Firefox Update Problems

September 26, 2005 8:53 AM

How do I get the Firefox Update function to actually work?

Every time Firefox does a check for updates (either manually, or automatic) it will show me that there are updates. When I click on Install Now it says Installing Now, but nothing ever happens. The only way I have been able to get new versions of Firefox is to just download the whole file from Mozilla and install from scratch. I am running Windows XP Pro.

posted by bove to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Well, it's not really an answer to your question (sorry), but in the current Firefox releases, all the Firefox Update bit does is download the whole file from Mozilla and run the installer, so other than having to manually download the file, you aren't really doing anything differently.
posted by Godbert at 9:04 AM on September 26, 2005

I don't know. This has always worked for me. Sorry. :-/

However, if nobody can help you with this particular question, it should be encouraging that with the Beta 1 relase out now (and in very usable condition... among other things, that pesky memory leak is fixed), the final release of Firefox 1.5 should be available well before year's end, and its new update code (which IIRC does download incremental patches rather than the full installer) might work better for you.
posted by musicinmybrain at 9:14 AM on September 26, 2005

Best answer: Do you have "Allow websites to install software" unchecked in the Content section of the preferences? If so, this is a known bug.
posted by Plutor at 9:53 AM on September 26, 2005

What Plutor said, and the extra information that they're planning to fix this in the upcoming beta release.
posted by bering at 10:12 AM on September 26, 2005