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Quick and Dirty: Disabling Firefox’s Updates with a CCK

Posted on | September 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

With Firefox’s new 6 week major release cycle combined with the fact Firefox won’t silently update to major versions like Chrome I got a lot of complaints about Firefox always asking for an update.

NOTE: THE BELOW DOES NOT WORK WHEN UPDATING TO FIREFOX 8+.

Unfortunately Firefox doesn’t deal with plist files like most other Mac apps (part of it’s cross platform nature) so MCX isn’t an option. However you can manage Firefox by either editing the Application file itself (annoying) or by installing a global browser customization extension (easy).

If you want to low down on this and to also stand on the shoulders of giants; read Greg Neagle’s posts about customizing Firefox:

The quick and dirty steps to disable updates:

  1. Install the Firefox Client Customization Kit: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2553/
  2. Launch the CCK Wizard from the Tools menu
  3. Create a new configuration
  4. Follow the Wizard through to the Customize Preferences section (the 12th or 13th screen). Be sure to remember the Unique ID (first screen) you gave the extension.
  5. Add both the app.update.enabled and app.update.autoUpdateEnabled keys and set them to false. I also lock these preferences because I update the applications using munki
  6. Save your CCK .xpi. The next extra steps involved here are so the user is not prompted to install the .xpi to their local extension folder when they launch Firefox. (I figured this out on my own and then noticed it was in the comments on the More Firefox Customization post and even has it’s own post.)
  7. Install the .xpi file it creates on your local profile (should just be able to double click on it or just drag it onto Firefox).
  8. Go to your local Profile’s extension folder (~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/SOMETHING/extensions)
  9. Find the folder that corresponds to the Unique ID you gave it on the first screen of the CCK. In my case it was an email address.
  10. Copy that folder to /Library/Application Support/Mozilla/{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384} (where global extensions are stored)
  11. Open up Firefox and test to see if it is installed (check the Extensions loaded or if you used that menu item see if it exists)
  12. Read Greg Neagle’s post on More Firefox Customization for more details.

That folder you copied to the Global Extensions Folder can now be distributed to all your computers that need the CCK applied; either as a package (ideal) or using Remote Desktop.

Of note, extra things I like to do are to disable the welcome and upgrade pages, and add an item for our home page to the Help menu (also helps verify the extension is working) but I do allow users to disable the CCK if need be (though I’ve yet to know one to care enough to do so)

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Comments

2 Responses to “Quick and Dirty: Disabling Firefox’s Updates with a CCK”

  1. Greg Neagle
    September 21st, 2011 @ 5:12 pm

    More about installing unarchived extensions globally here:

    http://managingosx.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/firefox-global-extensions-again/

    This confuses people quite a bit.

  2. Micheal
    September 21st, 2011 @ 5:29 pm

    Thanks. Updated the post to add that. It definitely got me the first time I made the CCK.

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