Mozilla Firefox Browser Stable Version Releases

Mozilla Firefox ESR 68.0.1 Released (July 18, 2019)
Release Notes
Download (Download Firefox Extended Support Release in your language)

 

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 68.0.1 (web browser) Released (July 19, 2019) (PortableApps.com)

 

I updated to Firefox 68.0.1 today, and found a bunch of annoyances (thankfully, the browser still works fine).

Comments about this things are welcomed? In about:addons, now I find the annoyance and distracting "Recommended extensions". Is there any way to get rid of that. It brings a lot of confusion and dirt to that window. Extremely annoying.

Also, under Extensions in about:support, same thing, Mozilla added a lot of confusion when they add Bing, Twitter, etc, in there. I would like to clean this things up, does anyone know how?





Bo

 

FWIW ~ @bo elam
[Firefox Tip] Remove Recommended Extensions and Themes Sections from Add-ons Manager
https://www.askvg.com/firefox-tip-remove-recommended-extensions-and-themes-sections-from-add-ons-manager

[Firefox Tip] Restore Old Classic UI of Add-ons Manager (About:Addons) Page
https://www.askvg.com/firefox-tip-restore-old-classic-ui-of-add-ons-manager-aboutaddons-page

[Tip] Block Firefox to Download Updates Using BITS on Windows.
The newer versions of Mozilla Firefox web browser (version 68.0 and later) come with BITS support on Windows operating system which means Firefox will use BITS service on Windows to download and install updates so that it can upgrade itself without any interruption even if the user closes Firefox window.
https://www.askvg.com/tip-block-firefox-to-download-updates-using-bits-on-windows

 

I disabled 'recommended extensions' by setting the following flag in about:config to false -

Code:

extensions.htmlaboutaddons.recommendations.enabled

As for the other thing in about:support, I have no clue

 

Ever since I enabled Drop Rights in Sandboxie, Firefox has not updated itself. I see a new version here at Wilders, then I updated it myself. As for the above code to disable the "recommended extensions," this did the trick and my add-ons page is considerably less cluttered. Thanks, this is appreciated.

 

Thanks, bjm (and Seer), those are great links. I did the about:config changes to remove recommended Extensions and Themes. Things look a lot better now. I wont restore the old Addons manager but I also disabled Firefox using BITS to do updates. I have Automatic updates disabled in Firefox (using a policies.json file) so making this change probably doesn't do anything for me but I think is a good idea to disable this new feature if you are a Sandboxie user. IMO, is likely an update could corrupt Firefox if you are running Firefox sandboxed, and an update is downloaded after closing the sandboxed browser. This feature doesnt sound like something that would work well with SBIE.

Today, I found something that I looked for, a long time ago but never found how to do it. I am good at searching but when I was searching for this solution, I just didn't know what to search for or how to call what I wanted. So, I never found the answer. But today, I found the solution by pure chance.

The "Edit this bookmark" window looks like this now, is been looking like that for a while. Very annoying, and is getting worse, now they are adding suggestions that I don't care about. Right now, is worst than ever (according to my taste).



Using this userChrome.css rule, you can get rid of it, I am happy with this , now the window looks like it used to:

*|div#editBookmarkPanelInfoArea {display:none !important}


Today when I was making this change for the window, I also realized they added to tick/untick the option to Show or not show the editor when saving. I dont know when they added that option but that's also something I wanted for a long time. Maybe they added this (positive) change in Firefox 68. I don't know but getting rid of the annoying editor opening up every time I bookmark something is a big plus.

Bo

 

Hi plat1098, I disable automatic updates in Firefox so I really dont know (by experience) how this past few years Firefox has behaved when checking for updates "automatically" while running sandboxed. I dont even know if Firefox is supposed, allowed by SBIE to check or not automatically if you are running sandboxed, but I can tell you, that mannually, Sandboxie does allow you to do that, and it will allow the update to be downloaded (and contained within the sandbox) but it doesnt allow the installation to go thru. IMO, if you are a SBIE user, you are better off disabling automatic updates in Firefox, and do the updates at your own pace. Thats how I feel about that.

Outside the sandbox, Sandboxie with or without Drop rights dont interfere in any way with Firefox checking for updates or doing the update.

Bo

 

You need elevated (aka admin) rights to install anything on Windows. If you enable Drop My Rights (which act like a localized SUA) , obviously the program won't install properly. It is Windows basics.
However, downloading stuff doesn't need elevated rights, so it can be done in sandboxie without issue. Sandboxie obviously allow downloads if not you could not use a browser.

