19 3.4 Apply & Update & Maintain

Thorin-Oakenpants edited this page 2023-11-29 06:26:26 +00:00

Table of Contents

• 🟪 APPLY
• 🟪 ESR USERS
• 🟪 UPDATE
• 🟥 UPDATE ERROR
• 🟪 MAINTAIN
• 🟪 RSS FEEDS

🟩 Previous: Overrides [To RFP or Not]

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🟪 APPLY

If you are not using a new profile, we recommend running our cleanup script, the instructions are in the file.

• 🔹 Put all the relevant files into the root folder of your profile ^[1]
  • prefsCleaner
  • updater
  • user.js [NOTE: Do not edit this file directly]
  • user-overrides.js [NOTE: this is the file you created, you edit this file with your changes]
• 🔽 CONTINUE with the UPDATE part below

¹ To find your profile, open about:support and look for Profile Folder under Application Basics.

🟪 ESR USERS

• 🔹 While it is recommended that users use the arkenfox release that matches their Firefox version, it isn't mandatory
• 🔸 option one (recommended)
  • Stick with the matching arkenfox version, and not use the updater. You would then need to;
    • Update the user.js manually once each ESR major release to match, as arkenfox will already be past that version
    • Append and update your overrides manually to the end of the user.js (and keep a copy)
• 🔸 option two
  • Use the updater (with the -esr command, and this will append your user-overrides.js, and of course run prefsCleaner
  • This may cause compatibility or protection issues, as arkenfox is designed per release. The onus is on you.

🟪 UPDATE

• 🔹 Run the updater
  • so the contents of your user-overrides.js is appended to the user.js
• 🔹 ALWAYS run prefsCleaner
  • make sure Firefox is closed
  • this will reset prefs that aren't needed or can cause issues, as well as keep things clean and tidy
  • you can read more about prefsCleaner next

🟥 UPDATE ERROR

• 🔹 If you get an Update failed. Make sure Powershell is allowed internet access error
  • run as administrator
  • if you still get the error, then run Get-ChildItem env:\__PSLockDownPolicy
    • if you have a PSLockDownPolicy, change it to Full Language Mode (value 8)

🟪 MAINTAIN

Each release ¹, or whenever you modify your user-overrides.js

• 🔹 Check for the latest changelog
• 🔹 Run the updater
  • so the contents of your user-overrides.js is appended to the NEW user.js
• 🔹 Run prefsCleaner

🟪 RSS FEEDS

• 🔹 releases ¹ - https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/releases.atom
• 🔹 commits - https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/commits/master.atom

¹ Arkenfox changes to the live master user.js happen once per release: all changes are done in a separate branch and only merged when finished. There is no guarantee when it is done - hopefully within a week of the Firefox release. Nothing of consequence (in the user.js) changes these days that will affect you in that time delay. Do not wait on arkenfox to update Firefox.

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🟩 Next: prefsCleaner