1458444 - multiple versions of browser are installed and working

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Shiwam Awasthi]

Attachment: This snapshot is taken from "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features" after updating.

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:59.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/59.0
Build ID: 20180427210249

Steps to reproduce:

Environment: Windows 10 64 Bits
1. Preinstalled version of Firefox browser.
2. Installed Firefox Quantum as it launched.
 


Actual results:

1. Initially firefox and firefox quantum were two different browser.
2. After update of older version of firefox; it was updated to firefox quantum but not the current version.
3. Currently firefox 59 and 60 both are installed.


Expected results:

Though at a time only one instance is allowed; both are installed separately and update  separately.

Comment 1

[Molly Howell (she/her) (mostly inactive)]

Thanks for the report and the screenshot. I'm a little confused about what happened here and I have a few questions that I hope you can answer:

1) You said you had a "Preinstalled version of Firefox browser". Can you be more specific about the sequence of events here? Do you mean that you had installed that version previously, or that it came on the computer, or got installed some other way? Do you know which version was the preinstalled copy?
2) Version 60 is still in beta, 59.0.3 is the current release version, so I'm not sure how you got a copy of 60 to install. Di you intend to install a beta version? If not, and assuming that wasn't the preinstalled copy, where did you download that version?
3) Do you know what directories these two copies are installed to?

Thanks again.

Comment 2

[Shiwam Awasthi]

1) I was using older or slower Firefox version.
As per Update History of "Preinstalled Firefox" 
53.0.3 Firefox Release May 19, 2017 (Oldest)
59.0.3 Firefox Release April 30, 2018 (current)


2) With the launch of Quantum (Beta or Stable; can't confirm) ; installed it few months back.
Update History from browser does not seem proper but still it is as follows:
Firefox 60.0 Beta 6 Release March 26, 2018
Firefox 60.0 Release May 4, 2018

Note : 
1. Earlier  there were two Firefox browsers on my PC; one is slower one with old firefox logo, which later updated to Quantum with new logo. And other was initial version of quantum with current version as 60.0
2. At present, there are two Firefox browsers on my PC; both are quantum but one is stable and other is Beta.

3) Directories: 
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" version 60.0
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" Version 59.0.3
Here the stable version's directory is "Program Files (x86)" while in screenshot file name stating as x64.

I hope I have explained the issue. 

Thanks :)

Comment 3

[Molly Howell (she/her) (mostly inactive)]

Thank you very much for the information. I think I know what happened now:

- Your old preinstalled copy was a 32-bit build.
- When you installed the Quantum Beta, you got a 64-bit build, because that had become the default since the old installation was done (that changed in August 2017). 64-bit builds don't install over existing 32-bit builds by default, so at this point you had an older 32-bit build and a newer 64-bit Quantum (beta) build.
- On April 30, the older build updated to 59. We now automatically convert 32-bit builds to 64-bit during updates. So that update turned the old preinstalled build into a 64-bit build. But, we don't move the installation during that process, so you now have two x64 builds installed, but one of them is in Program Files (x86).

So the situation you're in is unusual, but nothing is broken or behaving unexpectedly, so I'm going to mark this bug as resolved. My advice would be to simply uninstall one of the two copies; at this point both builds are up-to-date Quantum versions, so you can choose whether you want to run the beta or the release. You won't lose any of your data (history, bookmarks, installed extensions, etc.) no matter which one you pick, because all of that is stored separately.

Thanks again!