Strengthening User Control of Add-ons

1. Anonymouse wrote on November 13, 2011 at 11:37 pm:

   Good job disabling language plugins by default

2. ishita wrote on November 18, 2011 at 6:52 am:

   i cant find this window which says select your add ons.i want to make changes to it but i cant

   1. ravi wrote on May 24, 2012 at 4:50 am:

      same here

3. Kukulkan wrote on November 18, 2011 at 7:12 am:

   What a bad idea! Lots of people are installing our software and select the Thunderbird AddIn to get installed. Until V7, they are happy that it worked out of the box. Now, they all are calling our Hotline to tell us, that the AddOn is no longer working! New users complaining, the AddIn is not appearing! We have huge amount of calls to handle. This “security” feature costs us a lot of money! Please fix this as soon as possible.

   An alternative will be to ask the user on the next TB start:
   There is a new AddIn found: “NAME”. Should I activate this now?

   The current solution is horrible bad!

4. Irwin Mainway wrote on November 19, 2011 at 10:19 am:

   What the hell is ‘Nightly’ ?

   via /Developer:
   “Created most weekdays from the previous day’s work, these builds may or may not work. Use them to verify that a bug you’re tracking has been fixed.
   We make nightly builds for testing only. We write code and post the results right away so people like you can join our testing process and report bugs. You will find bugs, and lots of them. Mozilla might crash on startup. It might delete all your files and cause your computer to burst into flames. Don’t bother downloading nightly builds if you’re unwilling to put up with problems.”

   I have never encountered any ‘one-time dialog to select the add-ons they wish to keep installed’ even with version 9.0. Have 3 incompatible plugins since v. 5 or 6.

   1. Amy Tsay wrote on November 21, 2011 at 12:45 pm:

      @ishita @Irwin — You should have seen the “Select your Add-ons” dialog when you upgraded to the latest release (Firefox 8). If you still need help, your best bet is Firefox Support: http://support.mozilla.com/kb/ask

      1. hamed wrote on January 14, 2012 at 6:41 pm:

         thanx

5. quest wrote on November 22, 2011 at 12:02 pm:

   Thank you for strengthening the security of add-ons.

   To the developers who are griping about their add-on no longer working –

   Maybe you should have designed it better in the first place and given your customers the option to auto-update all along AND INFORMED THEM OF THE OPTION! Your gripe should be targeted at your own add-on developers!

6. Lefty wrote on November 23, 2011 at 12:51 am:

   The one-time dialogue didn’t pop up after installing Firefox 8 on Linux Mint 11.

   Slightly annoying as there is one add-on I have that I do not know how it got there, and cannot easily uninstall as does not have a uninstall button

   Is there a setting in about:config or similar to get it to appear?

   1. Martes-Martes wrote on November 27, 2011 at 4:35 pm:

      My experience is the same as Lefty’s, also with Mint 11. I have three things that got installed God knows how and are now disabled, but have no remove buttons: Global Menu Bar Integration (apparently some Unity garbage), Stylish 1.0.7 (WTF?), and English (South Africa) Language Pack 8.0, English (GB) Language Pack 8.0. How do I get rid of these things altogether? Thanks!

      1. Amy Tsay wrote on December 2, 2011 at 1:18 pm:

         Please check out this article for more information on uninstalling add-ons: http://bit.ly/uojDm3 If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can ask for help here: http://bit.ly/sE63Q8

         1. faizmustafa wrote on June 23, 2012 at 6:16 am:

            I just upgraded SeaMonkey 2.4 and it had this screen (I still use Fx4.01 so this was my first experience with this screen).

            It is a very confusing screen. It said ALL extensions from MOZILLA would be disabled because they are THIRD PARTY extensions. Huh? How can extensions from Mozilla itself be “third party”? Why were chatzilla, DOM Inspector, etc. disabled?

            There was no mention on this screen about Themes. Yet when SeaMonkey restarted as version 2.5, the extensions page shows that [b]SeaMonkey default theme 2.5[/b] is disabled as being incompatible with SeaMonkey. That’s really interesting considering that I am using it. I also have a Persona but the buttons are from the default theme so it is certainly not disabled.

            That screen also does not show plugins! I recently installed .NET 2, 3, and 3.5 for a new program I installed that requires .NET. I later found Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin silently installed on Fx4 but disabled automatically. On SeaMonkey 2.4 that plugin was installed and was ACTIVE! I left it that way to see what happened when I installed version 2.5 with the new Addons Compatibility screen. It was still there and active.

