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Firefox ESR 78.2 not using policies.json

  • 2 àwọn èsì
  • 1 ní ìṣòro yìí
  • 108 views
  • Èsì tí ó kẹ́hìn lọ́wọ́ eric.bjorgan

eric.bjorgan
eric.bjorgan
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I am trying to update Firefox to 78.2 ESR at my organization as well as change from autoconfig.js and mozilla.cfg based configuration (used in Firefox 68 ESR and earlier) to policies.json based configuration with Firefox 78.x ESR. Update will be deployed via SCCM and a PowerShell script.

I have put a policies.json in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distrubution\ When I re-install Firefox ESR 78.2 and have the policies.json in place, none of the policies apply. I went so far as to use the Mozilla Firefox Enterprise Policy Generator to make sure the json file is formatted properly.

What I have the script doing is uninstalling any old Firefox versions, clearing out the old config files and putting in the policies.json file in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distribution\. When I run Firefox after the update, I get an error "Configuration Error: Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator." I can click OK on the error and Firefox launches but without any customizations. The error pops up every time I launch Firefox. I am not aware of any Group Policies in place that manage Firefox.

Can anyone see a mistake I might be making or something I'm missing in my process?

Here is what's in my policies.json file:

{ 

 "policies": {
   "DisableAppUpdate": true,
   "DisablePocket": true,
   "DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true,
   "Homepage": {
     "StartPage": "homepage",
     "URL": "https://www.google.com"
   },
   "PopupBlocking": {
     "Allow": [
       "https://mn.gov",
       "https://state.mn.us"
     ],
     "Default": true
   }
 }

}

I am trying to update Firefox to 78.2 ESR at my organization as well as change from autoconfig.js and mozilla.cfg based configuration (used in Firefox 68 ESR and earlier) to policies.json based configuration with Firefox 78.x ESR. Update will be deployed via SCCM and a PowerShell script. I have put a policies.json in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distrubution\ When I re-install Firefox ESR 78.2 and have the policies.json in place, none of the policies apply. I went so far as to use the Mozilla Firefox Enterprise Policy Generator to make sure the json file is formatted properly. What I have the script doing is uninstalling any old Firefox versions, clearing out the old config files and putting in the policies.json file in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distribution\. When I run Firefox after the update, I get an error "Configuration Error: Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator." I can click OK on the error and Firefox launches but without any customizations. The error pops up every time I launch Firefox. I am not aware of any Group Policies in place that manage Firefox. Can anyone see a mistake I might be making or something I'm missing in my process? Here is what's in my policies.json file: <code> { "policies": { "DisableAppUpdate": true, "DisablePocket": true, "DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true, "Homepage": { "StartPage": "homepage", "URL": "https://www.google.com" }, "PopupBlocking": { "Allow": [ "https://mn.gov", "https://state.mn.us" ], "Default": true } } } </code>

Ọ̀nà àbáyọ tí a yàn

You get "Configuration Error: Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator." if there is still an autoconfig.js file present that specifies using autoconfig.cfg, so it sounds you didn't cleanup the install script properly.

Ka ìdáhùn ni ìṣètò kíkà 👍 0

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Ọ̀nà àbáyọ Tí a Yàn

You get "Configuration Error: Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator." if there is still an autoconfig.js file present that specifies using autoconfig.cfg, so it sounds you didn't cleanup the install script properly.

eric.bjorgan
eric.bjorgan Ìbéèrè olóhun
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cor-el,

Thanks for your reply. I did have an old autoconfig.js file but I ALSO had a leftover registry setting to disable auto-update. Looks like registry settings override everything so that was also an issue. After I removed the autoconfig.js and registry setting the policies.json file took effect on next launch of Firefox. Thanks for the tip that I missed something in the cleanup of the old settings. Your reply on a similar thread helped me as well. "GPO works globally for all Firefox installations because it uses the Windows Registry." (I suspect our previous settings weren't working either due to the same issue.)

Fix (PowerShell): If (Test-Path HKLM:Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\) { 

   Remove-Item -Path HKLM:Software\Policies\Mozilla -Recurse -Force 
   Remove-Item -Path HKLM:Software\Policies\Mozilla -Force 
   }

Ti ṣàtúnṣe nípa eric.bjorgan