User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10.1 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10.1 That little button on the top-right hand corner is often missed; there should be a bar under the toolbars to alert someone of an update (like the ones that say a site requires flash player or whatever). It's much easier to take notice to. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3.

*** Bug 262601 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

something like the attached example would make you notice. It's just irritating enough to make sure you'll push the button ;-) (unfortunately animated gif and not apng)

*** Bug 262840 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I second this bug, and would also comment that the icon's placement alone suggests that it is a window-operation button. I've had this little red arrow in the top right-hand of my browser for several days, and ignored it thinking that it was a button to go full-screen.

where it was , in the statusbar, was a far better location because all notifications come from that area.

i dont think an icon is good enough to request updates. Microsoft tried this with XP and changed it in XP SP2. even apple's software update show a "pop up" (Softwareupdate starts if an update is found) to get people to update. i've configured Windows update in my office for some time to just notify users if an update is available and let them decide to install it. the result was that noone installed any update. i've now swtiched it to force the install. so i think its necessary to show a pop Up notification. maybe start the Update Manager if a critical update is found or something like this. or maybe forefox opens a different page than the homepage if a critical update has been found every x times firefox starts to get the people to upgrade.

I mostly agree. Updating is crucial, it really a must, and without updates no further browsing should even be allowed. That's of course for crucial updates. Only with that kind of precautions firefox could become choice of secure users, else every software sooner or later will have bugs or have already some bugs in it. Firefox should not need to be tech geek to be aware of bugs, in that sense. But if browsing will allowed, i'm not in favor or having some page to be opened during some time intervals, that's more than annoying, would result in loss of work. Pop-ups however would be great, i know that from gaim update plugin, it really makes you aware. But big update icons, specially with red, or highlighed yellow colors can make same affect, and you can't even get rid of them w/ just one click, or if you click then you update your browser. Whatever it is firefox'es new update icon is really weak in those regards. Despite having auto update option, it can always fail and can leave firefox vulnerable, and users should know that and ask for help if something similar happened. (with that small icon nobody would even care it) Btw, one more thing should also be mentioned. After an update, icon dissapears instantly. It should put a note there untill next start like "Firefox is updated". So you knew the update has been done. (In reply to comment #6) > i dont think an icon is good enough to request updates. Microsoft tried this > with XP and changed it in XP SP2. even apple's software update show a "pop up" > (Softwareupdate starts if an update is found) to get people to update. >

(In reply to comment #7) > But if browsing will allowed, i'm not in favor or having some page to be opened > during some time intervals, that's more than annoying, would result in loss of > work. i didnt mean to switch the current page to a "update now" Page, but the homepage that firefox opens when it starts (and only every n Starts, not everytime). IIRC does IE6 the same thing. sometimes it opens a MS homepage that looks like an update check (or some other tracking) But a Pop Up Notification is probably better btw: the more i think about it, firefox should enable auto updates as default. if firefox is started for the first time it should show something like XP SP2. a dialog that asks the user to configure Auto Updates, and the default should be set to "download and install them automaticaly" i dont know if Extentions should auto update themselfes to, but firefox itself should definatly do so (as default, of course the should be an option to disable this, but with a huge warning) i'd love to see this for 1.0, but this wont happen, maybe 1.1? (is the some flag to ask for this?)

*** Bug 274555 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

as currently, most users don't recognice the update icon or don't know what it means. a friend of mine told me when i told her to click on the icon, that she recogniced it once, but didn't click on it because she didn't know that it was about updates... so why not provide the user with a update toolbar. there, we can place some text that informes the user that there is an update that he/she should download. and if it is dominant enough, everybody will recognice it. but still, there has to be the possibility to disable the bar. another suggestion for naming the context menu items can be found in this small discussion on SFX: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/8611 i also liked the suggestion to provide infos about the updates in a msdn-like area. probably something comparable could be created in connection to a possible devedge-revival?

I like the last idea. However, to keep it in style,I might be better to "re"-use the popup warning bar / plugin bar

maybe i'm the only one, but i think that Firefox should ask how to update itself. the default option should be "Dont ask me again, download and install all Updates as soon as they are available". (people never update anything unless they are forced to.)

(In reply to comment #12) > maybe i'm the only one, but i think that Firefox should ask how to update > itself. the default option should be "Dont ask me again, download and install > all Updates as soon as they are available". (people never update anything unless > they are forced to.) well, but how should firefox ask the user? the how is the question we are discussing right now... i would also agree with the default option of how it should be updated. the could be done while or after installing. but still, for those who want to be informed about every single update, we need a clean, well visible way to do so ;) and that's where i still consider my suggestion as the best one. sadly, i'm not a xul-developer. but probably somebody could tell me weather it's possible to create this kind of red colored toolbar quite easily...?