            I also found several extensions that 2.4 had disabled were now “magically” enabled on 2.5 because of that stupid new Addons Compatibility screen. The wording on that screen really confused me. The screen makes it more difficult, not easier, to manage your extensions after an upgrade.

            I think Mozilla should just leave the extensions alone and let us users manage them. And please, go back to using correct English. These are extensions of Firefox and SeaMonkey. They are NOT things that are added onto the outside of Fx and SM. The correct term is “extensions” not “addons” which implies something added onto the product not something that is extending the product. The two terms have very different meanings.

            I realize Mozilla decided to lump themes, extensions and plugins under the term “addons” which was one of the dumbest moves I’ve seen made by Mozilla. To avoid confusion the three categories should continue to be referred to by their respective names not called Addons as only plugins can actually be called “addons”.

   2. hashem wrote on June 12, 2012 at 2:34 pm:

      does this mean that when disable java,it will actually stay disabled

7. James wrote on November 23, 2011 at 2:04 am:

   Does this mean that when I disable Java, it will actually stay disabled?

   At last.

   Been waiting for that for what 10 years?

8. Kathy Chudnofsky wrote on November 23, 2011 at 3:37 am:

   I will not be upgrading until the new version supports AVG anti-virus.

9. Alan wrote on November 23, 2011 at 11:20 am:

   I am sorry you will have to pry the add-ons from my cold dead fingers! 😉

   No upgrade Kool-Aid for me …..

   Thanx

10. Mele wrote on November 24, 2011 at 9:11 pm:

    I just upgraded SeaMonkey 2.4 and it had this screen (I still use Fx4.01 so this was my first experience with this screen).

    It is a very confusing screen. It said ALL extensions from MOZILLA would be disabled because they are THIRD PARTY extensions. Huh? How can extensions from Mozilla itself be “third party”? Why were chatzilla, DOM Inspector, etc. disabled?

    There was no mention on this screen about Themes. Yet when SeaMonkey restarted as version 2.5, the extensions page shows that [b]SeaMonkey default theme 2.5[/b] is disabled as being incompatible with SeaMonkey. That’s really interesting considering that I am using it. I also have a Persona but the buttons are from the default theme so it is certainly not disabled.

    That screen also does not show plugins! I recently installed .NET 2, 3, and 3.5 for a new program I installed that requires .NET. I later found Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin silently installed on Fx4 but disabled automatically. On SeaMonkey 2.4 that plugin was installed and was ACTIVE! I left it that way to see what happened when I installed version 2.5 with the new Addons Compatibility screen. It was still there and active.

    I also found several extensions that 2.4 had disabled were now “magically” enabled on 2.5 because of that stupid new Addons Compatibility screen. The wording on that screen really confused me. The screen makes it more difficult, not easier, to manage your extensions after an upgrade.

    I think Mozilla should just leave the extensions alone and let us users manage them. And please, go back to using correct English. These are extensions of Firefox and SeaMonkey. They are NOT things that are added onto the outside of Fx and SM. The correct term is “extensions” not “addons” which implies something added onto the product not something that is extending the product. The two terms have very different meanings.

    I realize Mozilla decided to lump themes, extensions and plugins under the term “addons” which was one of the dumbest moves I’ve seen made by Mozilla. To avoid confusion the three categories should continue to be referred to by their respective names not called Addons as only plugins can actually be called “addons”.

11. Gen Craft wrote on November 25, 2011 at 10:48 am:

    I agree with Kathy….no upgrade until AVG is supported

12. Ramon wrote on November 25, 2011 at 2:54 pm:

    I upgrade firefox from v7 to v8 but my favorite add-on called MEDIAPIMP was disabled, so i downgrade it in v7

    1. Amy Tsay wrote on December 2, 2011 at 1:11 pm:

       Hi Ramon, MediaPimp should be compatible with version 8. We are currently working to improve the add-ons compatibility process, so stay tuned…

13. Developer wrote on November 26, 2011 at 7:53 am:

    I have the trouble with enabling extensions when firefox is being populated the new profile folder. urer.js and prefs.js doesn’t much help ether. Seeking for the reference how to enable extensions.

14. Developer wrote on November 26, 2011 at 8:06 am:

    Nice to have the developer service is temporally unavailable. Where do I get the information about how to return back to v7new features introduced with v8 by default. There’s must be explicitly settling for that features. How to enable extensions explicitly if they are disabled by default? I need to to it pro grammatically.

