Firefox 12 requests to install maintenanceservice.exe and run at start-up

[Baby-Oye!]

I don’t know whether it is genuine or not but after installing the Firefox 12 on my computer, the firewall monitoring system request me to allow the installation of maintenanceservice.exe and run at start-up. This is really ridiculous. If it is genuine, then what firefox is doing here? They you should previously inform the users in advance telling that this kind of request may appear. I am not going to install It right away until I get a confirmation from the Mozilla. Tell me is this Genuine?

[Rawana]

Actually the Mozilla Maintenance Service is an optional service which is installed together with the Firefox. This service will install the updates automatically to the Firefox without the need of Windows User Account Control (UAC) dialog. Now user doesn’t need to manually click for the updates. Everything will be done automatically. When an update is available or downloaded, the Maintenance Service asks for the permission from Windows or its users to apply the updates without clicking yes Windows UAC. The till, the service does not run and it does not use any computer resources. Once the update is completed, the service quits automatically.

[Elijah*Blue]

I understand that there is an update service is set. (Which you get a UAC message anyway) That update service has sufficient rights to update Firefox. I cannot see how safe or unsafe that is. Furthermore, it seems to me that an administrator can disable the service if he does not want to have on its network. I'm not really fond of installing in the user folders like Chrome does. Security on Windows for that matter always remains a somewhat tricky balancing act. You want users to always use the latest version then automatic updates is almost a must, but you create there is a relatively attractive attack vector for malware along.

[Upendra]

The Firefox 12 leaves no doubt: Mozilla finds itself with the success of Chrome does not. Now the browser is installed with a service called Windows Mozilla Maintenance Service, which installs updates without annoying begging for rights. This is the technical core of the silent update ready to be implemented gradually to version 13. It had become imperative after Mozilla's update frequency had increased, and users increasingly annoyed responded. After a silent update when the browser initially denies also the reference to the need to restart. Only when the user 24 hours with the old version has continued to work, it is prompted to reboot. That is, according to Mozilla, but in practice is rare. The update service is to keep other programs such as Mozilla Thunderbird up to date and serve all channels (Released, Beta, Aurora and nightly builds). A chrome apostate makes Firefox easier to change the future: The Firefox 12 provides for the installation, the option to import settings from a previously used browser.

[Roey]

Actually the mozilla’s intention is to give users an option to opt out of the maintenance service conditionally. If you uncheck the Use a Background Serivce to do updates" in the Update Tab will keep the browser to check for the update now. Most people will not going to notice this service since it will not run unless there is an update to install. It is a background service from Mozilla. This is from Firefox 12 used to get round the UAC dialog (UAC) in Windows Vista and update up and install the updates. In the future, will take over this background service other maintenance work, which makes the Windows pre-fetching unnecessary and help to accelerate the startup of Firefox is not insignificant. The use of the background service is optional and, if need is felt, disabled from the settings, but can be uninstalled using the Control Panel.