416644 - "Check for Updates..." in Help menu is disabled for non admin users

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 318855

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Jochen Stappert]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12

In the Help menu the "Check for Updates..."  feature is disabled (grayed and cannot be pressed). This problem occurs not only in Firefox/2.0.0.12 but also in Firefox/2.0.0.11. In earlier version of Firefox you can press "Check for Updates..." in the help menu. It is clear that a non admin user cannot install a Firefox update. But I can already check if there is a new update. I think the decision to disable the "Check for Updates..." feature for non admin user in Firefox/2.0.0.11 and Firefox/2.0.0.12 is a very big security problem. Under Windows XP you should never be connected to the internet if you are logged in as an admin user. So you will start Firefox as a non admin user and will not be able to check for updates. Even the "automatically check for updates"-feature in the options dialog will not work for non admin users. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Log in on a Win XP PC as a non admin user.
2. Start Firefox.
3. Open the Help menu.
4. Try to click the "Check for Updates..." menu item. (Does not work because it is disabled.)
Actual Results:  
I cannot click the Check for Updates..." menu item because it is disabled.

Expected Results:  
Give any user the possibility to check for new Firefox updates, even a non admin user. Clearly a non admin user cannot install a new Firefox release. But he could be informed that there is a new version. In older version of Firefox (I think before 2.0.0.11 ) this was possible. 

The "automatically check for updates"-feature in the options dialog is closely related to this bug, because a non admin user cannot use this feature. 

If you start Firefox as an admin user an enable the "automatically check for updates"-feature in the options dialog and than close Firefox and change your windows user right to be a non admin user and than restart Firefox, you will see that the "automatically check for updates"-feature in the options dialog is checked but disabled. So you think you will be informed about updates automatically, but you will not.