Starting Firefox 75 onwards, with every Firefox installation, Mozilla will run a scheduled task on Windows named “Default Browser Agent” to collect information about users’ OS default browser setting, Firefox maker believes this helps them to understand user choices and engage with them when they’re not running Firefox actively. Last month Mozilla said the scheduled task has gone through data review.
If you install the Firefox version that releases on April 07, 2020, the Firefox installer will create a Default Browser Agent application and a scheduled task to run the agent. The following information will be sent as a background telemetry ping to Mozilla once every 24 hours.
Firefox channel name, version number, Windows OS version, OS_ locale, Current default_browser, and Previous default browser.
You can find the agent and scheduled tasks at the following locations on your computer.
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library > Mozilla
Disable Firefox Default Browser Agent
If data collection aka telemetry or the agent preference is disabled in Firefox, the browser will respect (that as well as the policy if you create any to turn off its scheduled task) and won’t send your Windows Operating system’s default browser data to Mozilla.
For that,
I. 1. Visit about: config
2. Search for agent, in the highlighted search results, change default-browser-agent. pref value to false.
II.
1. Click on menu > options > Privacy and Security > Firefox Data collection and use
2. Uncheck everything, done.
Bonus: Here is how you can delete the scheduled task.
Disable and delete Firefox Default browser Agent Scheduled Task
1. Click on the start menu, search for Task Scheduler, and open it
2. Expand Task Scheduler Library > Mozilla, select Firefox Default Browser Agent task
3. Click on disable or delete.
Mozilla believes telemetry is one way to understand default browser trends to improve its browser.
Collecting telemetry is one way we’re able to ensure we can understand default browser trends in a way that helps us improve Firefox. It’s our hope that by better understanding more about our users and their choices around browser preferences, we can continue to build a better Firefox.
Here is how you can make Firefox browser as default on Windows 10:
1. Open Settings > Apps > Default Apps > web browser
2. Click on the browser displayed and select “Firefox” to make it as default.
Recently after switching to Chromium, Edge has surpassed Firefox to become the second most used browser in the world with 7.59% and Firefox has fallen to third place with 7.19%
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