Firefox will download updates in the background soon, which should mean it’s easier to secure your web browser with the latest fixes.

Keeping software up to date is important to avoid security issues, and that is why Windows can automatically download operating system updates in the background without the user needing to check for them. day. And it is with this in mind that Mozilla is about to introduce “operating system level tasks” that will be used to keep Firefox up to date.

For now, the browser update must be called manually, which means that a percentage of users are using an older, less secure version of Firefox. With the new system in place, a Windows scheduled task will be used to check for and download browser updates periodically, even if Firefox is not running.

On the Firefox Development Group, developer Nick Alexander explains that checking for updates will be controlled by scheduled tasks. He goes on to explain that “these tasks invoke Firefox in a headless ‘background task mode’ that pumps the update cycle before exiting.”

It is important to note that to avoid interrupting users in their browsing activities, these tasks will not process updates when Firefox itself is running.

Unlike updates for Windows 10, there will not be a forced restart of Firefox, and Mozilla is eager for update tasks to “lock the default profile only for a very short period of time so as not to not prevent the start of Firefox for regular browsing “. The way the process works means that updates that were downloaded automatically will be installed either when Firefox is closed or when it is launched the next time.

Background check

The update task can be found in the Windows Task Scheduler tool, and if it is deleted, Firefox will automatically recreate it. For anyone who for whatever reason wants or needs to block the automatic update process, the Firefox BackgroundAppUpdate policy should be set to “false”.

The new update feature is currently only available in experimental nightly versions of Firefox, but it will make its way to more stable versions in the very near future. The feature is intended for public release in Firefox 89 which is expected to launch in early June, but will be available for testing in earlier beta versions.

Going through Ghacks