3rd party add-ons are shady
Hello!
I switched to Firefox from IE because there were too many shady things going on with Addons, plugins, toolbars, etc.
Now I am having the same problem. It appears that applications I install are adding themselves to Firefox making it slow and unstable. There is no way to remove them using the Firefox Interface. I have seen some DIY tips that involve me editing a bunch of crazy nerd settings, but I am looking for something simpler. How can I remove plug-ins from my browser like
Pando Microsoft Office Java Delvelopement (this one actually says dangerous) Quicktime
It seems strange that they would be listed, but there is interface for removal. Please advise.
Chosen solution
The current approach is that pages cannot use most plugins without your approval -- they are set to "Ask to Activate". You may have seen a notification bar push down between the toolbar area and the page, or you may have seen an icon like a Lego block to the left of the address. Those are the visible ways Firefox provides you control over when plugins can be used by websites.
As a result, with few exceptions, pages can't use a plugin until you take action to allow it. Plugins are therefore almost disabled by default. If you never ever want a particular plugin to run, then instead of having the option to click-to-play, you can take the more drastic step of setting the plugin to "Never Activate" or figure out how to uninstall it.
Now... if you want Firefox to STOP looking in the Windows registry for plugins, there is a setting for that, but it's all-or-nothing so you may lose things you want Firefox to find in the future. And that doesn't protect you from installers that drop DLL files into designated folders.
I think the current arrangement is a big advance over earlier versions of Firefox, but if you want to propose some additional improvements, you are welcome to use the feedback site: https://input.mozilla.org/feedback
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (7)
Firefox discovers most plugins from a section of the Windows registry where they advertise themselves. You can easily disable unneeded plugins by setting them to "Never Activate" on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Plugins.
In order to actually remove them from your system, though, you usually need to uninstall the software they came with. If there's no way to figure that out or they got stranded after uninstalling, you can physically delete them, but the results are a little bit unpredictable (the software they belong to might restore them, or might have errors). To find out their locations on disk, type or paste about:plugins in the address bar and press Enter.
Meanwhile, I suggest also reviewing the Extensions section of the Add-ons page, as that's where toolbars generally show up.
But this is just as bad as IE where an app can just dump something in your browser without asking your permission. Is there no way you can manage your plugins other than
enable disable uninstall the program that put the plugin in there and hope they remove the plugin.
Thanks!
Chosen Solution
The current approach is that pages cannot use most plugins without your approval -- they are set to "Ask to Activate". You may have seen a notification bar push down between the toolbar area and the page, or you may have seen an icon like a Lego block to the left of the address. Those are the visible ways Firefox provides you control over when plugins can be used by websites.
As a result, with few exceptions, pages can't use a plugin until you take action to allow it. Plugins are therefore almost disabled by default. If you never ever want a particular plugin to run, then instead of having the option to click-to-play, you can take the more drastic step of setting the plugin to "Never Activate" or figure out how to uninstall it.
Now... if you want Firefox to STOP looking in the Windows registry for plugins, there is a setting for that, but it's all-or-nothing so you may lose things you want Firefox to find in the future. And that doesn't protect you from installers that drop DLL files into designated folders.
I think the current arrangement is a big advance over earlier versions of Firefox, but if you want to propose some additional improvements, you are welcome to use the feedback site: https://input.mozilla.org/feedback
Again Plugins like Flash, Java and such are not actually installed in Firefox like say Extensions and Themes are. This is why you can only activate/deactivate which essentially tells Firefox to make use of the Plugin installed on system or not.
So essentially anyone can add plugin to Firefox, but my only recourse is to allow it to run.
Oh well, I guess if that's how it;s designed then it's working to spec.
Hi beardedlamb, you wrote:
So essentially anyone can add plugin to Firefox, but my only recourse is to allow it to run.
I think a better summary would be:
You cannot easily and selectively blind Firefox to the presence of unwanted plugins installed on your system. When a web page wants to run a plugin, you can allow it, or continue to block it, or you can block all sites from running the plugin by deactivating it on the Add-ons page.