Your best option is to contact your corporate IT, they should update the software you are using (including Firefox) as that is leaving not just your computer, but the whole company network as well.

Our corporate IT are very conservative. They may well take years to update versions of software. In the meantime, everyone who uses Firefox has to delete this tab every time they start the browser. What's the point of that? And why did the plug-in check just recently start happening, I wonder?

The reason the information appeared is we recently rolled out an update to notify users that they are running insecure plugins (you are in the minority of users who can't update). To disable this, you can set these prefs to true on the about:config page.

• plugins.hide_infobar_for_missing_plugin
• plugins.hide_infobar_for_outdated_plugin

Please note again the risks, and if need be pass this thread onto your IT department (or put them in touch with me) as they shouldn't be running this ancient of software on their network.

Thanks for the instructions. Where would I find the about:config page?

I assumed it was under Help\About, but I can't see anything there.

type about:config into your address bar, press Enter

OK, done as per your instructions. And rebooted. The plugin check still appears.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do not click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

"At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click the Help menuFirefox button, go over to the Help menu and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.... Firefox will start up with the Firefox Safe Mode dialog. For Windows XP, click the Help menu and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.... Firefox will start up with the Firefox Safe Mode dialog. Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key while starting Firefox."

No Firefox button, no "Restart with Addons disabled" under Help, and starting Firefox with the Shift key down has no effect.

At any rate, I know Firefox and add-ons are out of date. What I am asking is, GIVEN that I can do nothing about this situation, HOW do I get rid of the plug-in check? Of course it would be less effort to close that tab three times a day for 3 years than to engage in this dialogue...

Those menu entries and methods do not apply to Firefox 3.6.x
In Firefox 3.6.x you can only start in Safe mode via the -safe-mode command line switch.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Command_Line_Options

You may have a hotfix extension installed that open the plugin check page.

Okay, I opened Firefox in safe mode, and it showed me theplugin check. It has been clear all along why it's showing this. I can't do anything about the out-of-date plug-ins. How do I stop the plugin-check appearing?

Yes, I know, close the tab every time I go into Firefox.

Try to modify these prefs on the about:config page:

• plugins.update.notifyUser -> false
• plugins.update.url -> empty String

plugins.update.notifyUser -> false -- was false already

plugins.update.url -> empty String - Done. Now when I start Firefox, I get a blank tab instead of one with the plugin-check details on it.

How do I stop it bringing up the blank tab?

I've loaded my homepage URL into plugins.update.url - now I just have two tabs with the home page.