266354 - Older versions left in Add or Remove Programs

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 247884

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Joel Peterson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041026 Firefox/1.0RC1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041026 Firefox/1.0RC1

Older versions of Firefox are left listed in Add or Remove Programs if a newer
version of Firefox is installed to the same directory as the older version.
Choosing to uninstall the older version will uninstall the newer version program
files, but leave the newer version listed in Add or Remove Programs.
Reinstalling the newer version of Firefox will result in a situation that
appears to be normal.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
2. Install Firefox 1.0PR
3. Install Firefox 1.0RC1
4. Navigate to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs
Actual Results:  
You'll see that both Firefox 1.0PR and Firefox 1.0RC1 are listed. Choosing to
Remove Firefox 1.0PR will uninstall Firefox 1.0RC1, but leave Firefox 1.0RC1 in
the Add or Remove Programs list. I have reproduced this with Firefox
0.9.3/Firefox 1.0PR and Firefox 0.9.3/Firefox 1.0RC1 combinations.

Expected Results:  
The installer for Firefox should contain an upgrade process, updating files and
all related entries, including those in Add or Remove Programs. This can be
handled in a variety of ways: a list of installation options, automatically
upgrading when the installation location has an exisiting version of Firefox, or
automatically upgrading without the user's intervention.

Comment 1

[Joel Peterson]

Attachment: Two Firefox in Add or Remove Programs

Comment 2

[Gary van der Merwe]

Probaly a dup of Bug 247884, but its in 1.0RC1 and hence this should not be
happening. 

Comment 3

[Eric Martin]

Attachment: Two Firefox Installations

Comment 4

[Eric Martin]

I am having the same problem described.  Also, if one or the other is
uninstalled - the firefox program does not work anymore.  

Comment 5

[Joel Peterson]

Thanks for the report, Eric. I did my best to explain that removing any would in
fact uninstall Firefox completely. The double install procedure in which you
remove the unwanted Firefox entry is the only way to have things appearing to be
normal.

Comment 6

[thri-p]

yeah I have 3 copies of Firefox there too since 0.9.

im afraid to remove it, dont know if it will remove my settings as well and
history/cookies?

Comment 7

[Joel Peterson]

Your settings will be saved. At least all of my themes, plugins, and bookmarks
were on multiple occasions on multiple systems. Remove them all using Add or
Remove Programs and just install the latest one over again. Back to normality.

I'll be testing this bug on RC2 soon.

Comment 8

[Joel Peterson]

Still a problem in the RC2 installer.

Is the team generally good at responding to bugs? We still haven't received a
quasi-official response after a week.

Comment 9

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

Joel, 
did you install the different versions into the same directory or into different
directories? If the former is the case, then this is a dupe of bug 247884 and
that bug should be reopened.

If the latter is the case then this is intended behaviour and this bug is INVALID.

Cya
Simon Paquet - QA Contact Installer Component

Comment 10

[Joel Peterson]

Same directory, so I agree with you that it is a duplicate. I did not know
whether to open a new bug or add comments to the older bug as it was resolved at
one point.

Comment 11

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

Duping

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 247884 ***