The forced automatic updates from Firefox have been a pain for me for a very long time: RUnning multiple profiles at the same time scattered over multiple virtual desktops ... and then an update happens, everything suddently is allover the place and data loss also happended. I tried many solutions, none worked. Until this. Finally! A working way to disable those friggin forced updates on regular Firefox!!

Disable Automatic Firefox Updates (Organization Policy)

Small Windows scripts to toggle Firefox automatic updates through Mozilla organization policy.

The project sets or removes this registry policy value:

• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\DisableAppUpdate (REG_DWORD)

But dont forget to frequently update your Firefox in other ways! (E.g. manual updates, or via Uniget, etc)

Overview

Use this project if you want a simple way to:

• Disable Firefox auto-updates (DisableAppUpdate=1)
• Re-enable Firefox auto-updates (remove DisableAppUpdate)
• Check current policy status

You can use either a GUI or CLI workflow.

Features

• GUI toggle app (firefox-update-toggle-gui.ps1) with current status display (ENABLED / DISABLED / UNKNOWN)
• One-click actions for Disable, Enable, Close & Restart Firefox, and Refresh
• Button to open about:policies in Firefox
• Automatic Windows theme detection plus manual Light/Dark switch
• Full dark mode with custom title bar
• CLI batch tool (firefox-update-toggle.bat) with disable, enable, status, restart, and help commands
• Interactive menu mode when run without arguments
• Admin privilege checks for write actions

Requirements

• Windows (PowerShell + reg.exe available)
• Administrator rights for disable / enable

GUI Usage

1. Run open-firefox-update-gui.bat.
2. Click Disable Updates or Enable Updates.
3. Accept the UAC prompt.
4. Click Close & Restart Firefox to restart Firefox after policy change.
5. Click Refresh Status to confirm the result.
6. Verify in about:policies.

CLI Usage

Interactive mode:

firefox-update-toggle.bat

Direct commands:

firefox-update-toggle.bat disable
firefox-update-toggle.bat enable
firefox-update-toggle.bat status
firefox-update-toggle.bat restart
firefox-update-toggle.bat help

Notes:

• disable and enable require an elevated Command Prompt.
• status works without elevation.
• After changing policy, restart Firefox and verify in about:policies.

Troubleshooting

• This action requires Administrator privileges.
  Run the batch file as Administrator (or accept UAC from GUI).

• Missing file: ...
  Keep all project files together in the same folder.

• GUI says Firefox was not found
  Open Firefox manually and go to about:policies.

• Status seems unchanged after toggle
  Fully close and reopen Firefox, then check about:policies again.

• Policy verification in Windows Registry:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox" /v DisableAppUpdate

Screenshots