1561105 - Stub Installer says Windows 7 is needed but Windows 7 is currently installed

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Bonny Borys]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:63.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/63.0

Steps to reproduce:

after clicking 'Update Now' upon receiving heart telling me my Firefox version is critically out of date, I download file and attempt to run the update but cannot successfully bring Firefox up to date/current version

Actual results:

Firefox Installer exe does not run and generates error message telling me I need Windows 7 in order to proceed, however, my computer is running Windows 7, has always used Window 7

Expected results:

Installer exe should have correctly identified Windows 7 on my computer and installed the update

Comment 1

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Firefox will never tell you it is "critically" out of date, nor prompt you to manually download an update. We download updates in the background and simply ask you to restart the browser if you haven't done so in a while. This sounds like you were the victim of a scam ad and possibly downloaded malware. Did you downloaded the installer from https://www.mozilla.org/ ?

You may wish to visit https://support.mozilla.org/ and see if they can help you with next steps.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Hi Bonny,
So, you are probably seeing a legitimate message. Did it look similar to the second image on https://support.mozilla.org/kb/rate-your-firefox-experience-heartbeat ?

If so, you are seeing that because the version of Firefox you are running is at least 2 versions behind the current. Currently Firefox is at version 67.0.4.

Can you please give us the filename of the installer you are trying to run, the exact error message you see, and the URL from which you downloaded it?

Can you also confirm that you are running Firefox 63 on a Windows 7 machine? You can verify this by going to about:support in your address bar.

I would ask that you ensure that Windows is fully up to date (install Service Pack 1 if you haven't already) and that you are not trying to run the installer in compatibility mode for another Operating system.

Finally, can you download a new installer from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ and let us know if that gives the same issue?

Comment 3

[Bonny Borys]

Tyler,
Success! From the URL in your email, my new current Firefox version is 67.0.04 (64-bit).

Upon further investigation, I found 2 different Firefox Icons on my Windows 7 Desktop:
one icon for Firefox version 63.0.3 (32-bit) and,
a second icon for Firefox version 66.0.5 (64-bit) - which I updated to current version 67.0.4

I will now use the 64-bit current version as my default and will delete the icon for the older 32-bit version

I confirm that my Windows is fully up to date and that the message that originally appeared in Firefox was the 'rate-your-firefox-experience-heartbeat' notification which prompted this error report.

If there is any further action required to completely remove/uninstall Firefox 63.0.0 or will sending the old icon to Trash be sufficient?

Thank-you for your help in making my Firefox up-to-date.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

I'm glad you are up to date. Did you happen to get the other information in my original post (such as the name of the file you downloaded that wouldn't install?).

You should go into your Add Remove programs and find the old version, and uninstall it. Make sure you only remove the 63.0.3, not the 67.0.4

Comment 5

[Bonny Borys]

the downloaded file that I could not install was:

Firefox Installer(1).exe
6/4/2019
280 KB
File version: 18.5.0.0

hope this helps

Comment 6

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Hmm, that looks like it should have worked AFAIK. I'll leave this open, it's possible that there will be other folks who follow up to ask you more questions!

Comment 7

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

It's interesting that the second installer you ran did work, because the version check code they use is the same.

If you wouldn't mind trying something else just to help diagnose this, could you move the first installer (the one that isn't working) to a different location and try running it from there? I'm wondering if somehow a compatibility mode has gotten applied there, and that would not follow the file if you move it somewhere else.

Comment 8

[Bonny Borys]

When you say 'different location' do you mean another device? I'm not totally clear as to your request.

Comment 9

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Bonny Borys from comment #8)

When you say 'different location' do you mean another device? I'm not totally clear as to your request.

Passing needinfo back to :mhowell. :-)

Comment 10

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

No, sorry for being unclear about that, I just meant a different folder on the same computer. For example, if you're running that installer out of your Downloads folder, drag it on to the Desktop first and try running it from there instead. Or just any other folder besides the one you've been using.

Comment 11

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

This bug has had a request for information out to the reporter for over a month, so I'm closing it. It can be reopened if the needed information is provided.