Enterprise:Utu

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