The VMs are linked clones that are being refreshed to their pre-login state after users log off. This causes the upgrade popup to come up every time users log on. Users do not have permission to upgrade, so this is a nuisance that I would like to eliminate for them.

I found that I can use about:config to turn off the upgrade check on the image from which all VMs are created, but this does not turn it off for all the users, just for the user with which the image is maintained. Is there a central setting that allows me to do this? Or would this require a change to all users' profile? And if the latter, what change would I have to make to their profile?

In a VDI environment of about 500 VMs I would like to turn off the check for upgrades for all the VMs' users. We can't upgrade Firefox until we have made sure that the new version works with specific tools. The VMs are linked clones that are being refreshed to their pre-login state after users log off. This causes the upgrade popup to come up every time users log on. Users do not have permission to upgrade, so this is a nuisance that I would like to eliminate for them. I found that I can use about:config to turn off the upgrade check on the image from which all VMs are created, but this does not turn it off for all the users, just for the user with which the image is maintained. Is there a central setting that allows me to do this? Or would this require a change to all users' profile? And if the latter, what change would I have to make to their profile?

Chosen solution

Use a mozilla.cfg file in the Firefox program folder to lock prefs or specify default values.

Place a file local-settings.js in the defaults\pref folder where you also find the file channel-prefs.js to specify using mozilla.cfg.

pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); // use this to disable the byte-shift

See:

You can use these functions in mozilla.cfg:

defaultPref();  // set new default value
pref();         // set pref, but allow changes in current session
lockPref();     // lock pref, disallow changes

lockPref("app.update.enabled", false);
Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (7)

more options

Hi vvdcamp-

I don't know about a central setting for VMs, but for individual users you would go here:

  • Firefox> Preferences> Advanced> Update> Make sure radio button for 'Automatically install updates' is NOT selected.

Hope that helps.

more options

Chosen Solution

Use a mozilla.cfg file in the Firefox program folder to lock prefs or specify default values.

Place a file local-settings.js in the defaults\pref folder where you also find the file channel-prefs.js to specify using mozilla.cfg.

pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); // use this to disable the byte-shift

See:

You can use these functions in mozilla.cfg:

defaultPref();  // set new default value
pref();         // set pref, but allow changes in current session
lockPref();     // lock pref, disallow changes

lockPref("app.update.enabled", false);
more options

Thank you for your answers. I'll try it as soon as I get a chance and will report back :)

more options

Thanks:) This method does work for the 3.6.X versions but not for 4 and later. The last version I tried was 10.0.2. Would anyone know how to set this in the later versions of the browser?

more options

Follow the intructions found on this site. Works like a charm.

http://mockbox.net/configmgr-sccm/174-install-and-configure-firefox-silently.html

more options

Thank you, that looks promising. I'll try that and let you know :)

more options

The only issue is the HomePage is locked. I can tell you how we worked around that if need be.

GL