It’s no secret that Firefox users love to install add-ons — more than 1.5 million are downloaded every day from our official gallery. But users aren’t the only ones who love adding on to Firefox: third-party applications frequently install bundled add-ons into Firefox as part of their own installation process. While some of these applications seek the user’s permission beforehand, others install add-ons into Firefox without checking to make sure the user actually wants them.
These add-ons installed by third parties present a number of problems: they can slow down Firefox start-up and page loading time, they clutter the interface with toolbars that often go unused, they lag behind on compatibility and security updates, and most importantly, they take the user out of control of their add-ons.
That’s why we’re introducing two new features to ensure users have complete control over their add-ons:
Users must opt in to add-on installation
If Firefox starts and finds that another program has installed an add-on, Firefox will disable the add-on until the user has explicitly opted in to the addition. Users that want the functionality provided by a third-party-installed add-on can easily allow the installation, while users who don’t can cancel or ignore the prompt.
An opportunity to fix the past
Upon upgrading to this upcoming version of Firefox, users will be presented with a one-time dialog to select the add-ons they wish to keep installed. By default, all of the add-ons the user has installed from within Firefox will be kept, but add-ons installed by another application will be disabled unless the user chooses to keep them. Regardless of installation method, we encourage users to disable add-ons they aren’t using to improve Firefox’s performance.
If any add-ons will be disabled, the user will be asked to confirm the changes. This additional step should ensure users don’t accidentally disable add-ons they wish to keep.
We understand that there are legitimate use cases for some third-party add-on installations, and that those developers have done the right thing by asking users to opt in to the add-on, following our performance best practices, and providing a good user experience. Unfortunately, the extent of unwanted add-ons installed through these methods has caused us to take action, but we’re confident that users who truly want such add-ons to be installed will opt in when Firefox prompts them.
You can try out these and other new features in Firefox Aurora starting next week.
Anonymouse
wrote on
ishita
wrote on
ravi
wrote on
Kukulkan
wrote on
Irwin Mainway
wrote on
Amy Tsay
wrote on
hamed
wrote on
quest
wrote on
Lefty
wrote on
Martes-Martes
wrote on
Amy Tsay
wrote on
faizmustafa
wrote on
hashem
wrote on
James
wrote on
Kathy Chudnofsky
wrote on
Alan
wrote on
Mele
wrote on
Gen Craft
wrote on
Ramon
wrote on
Amy Tsay
wrote on
Developer
wrote on
Developer
wrote on
Amy Tsay
wrote on
gman
wrote on
Amy Tsay
wrote on
zico
wrote on
salman
wrote on
ALMAS BADSHAH
wrote on
imran
wrote on
This Sucks
wrote on
Paul
wrote on
Marco
wrote on
tempbast
wrote on
Amy Tsay
wrote on
Bart K.
wrote on
James Kroscher
wrote on
ismail manek
wrote on
Demetrius
wrote on
Jorge Villalobos
wrote on
Chronos
wrote on
Lyssa
wrote on
karim
wrote on
Chris
wrote on
vibhor
wrote on
deo
wrote on
jens
wrote on
edgar
wrote on
khaydar
wrote on
thomas
wrote on
SAMAR
wrote on
hamadatiger
wrote on
LouisinLondon
wrote on
Austinite
wrote on
salman
wrote on
Gicci
wrote on
niv
wrote on
nancy
wrote on
abe fadley
wrote on
iboy
wrote on
Khan
wrote on
Thanh
wrote on
محمد
wrote on
AJ
wrote on
djunedd
wrote on
Fahad
wrote on
fared
wrote on