Firefox never auto updates. wtf?

Jimmy King

Ever since firefox started the auto update thing, it has not worked on my computer. I run windows 7 on a non-admin account. Several versions ago it was supposedly fixed so that even non-admin accounts will update.

I have verified that it is set to automatically install updates and use background service to install updates is checked and always has been. When I go to help -> about, it tells me there is an update available and that I need to go manually download it. If I run firefox with an admin user, it will start updating when I go to help -> about.

Anyone know what the deal is? For the firefox 18 to 19 update I did a full uninstall of firefox, but here we are a week after firefox 20 was released and I'm on 19.0.2. Oddly, it does seem to have gotten the minor version updates... unless 19.0.2 was just the version it was at when I did my uninstall and fresh install.

CuvisTheConqueror

It still doesn't update on limited accounts. What I usually do is use the Run As Different User option on the right-click menu to run Firefox as my admin account, go to the About box to download the update. When you're prompted to restart Firefox, exit it instead. Then run it as admin again to complete the install.

Jimmy King

Ah, so it's not supposed to yet then. Most of the stuff I read didn't make that very clear. The official docs make it sound like at the very least, as a normal user, I should be able to go to help -> about and make it update from there. Maybe I have to turn off the auto update to do that, though? I'll try it when I get home tonight. Having to run firefox as an admin to get auto updates to work kind of kills the point of having non-privileged user accounts and auto update features. I'm pretty surprised at Mozilla's apparent inability to get this right.