Windows XP Online Updates screwing with my system???

LazyLion

LazyLion

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Has anyone else noticed this? The last batch of Windows Updates that were automatically updated to all my PCs and my laptop have been making changes to my system.... for e.g.

When I opened Firefox yesterday it told me that Firefox was not my default browser and did I want to set it to my default. The thing is it WAS my default browser before I let the updates install.

Then today when I booted up (after some more online updates last night on shutdown)... It tells me the same thing again... but now it has reset all of my Firefox defaults...everything was set back to default... I had to reset my home page and tab options... all the opening prompts from all my extensions had reset. Fortunately my passwords and bookmarks were all still there.

Why would Microsoft Updates do this? Is Microsoft trying to kill Firefox for unsuspecting users? Has anyone else noticed this?:confused:
 
Never happened to me.
Both my laptop, the wifes pc and my kids pc are all set to auto update and I just asked them, no problems.
 
ok, then there must be something else that is common to all my PCs that has caused this. Must be some particular software combination that I am using.

Thanks
 
The same thing occured on my Windows 2000 machine after loading the latest Microsoft updates, it asked for confirmation to use Firefox as my default browser.
 
Franna said:
The same thing occured on my Windows 2000 machine after loading the latest Microsoft updates, it asked for confirmation to use Firefox as my default browser.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is what has happened on at least 3 of the 5 PCs I own and on my laptop.

Windows XP Home Edition
Office Pro 2003
MSIE 7
Firefox (Default Browser)
VirtualCD 8
QuickTime Pro 7
Download Accelerator Pro 8
MSN Live 8
AVG Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Spyware
Vodafone 3G Connect software
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Adobe Acrobat Reader 8
etc...

The systems were all originally updated using AutoPatcher on first install
 
It probably has something to do with the software setups on the computers. It would explain why it affects some machines, but not others.
 
Garyvdh said:
Has anyone else noticed this? The last batch of Windows Updates that were automatically updated to all my PCs and my laptop have been making changes to my system.... for e.g.

When I opened Firefox yesterday it told me that Firefox was not my default browser and did I want to set it to my default. The thing is it WAS my default browser before I let the updates install.

Then today when I booted up (after some more online updates last night on shutdown)... It tells me the same thing again... but now it has reset all of my Firefox defaults...everything was set back to default... I had to reset my home page and tab options... all the opening prompts from all my extensions had reset. Fortunately my passwords and bookmarks were all still there.

Why would Microsoft Updates do this? Is Microsoft trying to kill Firefox for unsuspecting users? Has anyone else noticed this?:confused:
Click to expand...

It just did it again... the last two days have seen some more online automatic updates on all my PCs that I use... .and once again the updates have reset my default browser back to Internet Explorer.

I am now firmly convinced that Microsoft is using it's updates to try and reset the default browser! Not a problem for those of us who know which browser we want to use... but MS is probably hoping it can switch browsers back to IE for users who may have had an alternative browser factory or office installed for them.

Does this amount to anti-competitive practice?
 
My office PC and Home PC both gave me the warning regarding default browser, (despite links in other programs launching the correct browser). It definitely has to do with MS updates.
 
The same happened to me after the latest Firefox patch :( I lost everything, bookmarks the lot!
 
3g usr said:
The same happened to me after the latest Firefox patch :( I lost everything, bookmarks the lot!
Click to expand...

On at least one of my machines it reset everything to default... but I did not lose my bookmarks or extensions... everything just defaulted back to first installed. I assumed that was a firefox problem... but on all my other machines it just reset the default browser to IE after the online updates.
 
Garyvdh said:
Where do they say that it is a Firefox problem? I could not find that.
Click to expand...

halfway down the page of the link i posted
This issue is actually the result of a change in Firefox (added in Firefox v 2.0.0.2) and how it responds to Office changing a Windows registry key during the updating process. Whenever Office updates, it also verifies that many supporting registry keys are set to expected values (this is the same action that occurs when you use the “Detect and Repair” functionality in Office). The modification of registry keys during updating has happened throughout the lifecycle of Office 2003, and the Outlook Junk Email Filter delivered via Microsoft Update this month triggered this issue simply because it was the first update of Office since Firefox 2.0.0.2 became available, not because this specific update did anything differently.

On the basis of your report, the Office team has worked with Mozilla and believe they’ve arrived at an answer that will address the issue. The Mozilla folks have told us that the change will be in an upcoming version of Firefox, and it is tracked in this bug report on the Mozilla site. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. Your blog was the trigger of the investigation and we’re all glad we were able to find the solution so quickly."
Click to expand...
 
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