390646 - Automatic update gets confused when running as a non-admin user in WinXP

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 374900

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[D Levner]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: Mozilla Thunderbird version 2.0.0.6 (20070728)

This is similar (identical?) to Bug 374900 <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=374900>, which applies to FF.  The problem has existed at least since Thunderbird 2.0.0.2.

If automatic update picks up an update while using a restricted user (non-admin) account under Windows XP, updating the Thunderbird through an administrator account leaves the non-admin user's instance still demanding an update (even though everything is now up-to-date).  Additionally, it looks like multiple versions of the software update are downloaded and stored on the local drive.  These are not erased once Thunderbird is updated.



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. On Windows XP with Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 installed
2. Login as a restricted (non-admin) user and run Thunderbird
3. Help -> Check for Updates (or wait for an auto-update to initiate)
4. Download and attempt to install (which fails due to lack of permissions)
5. Close Thunderbird and switch to an administrator account
6. Repeat the update process (which completes successfully now)
7. Return to the non-admin account and run Thunderbird
8. Thunderbird automatically begins downloading the latest version, which has just been installed, again.
Actual Results:  
Updating the Thunderbird through the administrator account is successful (new version number is displayed in Help -> About, even for the non-admin user), but when the non-admin user tries to run the software, it insists on trying to update again.  Multiple downloaded copies of the update are present on the local drive.

Expected Results:  
The simplest expected behavior is for Thunderbird to recognize that the update has been applied using the administrative account and to stop attempting to update again during the non-admin run.  It would be great, also, if upon recognizing this condigion, Thunderbird would also erase the downloaded copy of the now-installed version, which is likely stored on the hard drive.

Even better: in addition to the preceding, Thunderbird would also recognize that the account is restricted (non-admin) and instruct the user to switch to the admin account to install the update.  Ideally, this would be done before the update is downloaded.



My workaround thus far has been to manually erase the update files in the non-admin user's "$user directory$\Local Settings\Application Data\Thunderbird\Mozilla Thunderbird" after updating through an admin account.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yep, sounds like bug 374900. That code is shared with firefox...