281993 - FirefoxView 0.31.1 Extension stops working upon installation of Spyware Doctor 3.1

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Menus, defect)

Description

[Ken]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

Both the "View this Page in Firefox" and "Open Link Target in Firefox" context
menu items available (and functioning properly) in IE5.5 with FirefoxView 0.31.1
installed in Firefox 1.0 continue to be visible in the IE 5.5 context menu but
cease to function upon subsequent installation of Spyware Doctor 3.1 even if
Spyware Doctor is never run.

Uninstalling Spyware Doctor has no effect.  

Use of GoBack to revert harddrive to time just before installation of Spyware
Doctor restores proper functioning of FirefoxView.

First time I discovered this, I had also installed CWShredder and run both CWS
and SD before noticing the problem.  Reverted drive to point before both
installations.  Problem solved.  Reinstalled CWS.  Still no problem.  Ran CWS. 
Still no problem.  Reinstalled SD but de-selected option to have it run upon
completion of installation. Problem re-appeared at once upon completion of SD
installation even though SD had not run.  Uninstalled SD. Problem persisted.
Reverted drive to point just before re-installation of SD.  Problem solved again. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start with fully patched and updated WinMe, IE5.5, Firefox 1.0, FirefoxView
0.31.1.
2. Install but do not run Spyware Doctor 3.1 (or run it -- makes no difference).
3. Attempt use of IE context menu items created by FirefoxView. (BTW, the IEView
extension seems to be unaffected.)
4. Uninstall SD.
5. Again attempt use of IE context menu items created by FirefoxView.  
6. Use GoBack or equivilent to restore HD to state prior to SD installation.
7. Use IE context menu items.
Actual Results:  
After installing SD, neither of the IE context menu items associated with
FirefoxView functioned although each continued to be present in the IE context
menu when expected.  

Expected Results:  
Use of the context menu items in question either opens in Firefox the same page
already open in IE or opens in Firefox the target of an HTML link on the IE page.

Also running: Zone Alarm 3.7.211; Grisoft AVG 7; Spybot S&D 1.4b2 w/ Teatimer
running; Spyware Blaster; Spyware Guard.  No prior problems with FirefoxView.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

This is not something that falls under the control of Firefox. The extension
itself creates the menu item, and the fact that a third party anti-spyware
program is removing it means that you should contact that program's authors
about the issue.

Comment 2

[Ken]

I will, of course, also raise this issue with PC Tools.  I would suggest, 
however, that you have misunderstood the nature of the problem. The 
installation of their antispyware is not "removing" anything.  The problem 
arises before the antispyware program is even run for the first time.  Rather, 
the installation appears to put in place something that is blocking the 
extension from functioning when one of the menu items it creates is selected.  
It seems to me that this is not a "false positive" issue -- which clearly would 
be PC Tools problem -- but rather a matter of incompatibility between the two.  

In my opinion, incompatibility is a reciprocal problem caused by both pieces of 
software.  The easiest or best solution may indeed be to alter PC Tools' 
program instead of Firefox, but that cannot be determined without establishing 
the precise source of the incompatibility, which has not be done.  I recognize 
that this incompatibility of one Firefox extension with a single, obscure piece 
of software is not the highest priority and, who knows, may not even be fixable 
from the Firefox end.  Still, your "resolution" -- defining the problem away -- 
is merely an example of MS Think and solves nothing.

Comment 3

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

This is not a bug in Firefox. It is either a problem of the extension (then you
should contact the extension author) or it is a PC Tools problem (then you
should contact their program support).