Firefox "Your browser is up to date"

[ChrisGreaves]

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This screen pops up in Mozilla Firefox when I click on a hyperlink in a MSWord2003 document, which link points to a YouTube video.
I find this annoying on two counts:-

(1) I have to negotiate (click etc.) my way out of this situation to see the video. Of course I clicked on the link so that I could see the video, not another nag screen - that for once isn't even nagging.
(2) My browser is NOT up-to-date, as evidenced by the two-button pop up that appears when I load Firefox ("Dismiss/Update now" I think)

I am on the ESR update channel:-

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I found this link https://help.ifttt.com/hc/en-us/articles/5236522907035-YouTube-Your-browser-is-up-to-date-workaround which I don't quite understand; also a YouTube video in another language.


My method for obtaining links to web pages is (in Firefox) Ctrl+L (select the contents of URL text box) then Ctrl+C (copy)
My method of embedding links in a Word document is to select the display text and use Ctrl+K (Insert hyperlink) then Ctrl+V (paste)

I am trying not to complain at what seems to be to be yet another meaningless barrier to data.

Does anyone have a way to get rid of this erroneous popup? And if so, please explain how to regain my ebbing sanity

Thanks, Chris

[HansV]

Can you post the URL of a hyperlink in Word that causes this behaviour?

[ChrisGreaves]

Can you post the URL of a hyperlink in Word that causes this behaviour?

Yes Hans. But I can do better than that: I will post the Word2003 document as is, that way you can click on the lnk in the document, besides examining the link.

I believe that I have not changed my method of embedding links to web pages in the past 20(?) years. Ctrl+L, Ctrl+C, Alt+Tab, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+V then
Thanks again. Chris

[HansV]

I guess it is a "feature" of Word 2003. In Word in Microsoft 365, the link opens the YouTube video directly, without any popups.

[ChrisGreaves]

I guess it is a "feature" of Word 2003. In Word in Microsoft 365, the link opens the YouTube video directly, without any popups.

Well, OK, and thanks.
But you know me: I've been using Word2003 since around 2023, and installing always from the same physical CD.
Without a doubt something has changed between Word2003 and YouTube, but I find it hard to believe that the change (over the past month) is in any way caused by Word2003.
It may well be something within Word2003's environment (Windows OS, Firefox browser, YouTube platform) that has changed, thereby rendering what used to be a neat link into something partly unusable.

I'm OK with learning that Word2003 is no longer capable of dealing with the modern era; I have never expected to care if Word2003 to work for me beyond 2046

FWIW I am now wending a path away from clinging to MS Word2003, you may be glad to hear.

Thanks Hans.
Chris

[stuck]

Wot Hans said because when I open you Word doc in Word 2016, the hyperlink works as expected.

Unless, it's an unexpected side effect of your browser not being up to date? I really, really, don't understand why you (anyone) would even dare to surf the web with an out of date browser these days.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

Wot Hans said because when I open you Word doc in Word 2016, the hyperlink works as expected. Unless, it's an unexpected side effect of your browser not being up to date? I really, really, don't understand why you (anyone) would even dare to surf the web with an out of date browser these days.

Thanks Ken and Hans, both of you, for experimenting with my Word2003 document in a modern word processor.
The next time Firefox prompts me to update I shall update; then I shall try my link again.

I believe that if I upgraded to Word2016 or later than the problem would go away, but given that I have been running this 2003 version of MSWord from this here (he said waving his arm towards a box of catalogued CDs) CD for twenty years, I also reason that my copy of Word2003 has not changed in 20 years.

I reason that there is a problem that has been latent in Word2003 Lo! these 20 years, like a 1935 car that can't go faster than 40 mph, while the freeway systems now insist on a 50mph minimum.
Or like a really keen 8- or 16-bit DOS utility like Answer, Ask, Attr, Attr12, Ced, Change, Check, Cpuserno, Datechec, Drive, Drives, Ed, Ega25, Everydir, Ff, Free, Gdel, Getdayn, Hkd2, Joyfrc, List, Ll3, Lock, Log, Lower, Mark, Mscdex, Numclick, Pcopy, Pkunzip, Pkxarc, Pkzip, Pkzip25, Pkzipfix, Play, Popdir, Prn2File, Prnswap, Pushdir, Qdr, Qsortl, Red, Rendir, Repeats, Robocopy, Savsc2, Sdir51, Setkey, Shiftkey, Size, Snipper, Speak, Stackey, Suggest, Sweep, Todo, Touch, Typefast, Upper, Uuencode, Visitype, Volser, Vtree, Vtree2, Wait, Where, Wiz, Xxcopy, Yn, or Zip2Exe.

