Mozilla Firefox ESR + RR in enterprise organization and GPO

Table of Contents
. What are Mozilla Firefox update channels?
. Update Channels version and updates Example
. Mozilla Firefox Silent installation and deployment
. Mozilla Firefox with Group Policy Management

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What are Mozilla Firefox update channels?

There are two versions of Firefox available (Mozilla Firefox RR and Mozilla Firefox ESR), with their update channels. Rapid Release (the regular version) and the Extended Support Release (ESR). You can find more information on Mozilla Firefox Update channels page. Rapid Release updates every 6 weeks including features, security updates and fixes. Extended Support Release receives feature updates every 42 weeks and every 6 weeks receives only security updates and fixes.

Update Channels version and updates Example

Let’s talk about Firefox version 60, when RR was version 60 and ESR was version 60. Version 60 is the major release. Next update will be in 6 weeks, which will bring RR to version 61 and ESR to version 60.1. In this case RR receives the features and becomes 61 and ESR doesn’t receive the features. ESR receives security and fixes and becomes 60.1. Same goes for RR 62 and ESR 60.2. This will be till RR version 68 (42 weeks). Also, you will have a 12-week version overlap over versions of ESR. It is done to receive proper certification for a new version. You can check the next table:

RR 67, ESR 60.7
RR 68, ESR 60.8 = ESR 68
RR 69, ESR 60.9 = ESR 68.1
RR 70, ESR 68.2

Here are some links you can find useful:
Mozilla Firefox in Organizations
Download Mozilla Firefox Rapid Release offline version
Download Mozilla Firefox ESR offline version
Download Mozilla Firefox ADMX files for Group Policy Management
*** This is a “releases” page, with the version history and full archived package. If you need the windows ADMX files or you want to view the ReadMe before, you can check Firefox Policy Templates page.
As a bonus you can check all the Firefox releases page.

Mozilla Firefox Silent installation and deployment

You can use the silent switch do deploy Firefox installer:

FirefoxInstaller60.exe –ms

Or you can use Batch file with the current content:

"%~dp0FirefoxSetup60.6.1esrX86.exe" –ms

Mozilla Firefox with Group Policy Management

Most of the policies are self-explanatory. There was only one thing we needed to investigate – organizational Intranet site asked for credential. You can find full answer in Firefox support page. Browsers like Internet Explorer pass NTLM authentication by default, which is not the case in Firefox. So, while editing your GPO in Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to

User Configuration => Policies => Administrative Templates: Policy definitions (ADMX files)
        Mozilla => Firefox => Authentication => RightClick "NTLM" => Edit
                Click (*) Enabled
                Click [Show]
                        In the first field you need to add your global domain with a "dot". which symbolizes a wildcard.
                        Example: Your domain is "domain.org.com" and you have also subdomains of "my.fancy.domain.org.com" and "svc.domain.org.com" and "more.domains.domain.org.com".
                        You will need to add only ".domain.org.com" in the field. No quotes needed.
                 [OK]
         [OK]
*** Some say cookies must be enabled also, which wasn't our case though.

Another thing is Certificates. Internet Explorer and Google Chrome use Windows Certificate store by default – Firefox does not. If you want to use applications inside Firefox that use certificates from your organization, you need to tell Firefox to import them:
In Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to

User Configuration => Policies => Administrative Templates: Policy definitions (ADMX files)
        Mozilla => Firefox => Certificates => RightClick "Import Enterprise Roots" => Edit
                Click (*) Enabled
                 [OK]