Mozilla Maintenance Service

I just noticed this in my system services list. Not sure how long it's been there.

Description:

"The Mozilla Maintenance Service ensures that you have the latest and most secure version of Mozilla Firefox on your computer. Keeping Firefox up to date is very important for your online security, and Mozilla strongly recommends that you keep this service enabled."

It's set to manual by default, and was wasn't running when I saw it.

The thing is... Firefox (and add-ons) both run & update just fine with it disabled. So I really don't get the point. And as long as that's the case I see no reason to have it running. That's how I run this ship.

Just wondering if anyone else noticed this, and/or knows anything more about it than I?

XP Pro SP3 here...

 

I think they added it with version 12. I believe the idea was to run the updater as a service so that users could update without UAC prompts. Unfortunately it does not seem to work. When I have standard users trying to update the only way I can get it to finish properly is to download the full latest version and install over the top with Admin credentials.

 

Here's some more info about it: http://www.brianbondy.com/blog/id/133/ and http://www.ghacks.net/2012/03/27/firefox-silent-updates/

 

i have experienced the exact same situation. the maintenance service never helped with updates on all the LUA's i installed it on.

 

I don't think it needs to be enabled on XP since XP doesn't have UAC. I don't know why they even have it so MS will install on XP.

 

Just another example of why to always select custom/options in the installer when installing software. This is not meant as a slam to the OP, but rather a general observation.

 

Use custom install and deselect "Install Maintenance Service".

 

The problem here is that if you installed as an upgrade to an older version you are never presented with that option. It installs it, you are just never asked. It is only offered if you do not have a previous version of Firefox installed.

 

This should help further understand the service, what it is, what it does and how to disable it, if you wish.

 

Exactly. I don't personally uninstall Firefox, cleanup, then do a fresh install for every new version. I used to, but at the rate they're rolling them out these days that'd be a full-time job. Since I know they're throwing in bloat like this though, perhaps I'll have to from now on.

I always do custom installs when I am doing fresh installs though. Preaching to the choir on that one.

 

If the maintenance service seems to be unnecessary, try Pale Moon. I personally prefer it over the default Firefox, for the 64-bit version, cleaner interface and the removal of the unnecessary features, such as this service.

 

I just uninstalled it with Revo... problem solved. But from now on I think I'll do fresh installs for every new version of Firefox. This incident opened up my eyes, and I don't want bloat on my box.

 

You should be able to remove "Mozilla Maintenance Service" from the usual remove programs list, if that saves you a few clicks.

Pale Moon is ok, but binary add-ons are not compatible. If that doesn't matter Pale Moon and Waterfox are good choices. If you want things like Norton toolbars or Kaspersky add-ons or things like that, Firefox will be the only option.

 

Thanks Jack! I'm very happy with Firefox. No plans to change. Just a minor inconvenience. Just a reminder of why I do fresh installs for major version updates.

sometimes we need reminders...

 

According to the blog in my previous post: http://www.brianbondy.com/blog/id/133/

 

Just minutes ago I upgraded from b2 to b3, but instead of using the "Upgrade" option when it presented itself, I manually downloaded the b3 installer, and when I installed overtop b2 (upgraded) it offered me the option to de-select the Maintenance Service checkbox.

 

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_Service_Silent_Update#Service_installation



If you don't have the above reg key already present, copy & paste the code below to notepad. Save as MaintenanceService.reg, right-click and select Merge.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\MaintenanceService]
"Attempted"=dword:00000001