FireFox temp dir


Author: Dave
Date: 09.16.19 - 4:07pm



Soo sometimes you have to download a file your AV does not like. This can be compounded by the web site requiring a valid web login to get at it so its just easier to use a browser. (Direct requests with wget would fail)

Now firefox is a bit of an asshole. It always automatically starts downloading files to cache in the background before you even click save and set the path. So the AV throws a hissy fit.

I didnt find a normal way to change this behavior. I did reset the cache dir in my profile with a new "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory" setting, that did not help this behavior it still kept downloading to %tmp%. Now I dont want to change my env variables for all processes all the time to my av excluded directory. Kinda defeats the point of having an AV (which i hate but thats another story)

So when you want to do the dirty deed, you can start firefox with a small .net app and for that one instance of firefox, tmp will be changed and you will be ok. Annoying yes...If someone knows a better way I am all ears.

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
            startInfo.EnvironmentVariables["TEMP"] = "c:\_excludeff_temp";
            startInfo.EnvironmentVariables["TMP"] = "c:\_excludeff_temp";
            startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            startInfo.FileName = "firefox.exe";
            Process.Start(startInfo);
        }


Update: Ok actually this has a failure point. It only works if no firefox instances are running yet. I didnt dig but if firefox is already running it probably uses IPC to open up a new UI in an existing process if a new instance is spawned hence losing the modified env settings.

In other news it looks like firefox has lost its old profile manager and is now a sucky html looking tab with no move profile capabilities and locked settings for current active profile. (Maybe I am remembering thunderbird profile manager?) Anyway screw the UI and about:profiles. Just have your way with %AppData%RoamingMozillaFirefoxprofiles.ini

Apps get more and more complex for not good reason and become shittier and shittier. So glad we now have those modal html frames that lock out the entire page background, and those "receive notifications" popups on so many web pages. Way less annoying than blink used to be. /s




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