572547 - Reversion to FF ver 2.0 from 3.6 is incomplete and buggy

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[parviziyi]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

I decided to go back to Firefox version 2.0 because the more recent versions have too much disk writing activity. The uncalled-for noise pollution from the disk bothers me when reading. And meanwhile there's really nothing in the versions beyond 2.0 that is of any value to me. So I want to stay with version 2.0. Now the bug is that, despite 2.0 being the installed registered version on the machine, the Windows Vista registry is configured such that ver 3.6 gets launched when I open an HMTL file stored my local disk by clicking on the file in Windows file explorer. Furthermore the launch of ver 3.6, when ver 2.0 is otherwise the installed registered version, causes a handful of errors, including mixups in installed versions of add-ons, and ver 3.6 stays alive as a zombie after the Exit command.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install FF version 3.6
2.Install FF version 2.0
3.Open any local HTML file in Windows file explorer.
Actual Results:  
FF ver 3.6 is launched

Expected Results:  
FF ver 2.0 is launched.

Comment 1

[Dave Garrett]

Firefox 2 is no longer supported and neither is 3.0 for that matter.

At far far least, if you're going to use Firefox 2 use 2.0.0.20. The only thing worse than using an end-of-life browser is using an old version of an end-of-life browser.

(In reply to comment #0)
> there's really nothing in the versions beyond 2.0 that is of any value to me.

Except for all the security and stability fixes that weren't backported to 2.0.0.x. Even if you don't want things faster, and you don't care about getting newer addon updates (as they're dropping support), you're going to want 3.6.4 when it comes out as Flash will finally not be able to take down the whole browser when it crashes.

> the Windows Vista registry is configured such that ver 3.6 gets
> launched when I open an HMTL file stored my local disk by clicking on the file
> in Windows file explorer.

If you're doing weird things like this you should just set the associations how you want them yourself. Or better yet, you should probably uninstall 3.6 first before going further. (making sure of course to not delete your profile(s))

A mile-wide-back downgrade is not a planned for use case. One should reasonably expect to be able to go back one major version to some degree, but three is out of the question.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Agreed, by using Firefox 2 you are opening yourself up to major security ricks, as well as breaking the web.

Comment 3

[parviziyi]

Thank you Dave Garrett, I've found this problem can be fixed by completely uninstalling Firefox 3.6.3 (via Windows Control Panel). After 3.6.3 is completely uninstalled, 2.0 launches as expected. Therefore what I reported is effectively a very minor issue or no issue at all.

By the way, Dave Garrett, I have sessionstore disabled in 2.0, because 2.0 practically never crashes and I dislike the harddisk noises produced by sessionstore.

Keep up the good work, my friends. I'll upgrade if and when you allow me to opt out of the excessive grinding on my harddisk that the current version is doing in sqlite (or sqlheavy).