protecting firefox from crappy taskbars and such

[idobox]

Hi all,

I'm tired of having to read every single option of every menu when I install a new program to avoid having some new crappy toolbar, or changing my default search engine, and such.
Is there a way to make sure external programs can't change the configuration of firefox without firefox asking me?

Thanks

[scarecrovv]

You could create a special firefox user, and assign ownership of your .mozilla directory to it, make sure that only the firefox user has write permissions, make sure that the firefox user has write permissions anywhere you want to be able to download things to, and then run the firefox browser as the firefox user using "su -c firefox firefox".

There might be a more elegant way, but that's just what I thought of off the top of my head. Really though, programs shouldn't try to mess with firefox anyway, and if they do you should complain vehemently to whoever wrote them, and avoid using them until they're fixed.

Another thing you could do that I just thought of would be to make a copy of your .mozilla directory every time you install an evil program, and then replace your new and crappy firefox configuration with your old one after the evil program is installed.

[cphite]

Hi all,

I'm tired of having to read every single option of every menu when I install a new program to avoid having some new crappy toolbar, or changing my default search engine, and such.
Is there a way to make sure external programs can't change the configuration of firefox without firefox asking me?

Thanks

There are... but none of them are as easy and straightforward as simply reading the options and de-selecting the checkboxes for crappy toolbars, default search engines, and such.

Besides... those cheap installers that typically do the things you're talking about are written with the assumption that the options you choose are actually the options that are installed. So if you prevent that, you can in some cases cause whatever you're installing to install incorrectly; in which case it won't run correctly, or won't uninstall correctly, etc.

[idobox]

scarecrovv, I want to do that on windows. I don't have the problem with linux, because no Linux user will accept that his homepage has changed for bing and let it like that, while many windows users are too lazy too even try to change it back.

I think I'll go with the .mozilla file backup

[EvanED]

You can do the same thing on Windows if you really want. You just use the 'run as' feature instead of 'su'.

[cphite]

scarecrovv, I want to do that on windows. I don't have the problem with linux, because no Linux user will accept that his homepage has changed for bing and let it like that, while many windows users are too lazy too even try to change it back.

Are these the same Windows users who are too lazy to read a couple of lines during an install and deselect a couple of checkboxes?

[idobox]

scarecrovv, I want to do that on windows. I don't have the problem with linux, because no Linux user will accept that his homepage has changed for bing and let it like that, while many windows users are too lazy too even try to change it back.

Are these the same Windows users who are too lazy to read a couple of lines during an install and deselect a couple of checkboxes?

Yes. Unfortunately, they then ask me to repair their computer.
And right now, it seems every software I install, or even just update, tries to install a taskbar AND change my homepage ADN change address bar search thing, often in very sneaky ways. And yes, from time, a checkbox slips through my attention, and I have to spend 5 minutes repairing my firefox config. I would just love it so much if firefox asked me if I agree with the changes made by other softwares.

[Jorpho]

I would just love it so much if firefox asked me if I agree with the changes made by other softwares.

Did it not start doing that a versions or two ago?