653633 - Firefox 4 updater doesn't update the shortcuts in start menu and desktop

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Abhinav Kumar]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

After updating to 4.0.1 from 4.0 RTW (fresh profile and clean install), the firefox icon started showing in the start menu recent programs list. Now if I unpin firefox from taskbar and then pin it again using the desktop or startmenu shortcut, the pinned shortcut acts as a mere launch button. After launching firefox from taskbar there would be 2 icons on the taskbar.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

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

That is intentional... you get the shortcuts as they are named with the original installation. If that weren't the case, shortcuts that were placed manually on the desktop would move making it difficult for some people to find (yes, there have been bugs on this when we did touch shortcuts) and if there is a second install with the same shortcut names we would have to overwrite or do nothing.

resolving -> wontfix

Comment 2

[Abhinav Kumar]

Attachment: Screenshot

Comment 3

[Abhinav Kumar]

This bug is in a clean installation. So the 100 million of users who will update to 4.0.1 today are going to come across this bug.

And,
BTW is having 2 icons on the taskbar of which 1 (pinned shortcut from 4.0 installation) just acts a Quick Launch button intentional too?

Comment 4

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

We by default add ourselves to the root of the start menu. If you choose a custom installation and choose not to add a shortcut to the start menu we don't add ourselves to the start menu. As for it being in the recent list, this is entirely the OS doing that... we don't touch any of those settings in the registry. I do know that older versions of Windows did try to highlight recently installed programs so this may be Win7's version of that functionality.

In the attachment I only see a single taskbar shortcut in your screenshot. If we are set as the default browser Firefox will get pinned to the taskbar. We no longer add ourselves to the Quick Launch directory on Win7 since it is no longer available by default or by any OS provided functionality.

It may be that the code to update the shortcut isn't working properly.

Did you unselect shortcuts during the install process?

Did you use the installer vs. the update mechanism?

Comment 5

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

(In reply to comment #0)
>...
> Now if I
> unpin firefox from taskbar and then pin it again using the desktop or startmenu
> shortcut, the pinned shortcut acts as a mere launch button.
This specific issue is a bug with the Firefox taskbar code and not the installer. When you unpin a shortcut Windows clears the shortcut's jumplist, etc. and it will repopulate after a while automatically. I've seen it many times myself well before Firefox 4 was released and it also affects Firefox 4. I believe there is a bug report for this issue already filed in Firefox -> shell integration

Comment 6

[Abhinav Kumar]

Attachment: Screenshot 2

Comment 7

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

Please provide answers for the questions in comment #4.

Comment 8

[Abhinav Kumar]

Screenshot 1 : Doing 4.0 > 4.0.1 update after a clean installation of Firefox 4.0

Screenshot 2 : Unpinning the Firefox icon and Pinning it again using the start menu entry

> As for it being in the recent list, this is
> entirely the OS doing that... we don't touch any of those settings in the
> registry. I do know that older versions of Windows did try to highlight
> recently installed programs so this may be Win7's version of that
> functionality.
It shouldn't be doing that. When a program is added to taskbar then Windows 7 stops showing it in the Recent Programs List.

> In the attachment I only see a single taskbar shortcut in your screenshot. If
> we are set as the default browser Firefox will get pinned to the taskbar.
Because in this case I don't have any Firefox pinned to the taskbar.

> Did you unselect shortcuts during the install process?
I did the Express/Typical installation.

> Did you use the installer vs. the update mechanism?
Clean installation of 4.0 and then to 4.0.1 by the update mechanism.

Comment 9

[Abhinav Kumar]

I tested this on 4 more computer.
1 running Windows 7 RTM. 2 running Windows 7 SP1 and 1 running Windows 8 build 7955.

1. Installed 4.0 using the installer.(New Profile, Clean Installation)
2. Updated to 4.0.1 via the updater.
3. Reproduced the bug.

#I'm sorry for my bad English but I speak English as my third language.

