602562 - Add keyboard modifier to start in safe mode for windows

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Similar to what was implemented for Mac OS X.

Comment 1

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

What about Linux?

Comment 2

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> What about Linux?
Please file a separate bug

Comment 3

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

note: bug 311466 added this for Mac OS X

Comment 4

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: patch rev1

Comment 5

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: patch rev2

no value in checking the current value of gSafeMode and this makes it consistent with the Mac implementation

Comment 6

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Comment on attachment 488626 [details] [diff] [review]
patch rev2

Alex, are you ok with using the ctrl key as the modifier to launch in safe mode on Windows?

Comment 7

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Comment on attachment 488626 [details] [diff] [review]
patch rev2

Jim, running this by you since you might now of issues I don't with doing this. Thanks!

Comment 8

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Comment on attachment 488626 [details] [diff] [review]
patch rev2

I think we should go with shift on windows (and possibly add it for consistency on the other platforms in addition to option).  Main reason is that it is easier to find than control (very novice users won't be familiar with alt/control since you don't really have to use those keys), and additionally there is some limited platform consistency with using shift in this way:

>Microsoft uses _shift_ to bypass startup routines/macros for Office Apps and to
>bypass Windows Startup programs.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=542122#c14

Comment 9

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: patch rev3 - use shift

Filed Bug 610086 for changing the Mac OS X modifier

Commented in bug 602566 that the modifier should be the shift key

Carrying forward ui-r+

Comment 10

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Comment on attachment 488626 [details] [diff] [review]
> patch rev2
> 
> Jim, running this by you since you might now of issues I don't with doing this.
> Thanks!

I would add a comment explaining what this code does.

There's a chance that users might trigger this mistakenly, do we notify users when entering private mode so they understand what's going on?

Comment 11

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > Comment on attachment 488626 [details] [diff] [review] [details]
> > patch rev2
> > 
> > Jim, running this by you since you might now of issues I don't with doing this.
> > Thanks!
> 
> I would add a comment explaining what this code does.
Sure

> There's a chance that users might trigger this mistakenly, do we notify users
> when entering private mode so they understand what's going on?

It does... it displays the safe mode ui with the safe mode options.

Comment 12

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: patch updated to comments

Carrying forward ui-r and r.

Jim, is this comment adequate?

Comment 13

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Created attachment 489266 [details] [diff] [review]
> patch updated to comments
> 
> Carrying forward ui-r and r.
> 
> Jim, is this comment adequate?

yeah I'd say that covers it. :)

Comment 14

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Pushed to mozilla-central
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/c5fb2f1485cd

Comment 15

[[not reading bugmail]]

Man, this is slick! \o/  V. Fixed.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101118 Firefox/4.0b8pre ID:20101118191737

Comment 16

[Rich Parker]

This interferes with some Windows functionality.  I specify a hot key
Ctrl+Shift+N in the Firefox shortcut properties and use that key to launch it. 
As of Beta 8, using that shortcut starts Firefox in safe mode.  The Shift key
is also used in Windows to launch a program minimized, so holding Shift and
clicking a Firefox shortcut starts it in safe mode but minimized.  Is there at
least a way to disable this behavior?

Comment 17

[Rich Parker]

Created Bug 619866.

Comment 18

[[e-mail]]

I have the same issue. Using both Ctrl + Shift + ... makes for a suitable Global Hotkey. 
If Shift is to be used could there at least be an option to deactivate it or, better yet, to have it user defined?

Comment 19

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

(In reply to comment #18)
> I have the same issue. Using both Ctrl + Shift + ... makes for a suitable
> Global Hotkey. 
> If Shift is to be used could there at least be an option to deactivate it or,
> better yet, to have it user defined?
See Bug 619866 - it is fixed for the next beta and in the nightly builds.

Comment 20

[Will Bryant]

Would you consider adding a setting to allow this behavior to be disabled?

Although it's useful for regular users, it is bit of a problem for those of us who automatically run browser tests with Firefox using tools such as selenium-webdriver.  As the tests run Firefox gets opened up a number of times automatically, in the background, during which time many developers carry on editing their work or checking their email or what have you.

But if it happens that they have the shift key down at one of the times when a new Firefox instance is started, then it will start in safe mode, which of course doesn't work with the browser control mechanisms that these tools use.

So again, perfectly reasonable for the default behavior, but it'd be great if we could supply a profile setting to bypass this, much as we supply profile settings to turn off various UI prompts and warnings (browser.tabs.warnOnClose and security.warn_entering_secure for example).

Comment 21

[Rich Parker]

That's a good point, and you already have my vote.  Although the situation was improved so that it has to be the Shift key alone without Ctrl or Alt, my Ctrl+Shift+N hot key still triggers safe mode about 10% of the time if I happen to release Ctrl a fraction of a second before Shift.  I don't see any harm in providing a hidden setting to disable the Shift key modifier while still allowing -safe-mode from the command line.

Comment 22

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

The shift key check is currently done early during startup before profile selection. If someone wanted to add this functionality, filed a bug, provided a patch, and it didn't hurt startup performance which it most likely wouldn't I highly suspect the patch would be accepted. I definitely won't have time to look at implementing that in the foreseeable future.