Enterprise:Utu

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University of Turku, Finland

  • ~ 5000 computers, mostly PC's
  • Firefox is installed to computer labs and set up as a default browser
  • Published as an optional install to personnel
  • Group Policy -based software deployment

Firefox customizations

We have packaged our customized MSI-package to deploy Firefox. Key features are:

  • Simple helper script to pre-create Firefox profile at user login (using Active Setup). This prevents "import settings"-dialog at first Firefox startup and shortens Firefox startup time. Important in computer labs, where user doesn't have neither Windows nor Firefox profile and thus Firefox always makes "first start".
  • pre-tuned default profile
    • prefs.js - some basic default settings
    • cert8.db - Utu root certificate
    • hostperm.1 - disable popup blocking for certain sites
  • Mark Sammons'es group policy code injected into nsBrowserContentHandler.js (The FCP way).
  • MSI package built using WiX

Problems and challenges

  • Some Firefox settings are very hard to manage centrally
  • User preferences should be stored or backed up centrally somewhere
  • Updating to a newer version requires a lot of debugging and testing