How to permanently disable FireFox updating...

[BrianHG]

One of my PCs seems to trigger Youtube ADBlocker warning even though it has an old firefox.
Not sure why my other PCs seem immune.

My guess is different Noscript permissions.  I'll try eliminating everything except for the absolute necessary to see a video.

[rhodges]

Use Linux.

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

Please state how a user software without root authorization can write (replace) system software. This is software that is NOT writable by any random user.

I use FreeBSD, and nothing changes until I ask for an upgrade. Then I see the list and I choose whether I want to upgrade or not. The last two times, the answer was NO.

[coromonadalix]

the json  method is known for a long time ...

use firemin to drop memory leak / consumption

in some case, many website(s) now can detect the adblocks  etc ....     there's some docs about this

yes  older fire#$%$  are less bloathed,  the esr version can help,  but some websites still push the latest web browsers, and some esr are sometime blocked

every firefox core based variants
every chrome based variants
opera maxthon
ur

some very good now "old" pluggins who never got converted to the new standards are lost  etc ...

and the list goes on and on, a never ending battle that i'm tired to fight

[tom66]

With DDR3/4 being cheap again, I solved the memory leak problems of my various use cases by just throwing more memory at the problem.  My desktop system has 64GB and my laptop has 32GB (upgraded from 16GB stock).  A 4GB system in 2023 is rare, so I can imagine the Firefox chaps are not all that concerned with optimising for that use case.  They probably suggest a minimum 8GB nowadays.

[thm_w]

With DDR3/4 being cheap again, I solved the memory leak problems of my various use cases by just throwing more memory at the problem.  My desktop system has 64GB and my laptop has 32GB (upgraded from 16GB stock).  A 4GB system in 2023 is rare, so I can imagine the Firefox chaps are not all that concerned with optimising for that use case.  They probably suggest a minimum 8GB nowadays.

Firefox doesn't really give a good recommendation, but recommended RAM for windows 10 is 8GB. You can get a 16GB SODIMM for <$30.

Using a 4GB system is straight up masochism.

[BrianHG]

With DDR3/4 being cheap again, I solved the memory leak problems of my various use cases by just throwing more memory at the problem.  My desktop system has 64GB and my laptop has 32GB (upgraded from 16GB stock).  A 4GB system in 2023 is rare, so I can imagine the Firefox chaps are not all that concerned with optimising for that use case.  They probably suggest a minimum 8GB nowadays.

Firefox doesn't really give a good recommendation, but recommended RAM for windows 10 is 8GB. You can get a 16GB SODIMM for <$30.

Using a 4GB system is straight up masochism.

Ok everyone, understand carefully.

One of my main laptop systems has 4gb running win7.  I use it for my older Protel 99se projects, Quartus compiling, music editing, web browsing which consists of mainly Digikey, datasheets, youtube viewing and other sound/video playback.  Until the newer Firefox accidentally got in, it has been in use for 6 years now an has crashed once in those 6 years.  It would be a waste of my time just to see if I can add ram or change the HD to an SSD as I know it will open up a can of worms where I have had a near 6 year run of perfect function.

Just buying a new laptop, having to setup windows the way I like, installing all my software and license files and getting everything functional is a slow month long ordeal.  I don't have the time or patience to go through this.  locking down firefox so I don't accidentally upgrade it once again is the best solution.

(I mean, will Protel99se even install and network license on Win10)

[thm_w]

Backing up that HDD to a SSD would probably be worth it as an insurance policy alone. You'd also save time in the long run waiting for things to load.
If you can't be bothered to check, post the laptop model number here and someone else can look it up.

Yes protel works in windows 10, as per your own thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/patch-for-protel99se-sp6-for-win7810/
Whether its worth the time to set up, or a VM makes more sense, I don't know.

[BrianHG]

Backing up that HDD to a SSD would probably be worth it as an insurance policy alone.

I am not an amateur.  I do have network backup at 2 external locations and have an emergency external mirrored drive on hand.  I've been around.

[soldar]

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

I don't think so. I use Linux Mint and have the OS to only update manually and it will offer Firefox updates but I can install them whenever I want. I do not think it can do it without me inputting the password.

My gripe is that some software, like Firefox, Thunderbird and others do not offer small updates but they try to pretty much reinstall the whole thing which means 60 or 80 or 100 or more MB each time which for someone with limited bandwidth is a PITA so there are several programs I only update very infrequently. And then they mess up my settings so I decide to not update them at all.

