Update Prompting

[ascii_elite]

I use Pale Moon 6.0.2 on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.

The About Pale Moon dialog box has a button to check for updates.

If the Check for Updates button is used and an update is found, an Apply Update button appears. If the Apply Update button is used, a dialog box (like represented in the attached image to this post) provides information about an available update and allows for the user to select what to do.

This behavior contrast with what is done by Mozilla Firefox 6.0.2.

For Mozilla Firefox 6.0.2, after clicking Check for Updates button in the About Mozilla Firefox dialog box, an update, if found, is automatically downloaded and applied upon next browser restart.

Is the dialog box for Pale Moon prompting for user action a downloaded update (which might further download another update)? If not, how has the different behavior been achieved?

[Moonchild]

The software update dialog box you see is not downloaded, it's a built-in function in Pale Moon. This is default behavior when flagging an update major instead of minor in the update file on the server.
This is by design, to give people the choice to update their browser or not, to ignore further notifications of the same offered version, etc. as some people will not want to update immediately without question when an update is found.

[ascii_elite]

Thank you Moonchild for your prompt response.

The software update dialog box you see is not downloaded, it's a built-in function in Pale Moon.
...
This is by design

Would the invoking of software update dialog box from the About Mozilla Firefox/Pale Moon be a modification to the Firefox core?

Is there a setting to toggle the behavior?

[Moonchild]

No, this is not changed from Firefox, it's unchanged core functionality, but configured differently.

You might want to check the app.update.* parameters in the Mozillazine KB for a detailed description of different update methods, especially .auto and .mode, if you want to change this behavior:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/App.update.auto

It also depends on what is in the update .xml on the update server how the notifications are handled. (minor vs major)

[ascii_elite]

I actually prefer the Pale Moon behavior (notwithstanding the About dialog incorrectly informing "Pale Moon is up to date" if an update was previously rejected).

Before using Pale Moon 6.0.2, I would use a preconfigured prefs.js file to configure Firefox 6.0.2. The file was placed in the "\defaults\profile\" directory of the Mozilla Firefox's installation directory.

The settings I used to configure the browser updating were:

Code: Select all

// Disable automatic update installation
user_pref("app.update.auto", false);

// Disable automatic application update check
user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);

// download minor updates only, prompt for major updates
user_pref("app.update.mode", 2);

// Show dialog box showing update success
user_pref("app.update.showInstalledUI", true);

// Disable add-ons update check (Options dialog box)
user_pref("extensions.update.enabled", false);

// Disable automatic search engine update check
user_pref("browser.search.update", false);

// Disable add-ons update check (Add-ons dialog box)
user_pref("extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault", false);

// Ignore older version on first profile run
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "ignore");

With these settings Firefox would exhibit its behavior as described in the first post to this thread (fifth paragraph).

I am curious as to how the change was made.

[Moonchild]

Pale Moon comes packaged with a different configuration than Mozilla Firefox. it's that simple

As for your remark:

the About dialog incorrectly informs "Pale Moon is up to date" if update previously rejected notwithstanding

That's not incorrect. If you reject an update, then you don't want to be informed about that particular update. So, as far as the browser is concerned you are running "the latest version that you want and there are no newer updates" so it's telling you it's up-to-date.

[ascii_elite]

Pale Moon comes packaged with a different configuration than Mozilla Firefox. it's that simple

This I am aware.

As for your remark:

the About dialog incorrectly informs "Pale Moon is up to date" if update previously rejected notwithstanding

That's not incorrect. If you reject an update, then you don't want to be informed about that particular update. So, as far as the browser is concerned you are running "the latest version that you want and there are no newer updates" so it's telling you it's up-to-date.[/quote]The remark somehow became jumbled. I have corrected the remark to read: "notwithstanding the About dialog incorrectly informing 'Pale Moon is up to date' if an update was previously rejected".

[Moonchild]

The remark somehow became jumbled. I have corrected the remark to read: "notwithstanding the About dialog incorrectly informing 'Pale Moon is up to date' if an update was previously rejected".

No, you misunderstand. Pale Moon is not incorrect when it says that it is up-to-date if you have rejected an update.

Example:

• You have v6.0.
• v7.0 becomes available, so Pale Moon tells you there is an update.
• You reject v7.0, telling Pale Moon "I don't want this update"
• The situation is now that the only available update there is, is one you don't want. This means that Pale Moon, as far as your desires are concerned, is up-to-date. --> Pale Moon tells you as much.
• In case a new update becomes available, e.g. v8.0, Pale Moon will inform you about the update again.

[Night Wing]

On a side note. The box with the Pale Moon update, that same box appeared for the very first time when I updated to Firefox 8 when Firefox hadn't been doing that.