332161 - Mozilla products should check for updates, even if they can't install them

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 318855

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Neil Harris]

At the moment, you can't check for updates if you are not in a position to install them. This is bad, because:
* careful users who have admin rights to boxes, but prudently do not run as administrator/root unless necessary, will not be alerted that updates are available, and won't install them unless they either check the website or run as root and run the autochecker
* users without admin rights will not be able to see that there are updates, and won't nag their system administrators until they install the update

Comment 1

[Neil Harris]

...and as a result, machines that should be patched will be left unpatched.

Solution: 
* make all versions of the software poll periodically, even if they do not have admin rights
* offer the option to turn this off at build or install time, for embedders and kiosk users, but make the default to leave it on

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 318855 ***