Archive: How Do You Uninstall A Firefox .xpi File?
How Do You Uninstall A Firefox .xpi File?
I'm creating an installer that will install a firefox toolbar .xpi file.
The thing is, I don't know how to uninstall the thing via add/remove programs.
I only see on searching the Net on how to remove it via FireFox, but not in add/remove programs.
Can someone please help me?
Thanks much!
That would be possible if there is a command line with parameters e.g. Firefox.exe -uninstall "Name_of_xpi" so you probably need to check out firefox's documentation.
i see two possibilities:
1. as uninstaller you just code a wizard that helps the user in removing the .xpi extension by hand through the firefox menues
2. you do not add any stuff to add/remove programs, but just use the installer as kinda wrapper/self-executable archive to download and install the extension by executing it. the installer should in this case leave not a single other trace on the users system. then the user can uninstall the extension by himself like any other one, without having any crap like registry entries etc. left.
I just wanted to mention that to install an .xpi you just have to place it in the extension's folder of Firefox. Nothing else.
The .xpi can not be uninstalled with the "add/remove programs" window. I don't know how to uninstall automatically, and my only idea is to delete the extension's folder and remove the traces in extensions.ini. Then, try if that works and if don't, try to find other traces. If it's not very very important to remove the extension, just prompt the user to remove it by himself.
... plus some extensions leave settings in the user's $APPDATA\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<user_profile>\prefs.js which you would have to remove manually.
CF
Another method for doing this, if it's an XPI that was installed in the traditional way (through the browser) is to open $APPDATA\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.ini and loop through all the profiles there.
Then, check the extensions directory in each profile for the extension you're trying to remove and do a RMDir /r /REBOOTOK on that dir. If the plugin is in use it won't delete the .dll yet, but it will remove the install.rdf which will make firefox not detect it the next time it is installed. Firefox will automatically detect that the plugin was removed.
Optionally, delete <profile dir>\extensions.cache if you don't want firefox to notify the user that the extension was removed. This file is simply regenerated if it is found missing.
Good luck!
@taxilian
i showed you up another way for firefox profiles here
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....04#post2466104
its the same thought as your machine wide plugins
@TS
its possible to link to extensions instead installing them into the profile. and - its not easy to remove them from there.
idd it needs users hands to remove them complete cause most extension write into the prefs.js and some other files
and under no case its recommended to edit those files out of firefox.
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/008431.html
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_extensions