Sigh!

Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

Chris, you don't have to wait to be prompted to update Firefox. Simply click Help in the menu line, then About Firefox in the pop-up menu, and you will receive a screen telling you the version you are using and offering to update to the current version.

[ChrisGreaves]

Chris, you don't have to wait to be prompted to update Firefox. Simply click Help in the menu line, then About Firefox in the pop-up menu, and you will receive a screen telling you the version you are using and offering to update to the current version.

Thanks Bob. I now believe in ESP! I was updating as you spoke ...

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As far as I can make out I am updated from 115.5.0 to 115.6.0.

Firefox updates and reloads.
I re-load my Word2003 document, click on the link and:-

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Same old, so I don't think the problem was related to an out-of-date version of Firefox but rather to an modern nanny-state version.

I found that clicking on the "Browse You Tube" button took me to the appropriate video.

It seems to me that Firefox is interpreting the link and inserting some sort of "check browser version" code that causes this intermittent web page to appear, l1ke a truly obnoxious prompt screen, a pop-up that I can acknowledge with that Browse button. Rather like "i have read and acknowledge.

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The "check browser version" is the bit of supported_browsers?next_url=; the original URL (FOvAMWupNcs) appears at the right-hand end of the URL. The URL has now become a two-stage process (1) nag about the browser and (2) then load the video as requested.

I am not sure why Word16 doesn't seem to nag but Word2003 does. (Well, obviously Word2003 is much older ...). Word2003 has not changed. Word2016 has changed.
Word2016 appears to be able to inhibit check-version code when passing a link to Firefox.

If I wasn't hurrying to make space in my shed before the storm hits I'd reinstall Firefox Setup 56.0.exe 09/29/2017 and experiment ...

Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

It might be a 'feature' of Firefox esr, rather than Word 2003, or may be not...

When I tested your doc with Word 2016 I was using my desktop PC, which runs the latest version of Firefox (v121.0). I'm now using my very old laptop (so old it runs Win 8.1 and can't be updated to Win 10**) and because of its beyond end-of-life OS it can't update to FF v121 but it can run FF 115.6 esr.

There isn't a copy of Word on this machine but it does have the MS Word Viewer (dated 2004) and now when I click on the link I get the same intermediate 'your browser is up to date' page.

While it could be the ancient Word viewer, or in your case the ancient copy of Word, that's triggering this page, I'm more inclined to think it's because the link is being passed to an 'old' (FF v115.16), yet at the same time an up to date, browser that YouTube is invoking this browser check.

Ken
**That's your cue to roll your your eyes in horror that he who berated you for browsing with an out of date browser is taking an even bigger risk and browsing using a device that has an obsolete OS

[HansV]

Chris, why are you on the Extended Support Release version of Firefox? Why not use the standard release - it's now up to version 121.0 as Ken mentioned.

[ChrisGreaves]

It might be a 'feature' of Firefox esr, rather than Word 2003, or may be not...

Hi Ken.
Honestly, I don't see how this can be a feature of Word2003. I don't see how it can have been recorded on an Office 2003 installation CD twenty years ago. It surely has to be a new feature of our environemt (Windows/Firefox) from sometime in the past five years.
It is surely significant that the pop (shown in my original post) has been rearing its ugly head only in the past month or two at most.

That my Word2003 is hopelessly out of data is beyond argument. I do not contest that.
I do contest that Word2003 has changed.
Indeed, surely we must agree that because Word 2003 has not changed, it is now hopelessly beyond the times. It has not exceeded its useful shelf life; it is now heading towards death.

... which runs the latest version of Firefox (v121.0). I'm now using my very old laptop (so old it runs Win 8.1 and can't be updated to Win 10**) and because of its beyond end-of-life OS it can't update to FF v121 but it can run FF 115.6 esr.

Probably why I was using an ESR, but see also my following reply to Hans.

There isn't a copy of Word on this machine but it does have the MS Word Viewer (dated 2004) and now when I click on the link I get the same intermediate 'your browser is up to date' page.

Many, many thanks for this confirmation. I was surprised in my initial web search to see so few hits; I thought that perhaps i was the only one, or one out of millions, ... but to hear that you can duplicate it is, in the usual way a Great Relief . Thanks!

While it could be the ancient Word viewer, or in your case the ancient copy of Word, that's triggering this page, I'm more inclined to think it's because the link is being passed to an 'old' (FF v115.16), yet at the same time an up to date, browser that YouTube is invoking this browser check.