(In reply to comment #13) > well, but how should firefox ask the user? during the setup. something like the question from windows XP SP2 after the first boot. (for those without XP: it asks "Do you want auto updates? default is, "yes, download and install them automaticaly" other options are ask before download/install/off) > but still, for > those who want to be informed about every single update, we need a clean, well > visible way to do so ;) and that's where i still consider my suggestion as the > best one. there could be other options like "Ask me before downloading" and "...before installing" that "power users" could use. (and of course a "i'm way to paranoid to use an auto update, so disable the security thingy" option) those two options could show a list of available updates and allow the user to choose what he wants to download/install.

*** Bug 278278 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Whatever UI is designed for this issue could possibly be adapted to bug 258682.

(In reply to comment #5) > where it was , in the statusbar, was a far better location because all > notifications come from that area. I agree... it should be placed consistently with the other 'status' icons. There should also be a notification bar (the "yellow" message, a la MSIE) underneath the tab-bar, since this would draw attention to the issue straight away. As per the other status indicators, the notification bar should have a disable option.

Mike Connor has apparently rightly pointed out the update system isn't fitting with the other uses of the notification toolbar, i.e. related to site/document content. In light of this, I suggest using something like "balloon tips" to make the notification easier to spot. The caveat is if a native method is used (assuming an equivalent exists for non-Windows operating systems), it can be turned off. This kind of notification should really be displayed every time a critical update is "found" or at least once per window open, IMO.

*** Bug 295096 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Nice to see that this bug gets some attention. I'll post my opinons from Bug 295096. Since launch of Firefox i have monitored my relatives and friends update behavior -- or lack of it. Their age range from 12 to 50 years. If it wasn't for me, they would be still happily running 1.0. So clearly there is something wrong. It can't be just lack of binary patches, since they all have broadband connections. I have came to conclusion that update notifier s*cks. It works just fine to notify extensions/theme updates, since they are not important. What we can do to improve it? 1. Update notifier pop-up should be open until user dismisses it. Why? Even me that sits in front of my computer too much of my time, I rarely notice it. When it decides to pop-up I'm away from computer, playing or too busy to read it. When i start to read it, it's already sliding down so there is not much time to read let alone click it. Even that I've played deathmatches all these years. 2. Tell what's this pop-up is about without opening it. Average user doesn't know much about computers or softwares, they rarely even understand meaning of update. So we need to get their attention and that they want to update their browser. Tell that these updates are critical and recommended. Tell that these updates will protect your privacy. Users have also tendency to think that updating is difficult, requires booting computer or it's slow. (Well it is slow until 1.1 :) Anyway, it's needed to describe briefly that it's fast and easy. I made a mock-up what update notifier should look like in my opinion. Send your improvement suggestions about layout and language. But it should contain follow above guidelines. I would make the patch myself, but i lack the skills.

l10n impact, needs to block b4 at the latest.

Asa, why not use the Update Alert that Ben has added to the new update service. If that pops up after the automatic check/detection of a Firefox update there is no chance anyone is going to miss it. We can still keep the current one for extensions/themes only.

*** Bug 298337 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Does this affect l10n, or is it the umbrella images only?

Can we not have one unified "interface" to display notifications to the user? We have the notification bar which works very well. Now we have this "other" possible location users will have to go (or another dialog presented) to get notified of when updates are available. Let's pick one "interface" and stick with it. PLEASE!!! Personally I believe https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=168680 is the right way to go. Could that not be extended to enable this type of functionality?

I agree that the current notification methods aren't working, because they are too easy to ignore. 1. I myself have become used to the arrow icon; I hardly notice it any more. There is no incentive to actually click on it. It's placement and relative size look awkward, as well. 2. The "New Update Found" popup seems to emerge from the system tray, where so many useless messages come from. Again, I know that I ignore most anything from that area, as I've rarely found useful information there. Once bitten, twice shy. Need I mention the RealPlay "Message Center"? That type of notification is for non-critical/non-time-based offers of information, not alerts to possibly critical updates. At first, I liked the idea of a red information bar alerting to updates, but I realize that it would be both annoying and easily ignored and lived with. I think the "Software Update" dialoge is the best route along with an option to automaticly download and install, perhaps unless one of more extensions are not compatable. I also think that the dialog could use some improvement, as it doesn't offer very much information on the inital screen. I, for one, would like to see more information about the update, and the extensions affected, but both of those pieces of information are only offered, and not freely given. A brief, descriptive, and not very technical sentence or two in place of "For more information, Click Here" with a link to extended info would be nice. An example would be, "This update fixes a minor security flaw involving frames. More information can be found at the Mozilla Foundation Secutiy Advisory page." I've created my own, quickly and poorly, version of the dialog. Obviously it can be improved upon. I removed the red text, as it seemed a bit apocoliptic and could scare off users, thinking it must be extremely dangerous to update. I also removed the "by clicking Download and Install." because it makes me feel dumb, as the button is clearly labeled, "Download and Install."

(In reply to comment #27) > Created an attachment (id=189149) [edit] > Demo alert dialog This clearly won't fly, as it's completely spoofable.

This is fixed by the new update system UI.

*** Bug 305882 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 309804 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***