    1. Amy Tsay wrote on December 2, 2011 at 1:13 pm:

       Hi Developer, the add-ons forum is probably a better place to find the answers you’re looking for: http://bit.ly/tVqlv4

15. gman wrote on November 28, 2011 at 5:44 am:

    Please Please can someone help me find the link and to reinstall the google language translate add-on. I need to work in 2 other languages, Spanish (mostly) and French. I lost it with the install of Firefox 7 , which did NOT show me the option of keeping it or not. Is it still compatible with Firefox 8? Thank you.

    1. Amy Tsay wrote on December 2, 2011 at 10:44 am:

       Hi gman, there are several translation add-ons available here: http://bit.ly/v0LQgX

    2. zico wrote on June 12, 2012 at 1:32 am:

       okay

16. salman wrote on December 5, 2011 at 3:48 am:

    Mozilla firefox sucks……..!!!! Google Chrome the best browser of the world 😀

    1. ALMAS BADSHAH wrote on January 14, 2012 at 11:39 pm:

       right salman

17. imran wrote on December 7, 2011 at 8:00 am:

    thanx

18. This Sucks wrote on December 9, 2011 at 1:48 pm:

    I administer a shared Firefox installation for about 60 users and have been bitten hard by this feature. Changes like this should be phased in over several releases.

    I;m sure there is a workaround by diddling with user.js or similar but why?

    This is one of the many reasons you’re losing to Chrome.

19. Paul wrote on December 11, 2011 at 11:44 pm:

    Sorry guys, no dice until I get my security working on the browser. Everytime I look at the update, it says my security isn’t compatible. I’ve had a lot of Trojans blocked by it, and I really don’t see why I should have to do without it.

20. Marco wrote on December 15, 2011 at 5:08 am:

    Incredibly bad step for firefox in large companys. Because addon “GPO-forfirfox” is not automatically enabled. With the Addon settings are centrally managed and applied.

    No user will agree to the addon. But it is necessary for internal company rules.

21. tempbast wrote on December 21, 2011 at 2:16 am:

    How do I disable this? I know what add-ons are installed because I chose to install them. I don’t want to go through this manual install check every time I restart my computer.

    1. Amy Tsay wrote on December 21, 2011 at 4:41 pm:

       Hi tempbast, you should see the dialog only once. If you are seeing it every time you restart your browser, we suggest heading over to support for additional help: https://support.mozilla.com/

    2. Bart K. wrote on December 27, 2011 at 3:52 pm:

       You might want to take a look at your addons just to be sure of that. You’d be surprised how often third parties will slip in addons when you install common software packages.

22. James Kroscher wrote on December 22, 2011 at 10:13 am:

    I keep getting a screen when I click Firefox —-My Web Search.com I can’t get rid of it and want to know if this is an ADD-ON or something Firefox has added. How can I stop it. Before my Firefox setup gave me the current news headlines, etc. and now I can’t get that again

    Jim Kroscher

23. ismail manek wrote on December 30, 2011 at 8:04 am:

    hi i like add-on new firefox love it !

24. Demetrius wrote on January 3, 2012 at 7:34 am:

    Excuse my off-topic, when user disables an addon and then installs a fresh version of it, the addon remains disabled, is this behaviour obligatory or addon author can control it to make the addon enabled automatically after manual upgrade?

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on January 3, 2012 at 8:08 am:

       This is outside of the add-on developer’s hands; it’s just the way Firefox deals with this case.

25. Chronos wrote on January 6, 2012 at 10:26 pm:

    This may be my last hurrah with Firefox. I do NOT need or want a freaking BROWSER to disable security add-ons and stuff I actually just because it’s updating itself for the 200th time. Jeez. Firefox 9.1 just blew away Kaspersky, Adobe CS 5, Anti-Banner and about 5 others. Well done fools.

26. Lyssa wrote on January 13, 2012 at 5:00 am:

    Hello Firefox,

    I still don’t know how IE9 is not in the “Recycle Bin” as your browser is the BEST and thanks so much for “listening” to us users and finally disable these “hackers”,in my opinion,for dumping these “unwanted” crapola on our hard drives. Keep up the good work 🙂

27. karim wrote on January 15, 2012 at 3:28 pm:

    good

28. Chris wrote on January 16, 2012 at 7:10 am:

    I´m sorry to tell you, that this feature is not very useful when using Firefox in an enterprise environment. Especially if the browser will be rolled out via a distribution software. Is there a possibility to deaktivate this feature global for all users via changing a config key?

