Firefox is installing your updates and will start in a few moments

[Robert M Jones]

The last two Firefox updates in my Windows 7 desktop (in a user account)
have got to this stage and stalled. The "installing your updates..."
window hangs then asks for admin priveliges, then the window closes -
then I get a message saying the update couldn't be applied. Then I
restart firefox and it does it again (fails to update) - then it
suggests a full update instead.

That's twice in a row with the last two updates.

Any way I can investigate this please?

Many thanks.

[EE]

In that case, you can get the full installer here:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

[Robert M Jones]

Firefox managed that navigation by itself :-)) but as the problem has
occurred the last two updates, I was wondering WHY? And how I could
investigate?

[Ralph Fox]

1. Investigate whether the Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed,
and also whether it is enabled.
* Control Panel >> Programs and Features
* Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services

If the Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed and enabled, then
automatic updates should not need to ask for admin privileges.

The Firefox full installer installs both Firefox and the Mozilla
Maintenance Service. Someone could have unchecked the installer
option to install the Mozilla Maintenance Service. Someone could
have uninstalled the Mozilla Maintenance Service. And someone
could have disabled the Mozilla Maintenance Service, leaving it
installed but disabled.


2. If an automatic update failed and you then did as full install,
you may want to remove the downloaded automatic update files.

See these instructions in the mozillaZine knowledgebase:

Software Update not working properly
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Software_Update#Software_Update_not_working_properly

Follow the instructions to delete the "updates" folder and the two
files "active-update.xml" and "updates.xml".


--
Kind regards
Ralph

[Robert M Jones]

Thanks for those tips.

I've done the deletion of the various update files/folders so we will
see what happens next time an update is due.
The Mozilla Maintenance service is installed - when I right click in the
Services dialogue to start it, after a pause, I get an error box, saying
"The Mozilla Maintenance Service on Local Computer started and then
stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by
other services or programs."

I can't see anything obvious relating to this on the properties for that
service, nor in Tools-Options for Firefox - Telemetry is OFF, Health
Report is OFF, Crash Reporter is ON

I have WebRTC disabled in Firefox,
and I have also disabled the new messenger service - but this problem
pre-dated that messenger change.

[Robert M Jones]

Next FF update (in Win7 user account) - same problem as before. the
"installing your updates..." window won't close on its own.

While the "installing your updates..." window was still hung there, I
tried clicking the FF shortcut on my taskbar anyway - and FF started
fine, and it says it is up to date, and 37.0.2.
The "installing your updates..." window remained and had to be closed
with Task Manager. It closed, all seems well.

I checked everything advised above, but the problem is still recurring.