Comment 10

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

(In reply to comment #8)
> Screenshot 1 : Doing 4.0 > 4.0.1 update after a clean installation of Firefox
> 4.0
> 
> Screenshot 2 : Unpinning the Firefox icon and Pinning it again using the start
> menu entry
> 
> > As for it being in the recent list, this is
> > entirely the OS doing that... we don't touch any of those settings in the
> > registry. I do know that older versions of Windows did try to highlight
> > recently installed programs so this may be Win7's version of that
> > functionality.
> It shouldn't be doing that. When a program is added to taskbar then Windows 7
> stops showing it in the Recent Programs List.
That is only true when manually pinning via the shortcut in the start menu. If you pin via a running instance or a different shortcut it doesn't remove it from the recent programs list.

> > In the attachment I only see a single taskbar shortcut in your screenshot. If
> > we are set as the default browser Firefox will get pinned to the taskbar.
> Because in this case I don't have any Firefox pinned to the taskbar.
The single taskbar shortcut shown in the left is pinned. A second one wasn't displayed probably because Firefox wasn't launched at the time of the screenshot.

> > Did you unselect shortcuts during the install process?
> I did the Express/Typical installation.
> 
> > Did you use the installer vs. the update mechanism?
> Clean installation of 4.0 and then to 4.0.1 by the update mechanism.
I just tried updating from Firefox 4 to Firefox 4.0.1 on a clean system and the taskbar shortcut that was created when setting Firefox 4 as the default during the install was associated with Firefox 4.0.1 when it was launched.

I also tried reproducing by installing Firefox 4 on a clean system and installing from Firefox 4.0.1 on top of it and the taskbar shortcut that was created when setting Firefox 4 as the default during the install was associated with Firefox 4.0.1 when it was launched.

Could you please provide the exact steps you performed when reproducing?

Comment 11

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

(In reply to comment #10)
> (In reply to comment #8)
> > Screenshot 1 : Doing 4.0 > 4.0.1 update after a clean installation of Firefox
> > 4.0
> > 
> > Screenshot 2 : Unpinning the Firefox icon and Pinning it again using the start
> > menu entry
> > 
> > > As for it being in the recent list, this is
> > > entirely the OS doing that... we don't touch any of those settings in the
> > > registry. I do know that older versions of Windows did try to highlight
> > > recently installed programs so this may be Win7's version of that
> > > functionality.
> > It shouldn't be doing that. When a program is added to taskbar then Windows 7
> > stops showing it in the Recent Programs List.
> That is only true when manually pinning via the shortcut in the start menu. If
> you pin via a running instance or a different shortcut it doesn't remove it
> from the recent programs list.
I meant to say:
That is only true when manually pinning via the shortcut in the recent programs list. I> you pin via a running instance or a different shortcut it doesn't remove it from the recent programs list.

Comment 12

[Abhinav Kumar]

> That is only true when manually pinning via the shortcut in the recent programs
> list. If you pin via a running instance or a different shortcut it doesn't
> remove it from the recent programs list.

No, even if the program is running, Windows hides it from that list after pinning. See for yourself.
I think it happens  because the pinned shortcut is from 4.0 and the running icon is from 4.0.1.

> In the attachment I only see a single taskbar shortcut in your screenshot.
> If we are set as the default browser Firefox will get pinned to the taskbar.
> Because in this case I don't have any Firefox pinned to the taskbar.
> The single taskbar shortcut shown in the left is pinned. A second one wasn't
> displayed probably because Firefox wasn't launched at the time of the
> screenshot.
The first one is not pinned as in Windows 7, the buttons on taskbar can be moved anywhere on the taskbar while running.

> I just tried updating from Firefox 4 to Firefox 4.0.1 on a clean system and
> the taskbar shortcut that was created when setting Firefox 4 as the default
> during the install was associated with Firefox 4.0.1 when it was launched.

> I also tried reproducing by installing Firefox 4 on a clean system and
> installing from Firefox 4.0.1 on top of it and the taskbar shortcut that was
> created when setting Firefox 4 as the default during the install was
> associated with Firefox 4.0.1 when it was launched.
I nowhere said that Firefox's default taskbar shortcut isn't associated with 4.0.1. Instead I'm saying that the startmenu shortcut and desktop shortcut isn't associated with the updated version when updating from 4.0>4.0.1. So after updating, the startmenu shortcut in reappears in Recent Program List.

I can confirm this. Because when I unpinned the taskbar shortcut that was added by the installer/updater and pinned the startmenu shortcut manually, it began showing 2 icons.

