Policies should not reset profile prefs, only override them

[fallz]

Annoying issue with policies, that they reset the relevant user prefs to their defaults when removed.

Policies can be applied through Group Policy on Windows, or through policies.json file. This applies to both equally. Same behavior on Windows and Linux. The issue I'm trying to improve here is what happens when you remove a policy.

Currently, and for as long as I know, when you remove a policy, the relevant preference in the user profile gets reset to its default state. That shouldn't happen. Removal of a policy should leave the user profile as it was before the policy was applied. It should not reset user prefs.

We use policies heavily. For many programs. I'm not aware of anything else that behaves like this.

The reset probably takes place when the policy is applied. It nulls the user prefs, and enforces the policy. Policies should not change the user prefs, only override them.

Example: user has security.ssl3.rsa_aes_128_sha flipped from the default, to false. Now, my policy also disables that cipher. So no change thus far, other than enforcement. Now, I remove that policy. Not change it to enabled, just removed the policy. The user pref is now reset to its default state of true.

The above happens with all policies. This is a behavior of Firefox and Thunderbird. Please change this.

This would save me a lot of headaches.

Thanks

[Jon]

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