In Firefox 3.5.3 yesterday I got the automatic disabling MS .Net Framework Assistant yesterday and it is listed in my Add-on as "Disabled for your protection" and there is a link to an explanation.

Ironically clicking the link brought a bad certificate error and I had to add a security exception in Firefox before I was allowed to view the page. The page lists all add-ons that will be forcibly killed of in Firefox without user intervention and links to an explanation page.

The two pages are:

https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/blocklist/

and

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=522777

The other thing that was disabled was "Windows Presentation Foundation" but I can't see any reference to that now in my Add-ons list.

Was this a plugin to the MS .NET framework assistant or a visible plugin to Firefox? The last link seems to suggest it was a plugin for the ,Net assistant ???

Out of curiosity what happens now if you visit websites that depend on .Net and what happens when MS issue a fix for the possible remote control exploit Mozilla are trying to remove?

Does anyone find ironic that having systematically screwed up Internet Explorer security for years, opening up computers to massive numbers of exploits, MS are now installing add-ons into 3rd party applications unbidden and introducing the same security issues in other people's software. Call me a conspiracy theorist but does this sound a little planned to make sure any security issues in IE also affect Firefox so that MS isn't disadvantaged in the browser wars!

To me the main inconvenience was getting a notice to restart.  At least googling brought up information to fix it right away. At first I thought it was because I updated to Firefox 3.6 Beta 1, but I still had a Minefield 3.6Pre installed and got the same issue.  Otherwise I probably would have run around removing the 3.6 betas for nothing.

The other thing disquieting is because of PatchGuard things like Sandboxie won't work.  They say 64 bit is already protected so you don't need Sandboxie.  But it's funny how Registry hacks seem to get through easily enough.  I had one earlier something about ShellNoChange or something where I couldn't delete files even with one of those unlocker delete on next reboot utilities.  And now this one puts those CLSIDs in the registry without notice.  Doesn't seem all that secure to me.  Don't recall getting those registry hacks when browsing sandboxed.

Lately I've been making image backups closer together.  About the only thing to do at this point.

Here's my experience:
In my copy of Firefox, I have:
* 54 .xpi files (Add-ons) of which 7 are disabled;
* 1 theme (Chromifox Basic);
* 21 plugins, of which 10 are disabled: including QuickTime; RealPlayer; all the M/soft ones - DRM-related, Media Player-related, DivX-related.

Using MrTech, I override some of the add-ons that Firefox says are "not suited to this version of Firefox". On a couple of occasions, that has caused Firefox to not start/load without instantly crashing, so I sort that out by deleting the offending add-on .xpi files causing the crash. (All my add-ons are backed up by the FEBE add-on, so I could always recover the old disabled add-on if I ever needed to)

I installed the M/soft update (I had to search for it to find it) that was supposed to make a "Disable" button on the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin, but it did not make the button, so I searched and removed all traces of WPF using a combination of RevoUninstaller, CCleaner and RegCleaner.

When Mozilla unilaterally blocked/removed the .NET plugins, I had no issue with that as I had already disabled them.

On another post in this foum ("Re: Windows Security Essentials" at:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=20122.msg181376#msg181376

- I referred to MSE (M/soft's virus checker program) as removing "potentially harmful or unwanted programs". To my mind, "unwanted" could include Adware, M/soft Windows Genuine Advantage and all those annoying and unnecessary plugins (e.g., DRM and Windows Media Player plugins) that M/soft has been quietly forcing into Firefox without telling you, every time you run Windows Update. One of those plugins Mozilla now blocks as it introduces a security risk and destabilises Firefox performance.

I mentioned in that post that:
* I generally mistrust M/soft as they are a perfect example of a corporate psychopath (per the film "The Corporation") and I therefore use their software with well-advised caution. I try to control that software by, for example, stopping it from "phoning home" in ZoneAlarm.

* When you see how M/soft have forced those Firefox plugins on you, it speaks volumes about their motivation and shows their deliberate intention to put their needs/desires first and their often crass disregard for the needs of the customer/victim.

- my NET.fw assistant was disabled by Firefox 3.0 itself only a couple of days ago, for my protection.

I am impressed with the new video feature in Firefox 3.5, demonstrated via http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/3.5.4/whatsnew/ especially since it does not take any extensions to perform (so why am I posting it here?)!

hmm... maybe all language page versions are not similar to the Danish one - I merely removed "dk".
The video-link may be http://proxy-45.dailymotion.com/18/320x240/ogg/15809843-2.ogg?auth=1256735933-1c28460dfca7923097f95a638600ae2c
or you could try http://openvideo.dailymotion.com/video/xawkpo_chauve-souris-remi-gaillard_fun , but it is nowhere as convincing.

Edited:
I think it is because I updated my Firefox today, so the page I was given is not the same you would be re-directed to. "Congratulations, you do now have the latest & safest Firefox" or so.

[attachthumb=#]

btw if you like to try betas or have several versions of FF using the same profile, I found out how to get rid of that "thank you for trying" page on first start after switching versions.  After awhile it can get pretty annoying.

This info should be enough to get you there:
==================================================
To get rid of the "Welcome" in FF 3.x in the address bar type
about:config

in the search type StartUp

you will see settings with the words Welcome and First Run
and some stuff about Override URL. Double click them.
A dialog pops up. Substitute either about:blank or your home page URL for what is in the dialog. Close Firefox.
==================================================

Note that I use settings "start with home page" and I use about:blank for my home page.  If you put in the actual url for your home page and change the setting then you'd have to change it each time to match it up. It's probably better just to have it at about:blank as a blank page is less annoying IMHO than that thank you page.

Right now I'm using FF 3.6 RC2 and I got rid of 3.7Pre as the snappier page load is only a fraction of a second and what it lacks are features I use.  But one good side-effect is if I do try another version or beta because I already have those settings in my profile I don't get the Thank You page or Welcome on first run(doesn't change the size of my browser window for one thing.)

CoLT :: Add-ons for Firefox

CoLT makes it easy to copy either a hyperlink's text or both the link and the link's text (in a format you specify). Two handy context-menu items make this possible, and don't add clutter; the items are only visible when right-clicking a link!

You can add your own customizable copying of link text from it as seen in the screenshot from the options dialog above. I think it is useful for posting to forums and other sites.

For copy page title and location right click anywhere on the page that is not a link then go down to the sub menu for CoLT and you can select how you want the page link formatted you are currently viewing.

a real nifty plugin for firefox (and maybe other browsers) is clippable for when you find information on a web page and you want to print it without all the ads and other garbage on the page clippable sits in the browser bar. 1 clip and only the main part of the page is there ready to print. Just Google it. Loverly

Found it using Google! 

CoLT :: Add-ons for Firefox (see attachment in previous post)

Thanks Ham: been looking for something like this for some time... 

FavLoc 1.2.1 for Firefox 4, hard to find and not yet available at Mozilla:

(see attachment in previous post)
The author is Addon Manager at Mozilla's.

I was a user of FavLoc up until I made the move to Firefox 4. I wasn't aware that there was a (semi-hidden) compatible version of FavLoc, which made me look for an alternative add-on that worked with Firefox 4. Luckily I found Save file To, which I now like even more than FavLoc.