Bugs which are fixed by updates are usually being exploited within *hours* of an update release. Web browsers are arguably *the* most complex, critical, and vulnerable application that we use and they MUST be kept up-to-date to remain reasonably secure.
Disabling automatic updates places full responsibility on you to manually download and install updated versions. **WARNING: I totally understand the need to disable automatic updates in many situations and the hassle that such updates can cause, but DO NOT use an obsolete version of Firefox. Mozilla deletes the distribution folder in this way for a reason, but most users will not expect this behavior. I recommend that users instead use solution #3 with RegEdit if they wish to avoid this unexpected consequence. Where “Firefox Setup N” is the filename of the installer that you’ve manually downloaded. The simplest solution involves running new Firefox installers with the following command entered into a command-prompt opened to the folder where the setup file resides:Ĭ:\>”Firefox Setup N” /RemoveDistributionDir=false
I suggest that this option *not* be recommended to users unless the instructions also describe how to prevent the distribution folder from being removed by later updates. This is because the update process deletes the entire “distribution\” folder that contains your policies.json file. So Method #2 will stop working if you manually update Firefox (or Thunderbird).
At the top-right corner of the window, click the “Open Menu” option, and select “Options.”