And ofcourse the free Windows Packet Publisher can be used to deploy FF.exe in a WSUS supported enviroment. You get a fresh install with every new version. If you have a bigger environment, and intern update traffic is critical, a basic install with WPP/WSUS in combination with a configuration for alternative internal update path will be recomended.






Am 20.04.2017 um 23:36 schrieb Copus, Scott:
Hi all,

FYI, I'm a noob with respect to Firefox ESR/Enterprise and this mailing list.  
So please bear with me as I try to learn how to manage Firefox in the 
enterprise hopefully the 'proper' way compared to the way we've always handled 
it in our environment.

My background is an admin for classroom podium computers and computer labs at my 
university.  In an educational setting we try to offer as much as we can to faculty, 
staff, and students for maximum teaching potential and user choice.  We've always 
included the most recent versions both Firefox and Chrome consumer browsers baked in our 
images (mainly because I think the enterprise versions didn't exist when we first started 
down this path).  In our environment we run Windows 7/10, domain-joined, don't use 
roaming profiles, and customize the Windows default user profile via sysprep's audit 
mode.  We also use a disk reboot-to-restore product called Deep Freeze which basically 
means that every user login is a "new/fresh" login after every boot or restart. 
 We've always customized all the browsers and let these customizations be part of the 
aforementioned default user profile that then propagate into the new user's Windows 
profile.  However, I'd like to get away from doing it this
   way and deploy the additional browsers as silent install packages after 
Windows has been deployed.

Most of our browser customizations involve making the user experience as best as possible given our 
static "locked" lab environment.  We disable first-run items, reminders or annoyances and 
anything date-based like scheduled tasks and such that that like to periodically 'clean up' things 
(including disabling Firefox's "it looks like you haven't started Firefox in a while"), 
etc.  We also customize home pages, bookmarks, popup blocker exception site lists, etc. depending 
on the department or situation that's requesting it.  For Firefox, some of this is done in a 
scripted fashion during initial deployment while other things are handled via group policy/GPO 
(either login scripts that modify browser profile files that contain such settings or just 
overwriting them with a server copy).

Recently I've learned that with the Chrome browser I don't need to go this 
route of duplicating an entire browser profile anymore.  Chrome seems to 
support configuring all or most of the settings I need customizing using either 
GPOs and/or a 'master preferences' file.  These settings get picked at user's 
first launch of the browser and a fresh browser's profile gets built around it.

So I'm looking to do the same thing above with Firefox.  I'm sure it can be 
done.  I'd like to get away our 'big' 15-20MB Firefox default user profile just 
to replicate the custom settings we want.  But there's a lot of old or outdated 
information out there and I don't know where to start.  For example, some tips 
are specific to older versions since things like file paths/names and 
preference names change over time.

Can anyone point me to any good guides/pages that cover these enterprise 
management tasks that would still be relative to the most recent versions of 
Firefox?
   - initial deployment of Firefox
   - deploying a baseline Firefox config for new users
   - maintaining configuration or avoiding configuration drift (i.e. default or 
enforced policies/settings)
   - controlled updates of the browser and all its other components (including 
having a relatively recent malware/phishing database, CRLs, etc. on the local 
drive)
   - anything specific to a 'lab' environment (since it can have special 
circumstances that are different than normal enterprise user management)

Are Firefox version upgrades (major, minor, and security updates) typically 
handled via just deploying the latest EXE over any previous versions?

Is there anyone here who doesn't let Firefox upgrade itself but rather use your 
software deployment or patching system like Altiris/SCCM/LANDESK/Zendesk handle 
it?  What's the general technique?  Is there anything to watch out for?

Any comments on the virtualization of Firefox such as with App-V?

Sorry for the long post.  I appreciate any tips or advice even if it's to 
answer just one of my questions.  Thanks!  ;)

--
Scott Copus, Lab Systems Engineer
Academic Technology | Western Kentucky University
(270)745-3042 | http://www.wku.edu/it/labs


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