[tor-bugs] #16236 [Tor Browser]: Windows updater: avoid writing to the Windows registry for "in use" files

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#16236: Windows updater: avoid writing to the Windows registry for "in use" files
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     Reporter:  mcs      |      Owner:  mcs
         Type:  defect   |     Status:  needs_review
     Priority:  normal   |  Milestone:
    Component:  Tor      |    Version:
  Browser                |   Keywords:  tbb-5.0a4, tbb-disk-leak,
   Resolution:           |  TorBrowserTeam201507R
Actual Points:           |  Parent ID:
       Points:           |
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Comment (by mcs):

 Replying to [comment:5 mikeperry]:
 > This looks OK, I think, though I'm not sure it does exactly what the
 commit message says. Apparently there already was code to try to delete
 this directory at startup (based on the comment and surrounding code)?
 Doesn't that indicate that the extra deletion attempt in ProcessUpdates()
 is probably unnecessary?

 The existing deletion code (which our patch removes via #ifdef's) is in
 the updater executable, and that code only runs after an update is
 applied.  There is also some deletion/clean up code in the Firefox Windows
 installer which we do not use.  I do not think there is any existing
 deletion code that runs at startup.

 > How risky is this in general? Is the most likely failure mode that users
 end up with a pile of stuff in tobedeleted? It looks like we're safe
 against namespace collision due to the use of random temporary directory
 names... Should we take any precautions with respect to not rolling this
 out in 5.0-stable until we've had an additional alpha or two?

 Kathy and I think it is safe.  The worst case scenario is that files are
 not removed.  But we did test it and it seems to work.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16236#comment:6>
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