And I do not see why they need to update cajillions of GB so often. They could start by making software safe from the start instead of doing a shoddy mess and then letting others discover discover holes. Most of the time they are just playing with new "features" while they introduce vulnerabilities.

I have not updated Firefox in a long time and have no intention of doing so any time soon.

[SiliconWizard]

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

I don't think so. I use Linux Mint and have the OS to only update manually and it will offer Firefox updates but I can install them whenever I want. I do not think it can do it without me inputting the password.

Of course it can't, unless the application was running as root. If you use Linux and you use root as your user account - or set up a user account with equivalent rights - you just deserve what you get.

Another possibility would be if the application was installed not "system-wide" but locally. That would be relatively uncommon, especially for an application that has a distro package on all distributions that I've ever run into.
For people with such a setup, I'd be curious to know the details, please.

Note that on Windows, Firefox (and Thunderbird) resort to an awful trick to allow self-updating (whether automatically or not) *without asking for an admin password*.
They install a service (by default) that basically allows bypassing UAC for the Mozilla products. How sweet.
So If you have ever wondered why Firefox was one of the very rare apps that never asked for a password for updating, now you know.

This service can be disabled of course, but you have to go to the administrations tools and manually disable it.
How sweet from Mozilla, they probably wanted to "lower any friction" to the use of their web browser, as they say in marketing.

I'm personally a long time user of Firefox because it just works for me and is still one of the best for privacy. Also I want to encourage alternatives to the Chrome monopoly.
But the attitude of the Mozilla foundation, unfortunately, I find more and more unacceptable.

[kjpye]

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

I don't think so. I use Linux Mint and have the OS to only update manually and it will offer Firefox updates but I can install them whenever I want. I do not think it can do it without me inputting the password.

The problem I have with Firefox on Linux (provided by the distribution) is that even when Firefox is not updated, if you are patching a live system, and there should be no reason not to, is that it often will decide to stop working and require you to restart it. If you fire up a new tab and try to open something in it, Firefox will give you an error message and prompt you to restart. In existing tabs it may just stop working with no indication of why.

While the restart will remember what you had open, any entry into a tab will be lost. If you have live windows of some sort you will lose whatever state they had, and whatever you had tried to open will be forgotten, even if it's some sort of complicated URL or query.

Most annoying.

[AnnaWatts]

Ohh thx for sharing with this. Needy for me

[tridac]

Works perfectly, thanks...

[lezginka_kabardinka]

No one uses Firefox 🤣
Registry? Gosh you guys are trapped in 1998

[tridac]

Windows is here on sufferance, but still needed for some apps and the server versions have far better system management tools the the domestic versions...

[Davy]

Rather than try a new thread thought I'd ask here since it's related-:

I've done the registry hack and in the update window it say's Firefox updates disabled by your administrator, so all appears well and good here in my application. My question is-:

I still get update download in the hidden Firefox datafolder, can I forget about these and can you confirm they will not be applied? There's usually a Update lock, the update file and a profile file.... deleting the entire lot stopped me from getting the update.

Can I forget about these files now I've applied the registry hack, they won't start filling the folder will they? I've been deleting them since I applied the registry hack.

Thanks Dave

[tom66]

Rather than try a new thread thought I'd ask here since it's related-:

I've done the registry hack and in the update window it say's Firefox updates disabled by your administrator, so all appears well and good here in my application. My question is-:

I still get update download in the hidden Firefox datafolder, can I forget about these and can you confirm they will not be applied? There's usually a Update lock, the update file and a profile file.... deleting the entire lot stopped me from getting the update.

Can I forget about these files now I've applied the registry hack, they won't start filling the folder will they? I've been deleting them since I applied the registry hack.

Thanks Dave

Please ... why are you disabling updates.  Just don't.  There are huge security implications.

[soldar]

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

Nope. Here is the screen capture of three programs I do not update with Linux Mint. Every update needs my authorization and is done whenever I choose.

EDit: I just realized it is an old thread and I had already responded.

[Davy]

Oh dear...... I'll try asking elsewhere!

@Tom66
I'm not asking about Firefox updates I want to STOP THE DEVIL! I am not wanting to be a guinea pig for Firefox for starters, I do have 'MY' reasons.