29. vibhor wrote on January 23, 2012 at 2:28 pm:

    plz enable idm integration support

    1. deo wrote on May 17, 2012 at 10:50 am:

       VERY BAD IDEA, my idm was not working after automatic update to firefox 12 and it took me long to realise it had been disabled. Firefox is nothing without addons. Just like windows is nothing without 3rd party software. Imagine if windows disabled all your software just because it has updated itself. VERY BAD IDEA justin scott. The sins of a few (advertisers and crap addons) should not be used to pass judgement on the many eg internet download manager and other addons

30. jens wrote on February 2, 2012 at 8:57 am:

    installed Firefox ESR 10.0 and the noscript extension global, it is the same, extension is installed but not activated.

    In this way Firefox is not usable in enterprise environment!!!

    So for my customer installations I have to use version 7.x, is that what Mozilla wanted?

    Cheers

    Jens

31. edgar wrote on February 3, 2012 at 6:17 am:

    I agree. Globally installed extensions should not be deactived by default.

32. khaydar wrote on February 12, 2012 at 8:20 am:

    thank you very much
    …

33. thomas wrote on February 14, 2012 at 1:29 am:

    hard to understand to make an esr version of firefox but disabling all globally installed extensions by default.

    10.0.1esr is for me not usable in enterprise environment. there has to be an option to activate global extensions by default!

34. SAMAR wrote on February 16, 2012 at 6:22 am:

    very fast downloader IDM

35. hamadatiger wrote on February 20, 2012 at 4:17 pm:

    تمام كلة مش تمام

36. LouisinLondon wrote on March 12, 2012 at 11:15 am:

    I agree that these changes realy affect Enterprise.

    Example: Educational institute requiring firefox plugins for teaching Programming / development, or possible future locally developed plugins for enhancing systems.

    Proposed solution:
    Can Firefox rather have a setting, changeable by Administrators,
    where by default it works by users having to ask permission (for home users),
    but allow enterprise administrators
    to change the setting to allow globally installed extensions without requiring user interaction.

37. Austinite wrote on March 15, 2012 at 9:42 am:

    Agree that this is NOT helpful in an enterprise environment. For instance, we use mcafee here and it installs a scriptscan addon “IDS_SS_NAME IDS_SS_VERSION”. Trying to deploy new version of firefox to 800 users. I understand the reason, but I cannot trust users to click on ‘enable’ for this addon. We need a way to enable this globally without user intereaction. Why do software vendors never think about enterprise customers???

38. salman wrote on March 26, 2012 at 1:22 pm:

    thank you very much

39. Gicci wrote on March 27, 2012 at 12:44 pm:

    I use the same profile both at home and at work (on an USB stick). At home my antivirus, at work another one.
    The antivirus I use at home installs add-ons for the browser to add security which get uninstalled when I start the browser at work. So every evening when back at home I need to confirm again that they can be installed.

    Is it possible to set add-ons in a trusted list so to avoid this kind of problems?

    I guess that the same behavior could happen with other products.

40. niv wrote on April 15, 2012 at 4:09 am:

    i need ian ad on or something like ..to my idm..i have firefox 12

41. nancy wrote on April 19, 2012 at 4:48 pm:

    since upgraded to 11.0 non of the most used dictionary’s add on are compatible anymore….even a good old fashion english can’t be checked for spelling, or I have to add translate-addons, which I don’t need….PLEASE DO SOMETHING!!

42. abe fadley wrote on April 23, 2012 at 7:47 am:

    I am using Java and Google tool bar for about 10nyears who the hell you are telling me I can not use them. Firefox used to be good now it is useless and has no value

43. iboy wrote on May 1, 2012 at 1:04 am:

    i interest your applicant , for me up to dether with me

44. Khan wrote on May 1, 2012 at 4:55 am:

    add-ons is a good thing save us being irritated from unwanted ads but i think it should be little more easier.

45. Thanh wrote on May 10, 2012 at 7:07 am:

    Thanks a lot for your help.
    Thanh.

46. محمد wrote on June 1, 2012 at 12:00 am:

    ممنون از زحمات شما
    Tanx to you

47. AJ wrote on June 1, 2012 at 4:07 am:

    Seems like with every Firefox update — its supporting even less and less number of Add-ons. If the trend continues then Google Chrome will gain the monopoly of Browser Wars !!!

48. djunedd wrote on June 8, 2012 at 6:56 pm:

    add-ons is excellent tools

49. Fahad wrote on June 11, 2012 at 10:32 am:

    thanx

50. fared wrote on July 1, 2012 at 11:04 pm:

    hi i like add-on new firefox love it
    tankey

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