SWB 4.5 misses Firefox

Discussion in 'SpywareBlaster & Other Forum' started by ibeme99, Nov 29, 2011.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    I uninstalled v4.4 but after installing v4.5, SWB claims it cannot find Firefox (my primary and default browser)!

    Where does it look for the FF profile (mine is not in the standard location). How can I tell it where to look?

    --------------
    Mozilla Firefox not detected.
    No Mozilla Firefox user profiles were detected on this account.
    Mozilla Firefox is a popular web browser. If you do not have it installed, this protection offers no benefit.

    Wrong!
    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.24) Gecko/20111103 Firefox/3.6.24 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0E)
    --------------
     
  2. Xmetalfanx

    Xmetalfanx Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 30, 2011
    Posts:
    3
    Location:
    United States
    I am still hunting this forum and other sites to see if this is a long-known issue, though I have to say that I am currently on Firefox 8.01 at the time of me typing this, and just upgraded to SWB 4.5 (and haven't been opening up SWB) ... I have to confirm that I am having this issue to. ... like I said though, I am going to hunt down other posts related to the same issue ... it could be a few versions old, and like some add-ons for Firefox ... SWB is just suffering from the rapid-release cycle of Mozilla ... and it could be on Javacool's "todo" list to bump the FF supported version number up a few versions.

    -Xmetalfanx
     
  3. javacool

    javacool BrightFort Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2002
    Posts:
    4,098
    Hi,

    SpywareBlaster looks for your Mozilla Firefox profiles by checking:
    %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox
    for a profiles.ini file, and then reading/parsing that profiles.ini file.

    On Windows 2000/XP, this path is usually:
    C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

    On Windows Vista/7, this path is usually:
    C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\

    If you can locate your profiles.ini file in the appropriate location above, and SpywareBlaster is still not detecting Firefox, please let me know. (It would also be useful to know exactly what version + service packs of Windows you have installed, as well as what other security/privacy software you have.)

    Best regards and thanks,

    -Javacool
     
  4. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    I am running WinXP SP3. When I last did a full rebuild on my FF profile, I was experimenting with something called "ProfileManager". I wound up with my final profile and structure here:

    MY %APPDATA% points to D:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\

    and my Firefox profile is at (under the above location):

    Mozilla\ProfileManager\20110806

    If you can't automatically find where the FF profile resides, then I guess this means that you have to provide an input method for the user to point you to the location.
     
  5. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    So are you doing anything about this problem or not? It has been 6 days since my last message and no updates that I can see.
     
  6. Cudni

    Cudni Global Moderator

    Joined:
    May 24, 2009
    Posts:
    6,963
    Location:
    Somethingshire
    what is in the profile.ini? Is the path correct as in what you posted (D:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\)
     
  7. javacool

    javacool BrightFort Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2002
    Posts:
    4,098
    Hi,

    Could you please provide a link to where you downloaded the ProfileManager software?

    If ProfileManager writes Firefox profiles to a non-standard location, it currently isn't supported in SpywareBlaster. I'm happy to test it out and see if we can support it in a future release.

    Best regards and thanks,

    -Javacool
     
  8. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    This is the link for the current PM software:
    http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/utilities/profilemanager/1.0/

    Sorry, but I view "non-standard location" response as an excuse for someone who should know better than to hard-code a physical location.

    The solution is very simple - allow the user to specify the location of any variable locations with a browse button during the install and the problem goes away.

    Where is the location physically coded? In the registry? If so, can you provide the key location and then I can fix it myself?

    EDIT:
    After answering Cudni's query, I need to ask WHY you don't look in Firefox's PROFILE.INI which contains a direct pointer to the profile (wherever it may be located)? If you want to hard-code something, then it should be the location of the PROFILE.INI file.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2011
  9. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    Profile.ini:
    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]
    Name=20110806
    IsRelative=0
    Path=D:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Mozilla\ProfileManager\20110806
    Default=1
     
  10. javacool

    javacool BrightFort Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2002
    Posts:
    4,098
    As mentioned above, SpywareBlaster does utilize the profiles.ini file. Based on what you posted, SpywareBlaster should be detecting that profile automatically.

    There may be something unexpected about how your profiles.ini file is formatted. (I realize you copied the contents above, but the forum software may not have preserved the exact data.) Would you mind sending it (in a .zip file please) to:
    bugreports AT javacoolsoftware DOT com

    (Please reference this thread in your e-mail.)

    Thanks in advance! :)

    Best regards,

    -Javacool
     
  11. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    Done. Look in your email.

    If you don't see anything in my profile.ini file, maybe you want to run some debug code during SWB startup to see why it is missing my FF folder?
     
  12. javacool

    javacool BrightFort Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2002
    Posts:
    4,098
    Hi,

    This likely has to do with line-ending differences.

    (The profiles.ini file you provided does not use Windows-standard CRLF, but rather LF. It looks like this is a bug that was fixed in a later version of ProfileManager, but we'll also update SpywareBlaster to support this difference in a future release.)

    To fix this for now:
    1.) Backup your existing profiles.ini file somewhere safe.
    2.) Open your existing profiles.ini file in an application that shows the contents properly on multiple lines (recommendation: try Wordpad... Notepad won't work).
    3.) Select all of the text, and copy it to the clipboard.
    4.) Open Notepad, and paste the text you copied. It should appear properly as multiple lines.
    5.) Save the Notepad document as "profiles.ini", overwriting the original (old) file.

    This should re-write the file with appropriate line-endings, and both Firefox and SpywareBlaster should be able to properly parse it.

    Best regards and thanks,

    -Javacool
     
  13. ibeme99

    ibeme99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2004
    Posts:
    39
    OK, that seems to have been the problem. Working now.

    Thanks!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.