 

If you enable Drop rights, programs cant be installed in the sandbox. But the case we are talking about here is not installing programs but updating programs while running sandboxed, and Sandboxie doesn't allow programs to install an update while running in the sandbox, regardless of whether you are using or not using Drop rights. guest, Drop rights has no role here. You can update a browser addon (with/without Drop rights, thats OK), but programs like Firefox, they cant be updated while running in the sandbox and it doesn't matter if you are using or not using Drop rights.

Bo

 

search engines are since version 66/65/64 !? part of as extensions and can be update in emergency case with "studies". if you dont use them - dont care!

the new addon manager is fixed since v70, no way back - but at least it is still not ready.

seriously - you should check out Aris css collection which is fully documentated
GitHub - Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx: Custom CSS tweaks for Firefox 57+

try chrome and revert your answer ^^
in such cases where this is not needed programs go to %localappdata% (same when UAC denied), also valid for firefox!

for/against "discover" in addon manager left pane -> userContent.css

Code:

@-moz-document  url-prefix(chrome://mozapps/content/extensions/extensions.xul),
                url-prefix(about:addons) {

    #addons-page #category-box #categories #category-discover.category
    {
        display: none !important;
    }
}

made by Aris!

as you can read im all around here and there and elsewhere too. ask the proper questions and you will be served. but dont become a Quagmire with firefox.

 

@bo elam
I tinkered a bit and found a solution to your second inqury as well. This one -

You have to edit your policies.json file (since you already use it) and add the following lines (at least here I have these search extensions preinstalled) -

Code:

{
  "policies": {
    "Extensions": {
      "Uninstall": [
        "amazondotcom@search.mozilla.org",
        "twitter@search.mozilla.org",
        "wikipedia@search.mozilla.org",
        "ebay@search.mozilla.org",
        "bing@search.mozilla.org",
        "ddg@search.mozilla.org",
        "google@search.mozilla.org"
      ]
    }
  }
}

This will remove 'search extensions' from both about:support and about:debugging.

 

Thanks, Seer. I tried a few times, editing the policies.json file I am currently using to disable automatic updates and creating a new policies.json file that includes both rules (disable auto updates/gets rid of search engines), and haven't gotten it to work. Adding the rule you posted, is not working for me and breaks my rule to disable automatic updates. I am probably doing something wrong. The file is being saved as policies.json, not text file. This is what the file looks when I add the rule you posted to this rule:

{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}



Perhaps you can figure what I am doing wrong.

Bo

 

Hi bo.

You can drag'n'drop the json file into firefox window, it will tell you what's wrong with it (exact line/column).
Does it work like this? -

Code:

{
  "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true,
    "Extensions": {
      "Uninstall": [
        "amazondotcom@search.mozilla.org",
        "twitter@search.mozilla.org",
        "wikipedia@search.mozilla.org",
        "ebay@search.mozilla.org",
        "bing@search.mozilla.org",
        "ddg@search.mozilla.org",
        "google@search.mozilla.org"
      ]
    }
  }
}

 

Seer, thanks. I have to go out for a couple hours. I ll check it out when I come back, and let you know if it works for me.

Bo

 

Very nice, Seer. It works perfectly like that. Thank you very much.

Bo

 

You're welcome Bo

Cheers.

...
I've also been playing with restoring the 'search extensions' to default (in case anyone wants them back for whatever reason) and the only way I found so far to do this is to uninstall Firefox and then install it again. Changing the syntax from 'Uninstall' to 'Install' does nothing.
FWIW.

 

i could have told you this was explained in the german firefox forum for good. thats reason for my

i use "selection search" for my needs with my own group of search engines and its parameters. mark word(s) and search. it swapped from chrome store.

 

The article mentions the Menu bar. I like the Menu bar and have to use it forever. I like using settings and options from there, never navigated to settings or made changes any other via thru the UI. And dont want to get used to not using the Menu bar. A few days ago, I was thinking about what I am going to write. The way things go at Mozilla, one of this days, one of the big guys at Mozilla is gonna make the decision to get rid of it completely from enabling it via UI. And to bring it out, Mozilla will make us have to go thru hoops. The reason to hide it and make it hard to bring it back: Just because...

Bo

 

Very informative, thanks...