>Could you please provide the exact steps you performed when reproducing?
1. I installed the 4.0 version from the installer I downloaded from mozilla.com on March 22. I didn't change a single option in the installation wizard.
Express installtion.
Default browser.

2. It created a taskbar shortcut and the usual dekstop and startmenu shortcuts. All icons were then associated with 4.0.

3. Then I updated it via Help>About Firefox>Check for updates
4. After finishing installation, the icon appears in the recent program list. And only the taskbar shortcut is asociated with 4.0.1. the rest of the shortcuts are still 4.0.

As a side note. this bug is not reproducible in Firefox 4.0. ie if I unpin the default taskbar shortcut and add it manually by the startmenu shortcut, things work as intended.

Comment 13

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

(In reply to comment #12)
> > That is only true when manually pinning via the shortcut in the recent programs
> > list. If you pin via a running instance or a different shortcut it doesn't
> > remove it from the recent programs list.
> 
> No, even if the program is running, Windows hides it from that list after
> pinning. See for yourself.
> I think it happens  because the pinned shortcut is from 4.0 and the running
> icon is from 4.0.1.
I just tried a second time to reproduce.
1. Make sure Firefox is not pinned to the task bar or start menu.
2. Make sure Firefox is in the recent programs list. This can be accomplished by deleting entries in the recent programs list until it is displayed.
3. Launch Firefox.
4. Pin the running instance of Firefox displayed in the taskbar to the task bar.
5. Look at the recent programs list.
and it is still there!

I also unpinned Firefox from the taskbar and pinned it to the taskbar using the entry that was in the recent programs list to the taskbar and I observed the additional entry in the taskbar. That part is a bug.

> > In the attachment I only see a single taskbar shortcut in your screenshot.
> > If we are set as the default browser Firefox will get pinned to the taskbar.
> > Because in this case I don't have any Firefox pinned to the taskbar.
> > The single taskbar shortcut shown in the left is pinned. A second one wasn't
> > displayed probably because Firefox wasn't launched at the time of the
> > screenshot.
> The first one is not pinned as in Windows 7, the buttons on taskbar can be
> moved anywhere on the taskbar while running.
> 
> > I just tried updating from Firefox 4 to Firefox 4.0.1 on a clean system and
> > the taskbar shortcut that was created when setting Firefox 4 as the default
> > during the install was associated with Firefox 4.0.1 when it was launched.
> 
> > I also tried reproducing by installing Firefox 4 on a clean system and
> > installing from Firefox 4.0.1 on top of it and the taskbar shortcut that was
> > created when setting Firefox 4 as the default during the install was
> > associated with Firefox 4.0.1 when it was launched.
> I nowhere said that Firefox's default taskbar shortcut isn't associated with
> 4.0.1. Instead I'm saying that the startmenu shortcut and desktop shortcut
> isn't associated with the updated version when updating from 4.0>4.0.1. So
> after updating, the startmenu shortcut in reappears in Recent Program List.
> 
> I can confirm this. Because when I unpinned the taskbar shortcut that was added
> by the installer/updater and pinned the startmenu shortcut manually, it began
> showing 2 icons.
> 
> >Could you please provide the exact steps you performed when reproducing?
> 1. I installed the 4.0 version from the installer I downloaded from mozilla.com
> on March 22. I didn't change a single option in the installation wizard.
> Express installtion.
> Default browser.
> 
> 2. It created a taskbar shortcut and the usual dekstop and startmenu shortcuts.
> All icons were then associated with 4.0.
> 
> 3. Then I updated it via Help>About Firefox>Check for updates
> 4. After finishing installation, the icon appears in the recent program list.
> And only the taskbar shortcut is asociated with 4.0.1. the rest of the
> shortcuts are still 4.0.
That is the same bug as above. The start menu shortcut is not updated.

> As a side note. this bug is not reproducible in Firefox 4.0. ie if I unpin the
> default taskbar shortcut and add it manually by the startmenu shortcut, things
> work as intended.
The issue with the start menu shortcut will be fixed by not requiring updating of the shortcuts which will be fixed by bug 577867.

Comment 14

[Abhinav Kumar]

>The issue with the start menu shortcut will be fixed by not requiring updating
>of the shortcuts which will be fixed by bug 577867.
It's nice to hear that. And thank you for taking the time to discuss this bug.