I think I understand this, and so agree. My Word2003 is triggering the behaviour, just because it isn't new enough. Like an old car being inspected; in 1935 they didn't have airbags and some new inspection law triggers an alert.

**That's your cue to roll your your eyes in horror that he who berated you for browsing with an out of date browser is taking an even bigger risk and browsing using a device that has an obsolete OS

Ken you know that you'd NEVER catch me doing that.
I would be doing it, but only after I had Shut Down and gone off line!

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Chris, why are you on the Extended Support Release version of Firefox? Why not use the standard release - it's now up to version 121.0 as Ken mentioned.

Hi Hans.
I am on the ESR because I am running Win7 still/again. My Win11 laptops being not yet fully installed (since June). In order to get back to having a life I switched back to my old DELL Win7 laptop; it lets me do email and (lately) "sometimes" lets me browse.

So: I downloaded Firefox 121 (item 3), RevoUninstalled Firefox 115 ESR, rebooted, and went to install 121 (item 4):-

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Here I think that 121 is protesting at my Win7 platform.

I suspect that I installed 115 because it was a higher number than 110 (items 1 and 2).

No sweat; Revo made a system restore point before uninstalling 115 ESR.

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Huh? So a System Restore Point somehow missed something called XPCom?
I seem to be heading towards another deadly spiral.
So I used the earliest Restore Point in my machine (Jan 1st immediately after my Macrium Reflect backuo).

I made myself supper, and after pressing "Submit" I will start the Macrium reflect restoration of my system as at Jan 1st and take a good novel to bed.

I am using Chrome to send this.
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

I'd say it is time to get your Windows 11 laptop in working order again...

[stuck]

I am on the ESR because I am running Win7 still/again... ...Here I think that 121 is protesting at my Win7 platform...

Correct, if you are running a version of Windows less than 10 (7 in your case, 8.1 in mine) then you cannot run the latest version of FF, you must use 115 esr.

As Hans said, you need to get your Win 11 laptop up and running again. Me? I just have to put up with in inconvenience of not surfing the web from my sofa, and instead use my Win 10 desktop PC that's in the study, while my Win 11 laptop goes back to Lenovo for a warranty repair.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

I'd say it is time to get your Windows 11 laptop in working order again...

Thanks Hans.
(Minor correction "BOTH Win11 laptops.)

I have spent the past six months coming to terms with Microsoft products and am now almost certain that I shall be migrating to a Linux-based OS and Libre/Apache OpenOffice.
I dabbled in Open Office - during my trip to Paris 2014 - on my little red Acer netbook, with a degree of success. In a tiny room in a hotel I wrote enough VBA-like code to upload documents to my web server.
I deleted all my client folders in 2019, and now am reduced to 160 of my own Applications/Proofs of Concept in VBA, of which 30 might still be useful. Some of those that supplement features specific to MSOffice stuff may not be applicable at all on another programming platform (Does LibreOffice have AutoMark in its Indexing options?). I can start with my Word utility library (UW.DOT) and rewrite those of the 790(?) procedures that I know I use often.
Should keep me busy for a while ...

I confess that I do miss those SSDs!

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

As Hans said, you need to get your Win 11 laptop up and running again. Me? I just have to put up with in inconvenience of ...

Ken, thanks for the feedback.
I can put up with inconvenience; I no longer have clients or a need to generate revenue.
I have one clock in the house, battery flat, hands set at ten to eleven - it's always time for elevenses - and while computer programming has lost its attraction over the past ten or fifteen years, I am still an ideas man.

Nowadays instead of designing computing solutions I am looking at a much broader field. This week I start building a low-cost briquette maker with which a teenager could start a small business generating firewood briquettes from the mountains of sawdust generated in Bonavista and, if the teen runs out sawdust, could use the device as a cider-press to collect apple juice from the unharvested apple trees in town.

My use of computers falls to the level of a word-processor, a web-compiler, a browser and a mail client. Oh, and a word-processor.
But I don't need to develop new applications. I'd like to rewrite my heuristic juke box cataloguer, and get back to work on my Turing Machine interpreter, ... so this would be an opportunity to rewrite/transport those applications in a cleaner state.

Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

Ignorance alert (again)!!!

What are "elevenses?"

[HansV]

"a short break for light refreshments, usually with tea or coffee, taken at about eleven o'clock in the morning."

[ChrisGreaves]

Ignorance alert (again)!!!

Ignorance is merely "not knowing"
Whereas stupidity is not knowing and not asking.

Here's another one for you, Bob: "Listening with Mother"
Cheers, Chris