699292 - Uninstalling a side-by-side version of Firefox causes installed Web Apps to stop working

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Web Apps :: Extension, defect, P2)

Description

[Tim Abraldes [:TimAbraldes] [:tabraldes]]

We rely on the registry key "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe" to tell use where "firefox.exe" is installed.  This key gets written when Firefox is installed and removed when Firefox is uninstalled, which results in functionality like the following:
  Install Firefox on a clean system
  Install a few Web Apps
  Launching the Web Apps launches them using Firefox
  Install Nightly
  Launching the Web Apps now launches them using Nightly
  Uninstall Firefox (or Nightly)
  Web Apps now fail to launch

Comment 1

[Tim Abraldes [:TimAbraldes] [:tabraldes]]

This should be fixed now that we use XULRunner and it is packaged with the extension.  However, if the user uninstalls the extension or deletes their profile, apps will fail to launch

Comment 2

[Mohamed Dabbagh]

Apps do not launch if Firefox is uninstalled even if the profile is not erased. Tried with installing a native app, then uninstalling both Nightly and Firefox. When I uninstalled Nightly, the app still launched but when I uninstalled Firefox, the app failed to launch.

Comment 3

[Tim Abraldes [:TimAbraldes] [:tabraldes]]

The issue described in this bug is that uninstalling *any* version of Firefox installed on the system would cause apps to stop working.

Currently, each app's shortcuts point to the version of Firefox that was used to install them, so uninstalling *that* version of Firefox will cause *those* apps to stop working.

We do eventually want apps to work regardless of the state of Firefox installations on the system, but we should open a separate bug for that.

Comment 4

[Mohamed Dabbagh]

Ah I see. I apologize for the confusion. As I mentioned in my comment #2, this is then fixed as uninstalling Nightly and/or Aurora but keeping the Firefox I installed the apps from allows me to continue using the apps. I can verify that even if you uninstall Firefox and then re-install, the apps will still work. I believe there is a bug relating to uninstalling Firefox completely not allowing us to use the apps but if not I will open a separate one for that issue. Thanks for the clarification Tim!