Firefox handlers are partially? applied. Handlers remain on "ask":true

[SebWBW]

Hi there,

After weeks of testing with different implementations of a set of webapplications that are experiencing issues, I'm finally ready to toss in the towel.

The short story is:
We have a set of URI that are being called by a few webpages. The executable files are located on our netwerk and defined through a unc path. Due to the way the applications expect this interaction to function, if the handling is set to manual\ask, the user only has 2 seconds to accept the handler. The developer of the specific applications concedes that this is applicative, but will not be changing the code and refers to Firefox policies to automatically start the appropriate handlers.

So far so good, we implemented the most recent ADMX policies, we were a bit behind, and Firefox is up to date.

The policy is applied, no errors, but seems to completely ignore the Ask:False.
I have no doubt that I'm doing something wrong, but I have exhausted my options. Please help.

{"defaultHandlersVersion":{"nl":2},"mimeTypes":{},"schemes":{"irc":{"stubEntry":true,"handlers":[null,{"name":"Mibbit","uriTemplate":"https://www.mibbit.com/?url=%s"}]},"ircs":{"stubEntry":true,"handlers":[null,{"name":"Mibbit","uriTemplate":"https://www.mibbit.com/?url=%s"}]},"mailto":{"stubEntry":true,"handlers":[null,{"name":"Yahoo! Mail","uriTemplate":"https://compose.mail.yahoo.com/?To=%s"},{"name":"Gmail","uriTemplate":"https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s"}]},"gwsc2":{"action":4,"ask":false},"GWSP":{"action":4,"ask":false},"HVDP":{"action":4,"ask":false},"GWST":{"action":4,"ask":false},"GWSC1":{"action":4,"ask":false},"GWSO":{"action":4,"ask":false},"HVDT":{"action":4,"ask":false}}}

(Altijd vragen = Always ask)

[mkaply]

The format of the Handlers policy is similar to handlers.json but not exact. Can you try this?

{
	"schemes": {
		"gwsc2": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWSP": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"HVDP": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWST": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWSC1": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWSO": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"HVDT": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		}
	}
}

[SebWBW]

The format of the Handlers policy is similar to handlers.json but not exact. Can you try this?

{
	"schemes": {
		"gwsc2": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWSP": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"HVDP": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWST": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWSC1": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"GWSO": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		},
		"HVDT": {
			"action": "useSystemDefault",
			"ask": false
		}
	}
}

Wow, this works instantly. I still don't get what I did wrong, because I have tried both the useSystemDefault ánd the 4 and neither worked for me, but it's definitely working now so I'll take it.

If you can pinpoint another error besides the "4", I would love to know. Either way, many thanks!

[SebWBW]

As an additional update:
We use Ivanti to distribute the ADMX policy settings. It appears that if I copy the above code exactly the way you posted it and I paste that into the Ivanti distributed ADMX policy, it works.

If I then copy that policy as plain text from The Ivanti ADMX Policy in ACC to PRD, Firefox claims there's a syntax error. If I directly copy from your post, it works immediately. So I've probably not just been fighting with the exact formatting, but also against Ivanti itself. Since I have copy-pasted from and to Ivanti hundreds of times.

[mkaply]

The defaultHandlersVersion piece at the beginning was causing a parsing error on the JSON.

In about:policies, there's an error section on the side that would have said "Error with ExtensionSettings"

I'm really curious about your syntax error though from Ivanti. Can you post what gave the error here?

[SebWBW]

The defaultHandlersVersion piece at the beginning was causing a parsing error on the JSON.

In about:policies, there's an error section on the side that would have said "Error with ExtensionSettings"

I'm really curious about your syntax error though from Ivanti. Can you post what gave the error here?

Hey there,

I have also used this:
{"schemes":{"GWST":{"action":4,"ask":false}}}

(as short as possible), but that did not function either. I do believe I have even tried this with useSystemDefault.

I'll get back to you with what's happening in Ivanti (or seems to be happening).

[mkaply]

{"schemes":{"GWST":{"action": "useSystemDefault","ask":false}}}

worked for me...

[mkaply]

Were you able to check this?

[SebWBW]

Hi Mkaply,

Well, things turned out to be even more strange. The policies applied to me without any issue after testing, but for our customer, they didn't. Same environment, same stage. We couldn't get it to work for them, at all. Even though the actual policies were applied on the machine. So we basically had another back and forth with the manufacturer and decided to try out Chrome and/or Edge as an alternative.

We changed some policies for Chrome and Edge and now the customer is reporting that it works under Firefox, but NOT Edge or Chrome. I'm not joking. So... we're sort of confused what's happening here. Of course there's several layers of configuration from Ivanti and Ivanti User Personalization, but neither seem to place or capture any relevant settings. It's not the fact that the testers didn't reboot their machines either, we've done testing with them.

It's super annoying, but I'm inclined to think there's a problem with these machines. We're still trying to find a cause...