918253 - Unable to choose both Nightly and Firefox from Control Panel defaults

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1324617

(Firefox :: Installer, defect, P2)

Description

[Manuela Muntean [Away]]

Tested with the latest Nightly (build ID: 20130918030202) and Firefox 24 release, on a Win 8 32bit machine

STR
1. Install both latest Nightly and Fx 24 release in the standard folder (Program Files)
2. Go to Control Panel -> Default Programs, and try to set them both to be the default browser, consecutively

Actual results: step 2 can't be performed, because in Control Panel -> Default Programs I can only see Nightly; Firefox 24 doesn't appear in that list. I can only make Firefox 24 to be the default browser if I open it and set it from the Tools -> Options -> Advanced menu

Another strange thing that happens here, is that if I make Fx 24 default browser as exaplained above, the Metro icon still remains visible in the Start Page, and if I enter it, it opens Nightly in desktop mode

Expected results: step 2 should be performed smoothly, without any issues

Comment 1

[Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]]

This is not a Metro specific bug to the best of my knowledge.  Can you reproduce with Firefox and Beta builds (which don't have Metro Firefox) using the same steps?

All Firefox browser's use the same FirefoxURL app id key so I think you're just seeing that.

I have some ideas on how it could be fixed though

Comment 2

[Manuela Muntean [Away]]

(In reply to Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy] from comment #1)
> This is not a Metro specific bug to the best of my knowledge.  Can you
> reproduce with Firefox and Beta builds (which don't have Metro Firefox)
> using the same steps?
> 
> All Firefox browser's use the same FirefoxURL app id key so I think you're
> just seeing that.
> 
> I have some ideas on how it could be fixed though

I've uninstalled everything related to Firefox, and then installed 24 ESR (in Program Files) and 25 beta 1 (on the Desktop, because if I would have chosen the standard folder to install in, it would have paved over the 24 ESR)

When going to Control Panel -> Default Programs, in the list, I can only see one Firefox, and I have to make it the default browser to see which one it is. It's 24 ESR, the one installed in the standard folder.

Comment 3

[Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]]

Yep thanks for checking, this is how multi-installs have always worked.
Let's leave this open though because I think it may be able to be fixed without too much effort.

Comment 4

[Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]]

The fix here is to add an extra entry per channel in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RegisteredApplications

That new entry would point to another new entry you need to ad here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet\${Channel}-FIREFOX.EXE

These references would need to be all updated:
http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?tree=mozilla-central&q=StartMenuInternet&redirect=true

Then we'd need to test we don't break any default status via helper.exe /PostUpdate, but I don't think we would.

Comment 5

[Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]]

p=3 (but Firefox has always worked this way, not Metro specific)

Comment 6

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

tentatively blocking since it's a pain for testers.

Comment 7

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

I'm sure I'll regret this. :)

Comment 9

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

(In reply to Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy] from comment #4)
> The fix here is to add an extra entry per channel in:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RegisteredApplications
> 
> That new entry would point to another new entry you need to ad here:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet\${Channel}-FIREFOX.EXE
> 
> These references would need to be all updated:
> http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?tree=mozilla-
> central&q=StartMenuInternet&redirect=true
> 
> Then we'd need to test we don't break any default status via helper.exe
> /PostUpdate, but I don't think we would.

It is insufficient. We should stop Nightly finding an existing Firefox instance, and vice versa. Otherwise Nightly will not start if Firefox is already running. A new Firefox window will open instead.

Comment 10

[Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]]

This bug is really only about the registration though, to address something along the lines of multi profile per installation please post another bug.

Comment 11

[Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]]

I don't think there's any new strings here and this is only relating to multi installs, so marking as release28 instead of block28.

Comment 12

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

I've tried to vet out bbondy's idea, but all I seem to have accomplished is screwing up my registry! I think his idea has merit, but there might be some catch or edge case I don't know enough about the registry to catch.

Comment 13

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

(In reply to Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy] from comment #4)
> The fix here is to add an extra entry per channel in:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RegisteredApplications
> 
> That new entry would point to another new entry you need to ad here:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet\${Channel}-FIREFOX.EXE
> 
> These references would need to be all updated:
> http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?tree=mozilla-
> central&q=StartMenuInternet&redirect=true
> 
> Then we'd need to test we don't break any default status via helper.exe
> /PostUpdate, but I don't think we would.
I tried doing this way back when and I clearly recall Windows auto-creating registry keys that screwed this up which is why I went with FIREFOX.EXE. I don't recall if this was with Win9X, Win2K, or WinXP so this would need to be thoroughly tested on XP by checking for auto added registry keys.

Comment 14

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

triage: booted from blocker list since we've declared multi-installs not blocking v1. I'd still like us to fix this in the future.

Comment 15

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

Firefox for Metro is dead, but this bug is not Metro specific as already stated in this bug twice.

Comment 16

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

The majority if not all of the work will need to be done in the installer so changing component.