286996 - In TOOLS-> OPTIONS ->Downloads->File Types File Types are often associated to wrong application

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Joe]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1

I just happened to be checking out the DOWNLOAD options I had set, and I noticed
that MIDI files were associated with Norton's Antivirus Live Update application.
 MIDI files and the Norton software were on my PC long before Firefox.  So, the
problem cannot be that I added or removed software, and I've never used MIDI
files.  So, I couldn't have set up something incorrectly.

I checked the rest.  Of the 13 associations in the File Types List, 6 of them
were INCORRECT.  The associations in WINDOWS was correct in all cases.

I didn't think to list the changes I made to fix the associations.  I didn't
know there would be so many.  But I remember that of the 6 that were incorrect,
one was associated to nothing at all (should have been Media Player), one was
associated to some 3-letter application name that doesn't exist on my PC (I made
up a file and gave it the .xxx extension to see what program it would start),
the MIDI file type was associated with Norton Antivirus Live Update, and PDF was
associated with some graphic program I've never used, and a "RealPlayer" sound
file was associated with "RealJukebox.exe" (that one at least was in the right
neighborhood).

One final note:  The problem must have something to do with how you match your
associations with Windows.  It can't have anything to do with program (exe)
placement because I have my disk drive partitioned into several logical drives
so that Windows is alone on one, netwoork programs are on another, nonm-network
application on another, and utilities on another, and then a couple of drives
for different kinds of data types.  Often the incorrect association pointed to
the wrong drive as well as the wrong program.

I also checked the associations in the PLUGINS.  They seemed correct.

I wonder if this new information helps with Bug Report #258766, which sounded to
me like the writer was reporting a file that brought up the wrong application.

At this point, I am going to assume that my "fixes" will remain, and that the
problem was in the INSTALLATION or perhaps the later UPGRADE to Ver 1.0.1 of
Firefox.  I will check the File Types periodically and I'll let you know if my
fixes don't "hold".  Otherwise (as I expect to be the case), this will be the
only bug report I write on this issue.

Assuming that it was the installation or upgrade process that simply got the
wrong associations from Windows, I'm going to answer the next questions "Every
time" because I'm going to assume that the File Types would be incorrect
(although not necessarily identically incorrect) if I went to the trouble or
removing and reinstalling Firefox a few times.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. I assume that my "fixes" will remain, and that the problem was in the
INSTALLATION or perhaps the UPGRADE of Firefox, and is therefore repeatable if I
were to reinstall Firefox over and over (which I'm not going to do).
2. I will check it periodically and enter a new bug report if something resets
the associations to something incorrect, and will be specific as to what
happened when the associations changed on their own.  I don't expect this to be
the case though.  I answered "Every time" because I assume that the misalignment
of associations would exist if I went to the trouble or removing and
reinstalling Firefox -- although I admit that the misalignments might not be
identical with each reinstallation.

Actual Results:  
If you don't hear from me again in the next day or two, nothing happened and my
fixes to the file associations held tight -- which would further prove that the
problem was in the original installation or the upgrade to 1.0.1.

I wish I had noticed before the upgrade if they were wrong, but I didn't because
I ALWAYS download a file, then run it separately from Firefox.


Expected Results:  
I would have hoped that all the File Types would have been correctly associated
with an application.

No crash because I never let Firefox "run" a file from its location.  I always
download to disk, and then let Windows run it.  So, it's not critical to ME, but
it can be critical to many of your other users.

Comment 1

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.