283899 - Installer UI badly needs replacement

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 233746

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Ed Hume]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1

It is very difficult to use Firefox's installer to install Firefox to a custom
location. It is so bad that it uncovered the latent dataloss bug that had lain
hidden for years in Netscape's and Mozilla's installer.

Specific problems:

1. No editable location line. An editable location line would, for example,
allow a user to simply replace C:\Program Files\MozillaFirefox with D:\Program
Files\MozillaFirefox.

2. The creation of an installation directory is not automatic. 

2.a. Most installers allow you to navigate to a master directory and create a
default installation subdirectory. For example, one should be able to navigate
to D:\Program Files\Mozilla, select that directory, and have the installer
create a MozillaFirefox subdirectory inside it. 

2.b. More to the point, one ought to be able to navigate to D:\Program Files,
select it, and have the installer create by default a MozillaFirefox
subdirectory for the installed browser.

3. Creating and naming a new installation directory is ferociously difficult,
requiring one to play games with the installer's focus to create a new folder
then rename it to something other than "New Folder".

From a user's perspective, the UI of the old Mozilla installer was excellent. It
was good enough that no one ever knew there was a potential dataloss issue--the
excellence of the user interface meant that no one ever had a problem.

I have been told that the Mozilla installer is a mare's nest and must not be
resurrected. OK. But suely its interface could be brought back. Heck, even a
standard interface from one of the installers by Wise and Microsoft would be a
welcome relief from what exists now.

Reproducible: Always




Work around:

Someone who already knows what the issues are can create a MozillaFirefox
directory in the location where it is to be installed. This allows the installer
to be used without the mega-hassle involved in trying to create a new folder.

Comment 1

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

If you are planning on fixing it, and wanted a clean bug in which to work, bless
you! and here are some dependencies/dups. If not, perhaps you could help
diminish the mare's nest of "installing to a custom directory is a pain" bugs by
duping yourself?

1. bug 233746
2. wontfixed a few dozen times in all the "deletes \Program Files\*" bugs
3. bug 251735 (and less usefully described in bug 275933 and bug 280474)

Comment 2

[Ed Hume]

This bug duplicates 233746 and 251735, and goes beyond them to advocate redoing
the UI. However, I will settle for duping this to the two existing bugs. Thank
you Phil for finding them.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 233746 ***