Add-Ons

Add-on Signing now Active in Firefox 43

One feature Mozilla, seems to have conveniently left out of the release notes for Firefox 43 is add-on/extension signing is now active and being enforced. Users can no longer install unsigned add-ons and there is no longer a mechanism to override this. Mozilla claims “(add-on signing) will make the block-list and other malware prevention measures more effective.”  

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Thunderbird 38.4.0 Released

Mozilla has released the next update on the Thunderbird 38.x branch with Thunderbird 38.4.0 on November 25th. A cached version of the release notes shows a release date of November 23rd and currently the page is bringing up a Mozilla 404 page. For those user who have Lightning installed, the add-on should auto-update to version 4.0.4 when Thunderbird is updated. Updates in this release include: Fixed issue where messages moves of multiple messages from a maildir folder to an mbox folder failed. Various security fixes Depending on their update settings may be prompted to update in the next 24-48 hours…

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Silverlight Support Returning To 64-Bit Firefox

At least for a while as Mozilla still plans on deprecating Silverlight support sometime in the future (much as Google and Microsoft already have). Bug 1225293 which was made public today indicates Mozilla’s short term plans to support Silverlight in the Win64 builds. When exactly Silverlight will return to the Firefox 64-Bit builds is not exactly known. It could (but not likely) be with Firefox 43 already in Beta and due out December 15th, 2015 or (more likely) Firefox 44 still in Developer’s Edition (Aurora) and due out in late January 2016 or Firefox 45 currently in Nightly builds and due out…

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Thunderbird 38.4.0 and Lightning Issues

Thunderbird 38.4.0 has not yet been released. Reviewing the notes from the status meeting on November 3rd, the release was planned for around November 5th. This delay is not unusual and likely we will be seeing the Thunderbird 38.4.0 release during this coming week. While going through the meeting notes did notice bug 1211160 which had to do with ‘some’ users who updated to Thunderbird 38.3 with Lightning 4.0.3 enabled lost use of the buttons in Thunderbird. Users reported that rolling back to Thunderbird 38.2.0 resolved the issue. Other uses reported success by disabling Lightning 4.0.3 prior to updating to the…

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Download Manager (S3) Add-On Spies on Users

” Dan Callahan, engineer in Developer Relations at Mozilla, has told Softpedia that their staff contacted Mr. Popov, but he has yet to respond them. He also said they’ve also checked the developer’s other plugins, and that besides Download Manager (S3) another add-on was also found to have a similar behavior and also removed from the add-ons portal. If Mr. Popov removes the user privacy intrusive behavior from his add-on’s code, Mr. Callahan said that the Mozilla staff won’t have any issues with relisting the add-ons on their portal. “ Source: SoftpediaDetails 

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Firefox 41 Released

Mozilla release the next update to Firefox on Tuesday, September 22nd with Firefox 41.0. This release included many fixes, updates and changes which can be reviewed in the release notes. Also note: Extension Signing Validation can still be disabled in this version by changing xpinstall.signatures.required to False in about:config. There is not an official Windows 64-bit (Win64) version of Firefox 41, this is currently planned for Firefox 42. User should be prompted to update or can do so manually via Help > About Firefox or download and install the latest version via getfirefox.com. The next planned release is Firefox 42 on November 3rd….

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Enforced Extension Signing Delayed until Early 2016

Bug 1203584 was filed on September 10th, 2015 indicates Mozilla has delay the enforced extension signing (unsigned add-ons can not be installed…period) until Firefox 44 coming in late January 2016. This means that unsigned add-ons may still be installed in Firefox 41-43 if you set the xpinstall.signatures.required preference in about:config to FALSE. Not sure as to the reason for this change as the bug simply stated: We’ve decided to push turning the pref for signing requirements on out to 43 so need to turn it off in aurora/beta. Forcing the pref on will be pushed out to 44  

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TBird 38.2.0 Issues coming out of Sleep/Hibernate

There are a couple issues with Thunderbird 38.2.0 when starting up from a long sleep or hibernate (especially overnight). First is Bug 1196662 Thunderbird not checking for mails and becomes unresponsive after hibernation (problem is caused by upgrade to Thunderbird 38.2.0). While I have not experienced issues Thunderbird becoming unresponsive I have noticed I need to click the ‘Get Messages Button’ in order to ‘kick-start’ Thunderbird to periodically and automatically check for new messages. Second which appears to be related to the first and affects those who are using Lighting: Bug 1199994 Today pane date incorrect after overnight hibernate [TypeError: this.mDeferred is null]. I have…

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