If you are a Firefox user and want to prevent the uninstallation of Firefox add-ons on your Windows 11/10 computer, then this article can help you with two built-in features of Windows OS. You will be able to add the add-ons of your choice that you want to protect from uninstallation. Once you have used any of these features for this task, the option to turn on/off or disable the add-on(s) will vanish from the add-on page and the option to remove the add-on(s) will be greyed out/disabled. Just like it is visible in the image added below.
Disabling the remove option and turn on/off button for the selected add-ons doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to use those add-ons. You will be able to continue using all those add-ons, customize their options, and add new add-ons in Firefox as usual. Only the options to disable and uninstall those selected add-ons won’t work. Later, you can also undo the changes anytime.
Prevent uninstallation of Firefox add-ons in Windows 11/10
Before trying this trick, you should first create a system restore point. If you encounter any unwanted changes, you will be able to restore your computer. After that, try any of the following ways to prevent Firefox add-ons from being disabled or removed:
- Using Group Policy Editor
- Using Registry Editor.
Let’s check both the ways one by one.
1] Using Group Policy Editor
Here are the steps:
- Integrate Firefox with Group Policy Editor
- Open Firefox browser
- Find and copy add-on ID that you want to prevent uninstallation
- Open Group Policy Editor
- Access Extensions folder
- Open Prevent extensions from being disabled or removed setting
- Use Enabled option
- Click on the Show button
- Paste the add-on ID in the required field
- Press OK button
- Press Apply button
- Press OK button
- Restart Firefox browser.
Let’s check these steps in detail.
First of all, you need to integrate Firefox with the Group Policy Editor of your Windows 11/10 computer. It is so because Firefox settings are not available in the Group Policy Editor. You need to grab its templates and add them to the required folders so that Firefox settings will be visible in the Group Policy Editor window.
After doing this, open the Firefox browser from the Start menu or any other way.
Now you need to find and copy the ID of that add-on that you want to protect from deletion or uninstallation. For this, follow these steps:
- Type about:memory in Firefox address bar
- Press the Enter key
- Click on the Measure button available for the Show memory reports section
- Scroll down the page till you find the extensions section. Now you will see all the add-ons that are active for the current session
- Carefully look and then copy the add-on ID. You can see the screenshot added below to easily find the add-on ID. It will look something like [email protected]
Once this part is done, type gpedit in the Search box, and hit the Enter key to open the Group Policy Editor window.
Now access the Extensions folder. Here is its path:
Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Mozilla/Firefox/Extensions
On the right-hand section, open Prevent extensions from being disabled or removed setting by double-clicking on it. It will open a separate window.
In that window, click on the Enabled option. After that, click on the Show button present on the middle-left part.
A Show Contents pop-up box will be visible. There paste the add-on ID (that you copied using the above steps) in the Value field and press the OK button.
Press Apply and OK buttons. Repeat the above steps to add more add-ons to the list that you want to prevent from uninstallation.
Finally, restart the Firefox browser if it is opened already.
That’s it! When you will access the add-on page, you will notice that the turn on/off button is not there for that add-on. The remove option will also be greyed out. Moreover, the Remove Extension option that is available when you right-click on the add-on icon will also be greyed out.
To undo the changes made by you, follow these instructions. Repeat the above steps, open Prevent extensions from being disabled or removed setting, select the Not Configured option, and use Apply and OK buttons.
Finally, restart the Firefox browser to successfully undo all the changes.
Related: How to disable access to the Firefox Add-ons Manager page.
2] Using Registry Editor
Here are the steps:
- Launch Firefox browser
- Find and copy the ID of the add-on that you want to protect from being removed or disabled
- Open Windows Registry Editor
- Access Policies key
- Create Mozilla name Registry key
- Under Mozilla key, create a Firefox key
- Under Firefox key, create an Extensions key
- Create Locked key under the Extensions key
- Create a new String value under the Locked key
- Paste the add-on ID in the Value data field of the String value
- Press OK button
- Restart Firefox browser.
At first, launch Firefox browser, and then find and copy the add-on ID that you want to prevent from being uninstalled/disabled/removed. You can access the about:memory page of the Firefox browser, measure and load the memory reports, and access the extensions section to find and copy an add-on ID (just like the steps mentioned in the first method above.
Now you need to launch Registry Editor. For that, press Win+R hotkey, type regedit, and press Enter key. Or else, you can try any of the other ways to open the Registry Editor window.
After this, access the Policies key using this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies
Under that Policies key, create a Registry key with the name Mozilla. In the same way, create Firefox key under Mozilla key, Extensions key under Firefox key, and then finally create a Locked key under the Extensions. See the screenshot added below to make it easy for you.
Now create a new String value for the Locked Registry key. In order to do that, right-click on an empty area, use the New menu, and select the String Value option.
Once that String value is created, you can also rename it to 1 or some other name if you want.
Double-click on the String value that you created and a pop-up box will open. There paste the add-on ID in the Value data field and press the OK button.
You can repeat all the above steps to add more Firefox add-ons that you want to protect from being removed or disabled.
Finally, you have to restart the Firefox browser if you have opened it already. Now your work is done. You will find that options to disable and remove those add-ons are not there.
You can also undo all the changes to bring back the turn on/off option and the remove option for all those add-ons easily. All you have to do is access the Mozilla key in the Registry Editor window, and delete that key. It will automatically remove all the sub-keys present inside that key.
Relaunch Firefox browser and undo process will be successful.
How do you prevent users from installing Firefox add-ons plugins?
If you are a Windows user, then Windows OS provides two built-in features to allow or disable add-on installation on Firefox. These two features are Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor. You can use any of these features to prevent users from installing Firefox add-ons. But it is always good to create a system restore point before trying any of these two features.
How do I stop Firefox from removing extensions?
There are two native methods present in Windows OS to stop Firefox from removing extensions. These two methods are known as Registry Editor and Group Policy Editor. Both of these methods are covered above in this post with step-by-step instructions to prevent Firefox extensions from being removed or disabled.
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