Dave

[m12lrpv]

Please ... why are you disabling updates.  Just don't.  There are huge security implications.

No there aren't. The days of serious exploits are long gone. Take the hysteria elsewhere.

Even the minor security holes that do exist aren't genuinely exploitable to the degree you imply. Security updates just appear so companies can claim they're looking after your security.

The constant updates BS comes from dev companies not wanting to support lots of different versions which in all fairness as a dev for 30 plus years it's understandable.

Rather than try a new thread thought I'd ask here since it's related-:

I've done the registry hack and in the update window it say's Firefox updates disabled by your administrator, so all appears well and good here in my application. My question is-:

I still get update download in the hidden Firefox datafolder, can I forget about these and can you confirm they will not be applied? There's usually a Update lock, the update file and a profile file.... deleting the entire lot stopped me from getting the update.

Can I forget about these files now I've applied the registry hack, they won't start filling the folder will they? I've been deleting them since I applied the registry hack.

Thanks Dave

They won't apply... or at least they never have for me.

[Monkeh]

Please ... why are you disabling updates.  Just don't.  There are huge security implications.

No there aren't. The days of serious exploits are long gone. Take the hysteria elsewhere.

And energy is free and world peace has been achieved.

[soldar]

No there aren't. The days of serious exploits are long gone. Take the hysteria elsewhere.

I am with you on this. There are three programs I do not update any more and have not updated them in years.
Firefox, Thunderbird and Brave. All three
(1) want to update way too frequently,
(2) are massive, not just a small patch, they reinstall the whole thing and I am on a metered data connection with several computers, no way and
(3) they change things in the GUI and often cause other problems or annoyances.
Nope. I am not updating.

I see no need to change things in the GUI and I get the impression this is pretty much all they are doing to justify their existence.
If they need to patch security holes every few days it means it is really crappy software and software writers. Screw them.
I have never had a malware issue. I'll take that risk.
I will continue to not update.

[tom66]

Please ... why are you disabling updates.  Just don't.  There are huge security implications.

No there aren't. The days of serious exploits are long gone. Take the hysteria elsewhere.

Even the minor security holes that do exist aren't genuinely exploitable to the degree you imply. Security updates just appear so companies can claim they're looking after your security.

The constant updates BS comes from dev companies not wanting to support lots of different versions which in all fairness as a dev for 30 plus years it's understandable.

Not even slightly true.  CVE-2023-4863 was released only out about 6 months ago, and that allows for heap buffer overflow, which allows for session keys, credit card info, saved passwords etc to be stolen from a running browser by using a modified WebP image!  (This impacts all browsers.)  It also allows for malicious code to be embedded into your browser creating the possibility of exploits like stealing bank details by forging a login page and SSL authentication.

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-4863

There will be others, humans are not infallible when it comes to software.  If you do not keep your software up to date, you are explicitly acknowledging that you will be vulnerable to third party attack from sophisticated organisations.  Now, if you think that is an acceptable risk, that is YOUR risk, but others should not do this unless they are absolutely certain they can tolerate this risk. 

You can use an Extended Support Release from Firefox if you are concerned about appearance changes to the software but still need to maintain security updates.

[EPAIII]

I don't understand. I have used Firefox and Thunderbird for years and have had almost no problems.

What is everyone doing that causes such a ruckus?

[soldar]

I don't understand. I have used Firefox and Thunderbird for years and have had almost no problems.

What is everyone doing that causes such a ruckus?

While I am with you in principle I find your argument, which is widely used, to be quite poor. It is the same as "I have never made backups and I have never had a problem".

We need a bit more profound risk analysis.
What is the cost (effort, etc) of implementing security measures?
What is the cost if the bad things happen?
What is the probability of those things happening?  Etc.

There is always an element of prevention, an element of risk, etc and you have to weigh everything.

I have used PCs since before the Internet days. I have never, ever, used any kind of antivirus software. I have never, ever, had any malware. I have been very careful with my practices. I have always been reasonable good at having backups.

When software is released so full of vulnerabilities and has to be updated so frequently to me it means the makers are being very careless and maybe should be subject to civil liability when their software causes damages. That would probably change things for the better. It is very shoddy software if it has to be updated so often for security.

In my case I have decided to not update the browsers for the reasons I have stated above. The risk for me is minimal and the hassle is just not worth it.

But maybe for someone with nuclear codes which could start WW3 in their computer the case is different. It's not my case though.