IMPORTANT: About old firefox versions...

So, currently i installed a old version of firefox in vms and actual xp machines, some of you might have seen a firefox instance open with just gibberish.
This is because it has an auto-update function, which opens every once a while, this auto-update function opens a firefox instance, and tries to download a update, this updater tries to connect to an link that no longer exists, which causes redirects to shady sites, and you can't stop it, since it only runs in the background. The only way to get rid of this updater is to delete the following file "Updater.exe".
So if you ever install an old firefox version, make sure to delete "updater.exe".

 

I use version 52.9.0 ESR the last version for xp , have never had a page open in gibberish, searched my entire computer for updater.exe, did not find it. if you do not install the maintenance/updater service then you will not have this running in the background

 

I too use the 52.9.0 ESR version, the portable version. I've never had issues it. With portable, everything firefox is contained in the firefox folder, (in my case c:\firefoxportable52.9). Including all add ons/pws etc etc. Once setup, copy this folder to somewheres safe. Obviously, any changes/mods are not there, periodically, backup FF's folder. Having said that, I save all d/l's to a dedicated C:\ folder, (my case = C:\D L's)

 

It's not difficult to move the browser profile to a less buried location. You can set the profile location and the cache location.

Best to use a virtual RAM disk program to use that for windows temporary files, as well as a cache location.

 

How do you not install the maintenance/updater service, and if already installed, how does one jettison it? This PC came with Firefox 52.9.? already installed. I'd like to get rid of it entirely, but Mypal is acting wonky, and all chromium-based browsers are constantly whining about 101 security certificate errors (yes, worse than with my previous PC), so I have to keep Firefox til I can get a couple decent replacement browsers.

 

uninstall firefox, download the required version and install offline, when I uninstall something, I do a search of my entire pc and the registry to delete any item pertaining to the program I am uninstalling, however if you have bookmarks and logins that you wish to save from firefox then go to documents and settings/your name/application data/mozilla/firefox/profiles and copy the entire folder or just the following:

logins.json
key3.db
and the bookmarks folder

and maybe the extensions folder or any thing that you feel is important, firefox help has descriptions for all the files in the profile folder, I generally just copy the whole folder.