1851857 - Nightly showed "Your default browser was recently changed" notification, but my default browser hasn't changed

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Default Browser Agent, defect)

Description

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Attachment: image.png

Nightly just showed me the "Keep using Firefox Nightly? Your default browser was recently changed." notification. I don't recall ever being asked to change my default browser, but I recently tested some different Firefox channels (and Nightly profiles) and Chrome to bisect a bug. Also, I'm using Windows 11 Insider Beta channel, so it's possible my system settings were reset after a recent OS update.

1. The system settings' Default Apps still lists Firefox Nightly as my default app for HTTP and HTTPS URLs and .html files.
2. Nightly's own settings tells me "Nightly is currently default browser".
3. I used Regedit to look at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\URLAssociations\http|https)\UserChoice registry keys (discovered from a Stack Overflow article) and their ProgID keys are both FirefoxURL-6F193CCC56814779.

So I'm not sure why Nightly thinks my default browser recently changed.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Set release status flags based on info from the regressing bug 1838754

:nrishel, since you are the author of the regressor, bug 1838754, could you take a look? Also, could you set the severity field?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 2

[Nick Rishel [:nrishel]]

:cpeterson we've probably lost the useful information but could you screencap the registry keys at Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mozilla\Firefox\Default Browser Agent?

Comment 3

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

We don't want this bothering users that it shouldn't be bothering, so I'm going to tentatively call this an S2 unless we find evidence that this is a rare problem.

Comment 4

[Adam Gashlin (he/him) [:agashlin] (ex-moco)]

I saw this as well, didn't think to check the registry before I dismissed the popup though, and then I ran the DBA again from the task scheduler to see if it would happen a second time (it didn't), so sorry that this is unlikely to have the relevant info:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Default Browser Agent]
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|Installed"=dword:00000001
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|DisableTelemetry"=dword:00000000
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|DisableDefaultBrowserAgent"=dword:00000000
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|ServicesSettingsServer"="https://firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com/v1"
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|SecurityContentSignatureRootHash"="97:E8:BA:9C:F1:2F:B3:DE:53:CC:42:A4:E6:57:7E:D6:4D:F4:93:C2:47:B4:14:FE:A0:36:81:8D:38:23:56:0E"
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|SetDefaultBrowserUserChoice"=dword:00000001
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|AppLastRunTime"=hex(b):f3,f3,80,7d,05,e1,\
  d9,01
"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Nightly|DefaultAgentLastRemoteDisabled"=dword:00000000
"CurrentDefault"="firefox"
"LastPingSentAt"=hex(b):9c,35,19,47,68,e0,d9,01
"PingCurrentDefault"="firefox"
"PrevNotificationAction"="dismissed-to-action-center"
"InitialNotificationShown"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Default Browser Agent\PingCache]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Default Browser Agent\PingCache\version2]
"Capacity"=dword:00000002
"Front"=dword:00000000
"Size"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Default Browser Agent\PingCache\version2\0]
"CacheEntryVersion"=dword:00000002
"NotificationType"="initial"
"NotificationShown"="shown"
"NotificationAction"="dismissed-to-action-center"
"PrevNotificationAction"="make-firefox-default-button"

At the time of the popup Nightly was already running, so I checked in about:preferences to see that it was still the default, and checked by opening a hyperlink from another app. Then I looked in the commit history and found my way here.

Let me know if there are any logs, or if there's a registry change I can make to maybe exercise it again.

Comment 5

[Nick Rishel [:nrishel]]

Attachment: Bug 1851857 - Correct Default Agent command line handling which is mistakenly interpreting all `do-task` invocations as having the `--force` flag set. r=nalexander,bytesized

Depends on D187630

Comment 6

[Nick Rishel [:nrishel]]

Attachment: Bug 1851857 - Post: Clarify return values for `nsICommandLine`'s `findFlag` when a flag is not found.

Depends on D187631

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/a2f73b54db1f
Correct Default Agent command line handling which is mistakenly interpreting all `do-task` invocations as having the `--force` flag set. r=nalexander,bytesized
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/8d2393756fd6
Post: Clarify return values for `nsICommandLine`'s `findFlag` when a flag is not found. r=bytesized

Comment 8

[Serban Stanca [:SerbanS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a2f73b54db1f
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8d2393756fd6

Comment 9

[Nick Rishel [:nrishel]]

Attachment: Backed out changeset a2f73b54db1f (Bug 1851857)

Backed out due to changes breaking both Default Agent telemetry and launching Firefox in response to interaction with the Default Agent notifications.

Depends on D190870

Comment 10

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Backed out of beta for Fx119
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/9f6398a8d71556cf41aa8a4e989ecf5a30484a08

Setting Fx119 to disabled, the regressor Bug 1838754 was backed out of beta for Fx119

Comment 11

[Ina Popescu, Desktop QA]

Is it possible to provide the corresponding STR in order to verify this fix? Thanks

Comment 12

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Ina Popescu, Desktop QA from comment #11)

Is it possible to provide the corresponding STR in order to verify this fix? Thanks

I don't know the STR to reproduce the original error. I haven't seen this error since filing this bug.

Comment 13

[Virgil Sangerean]

The "--force" flag is no longer set on the WDBA tasks.
Issue is no longer reproducible on 120.0b4 Firefox.