This just in: Mozilla: Firefox Users, Check Your Plug-ins

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Mozilla: Firefox Users, Check Your Plug-ins

Here is a direct link to the site: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/

Thanks.

Is there a problem with Firefox / plugins at the moment?

Yesterday evening Firefox 3.5 (fully up to date) crashed on me twice. First time I've ever had problems with it. The vertical scroll bar kept locking up until web pages had fully loaded. On closing Firefox it gave a message saying it had crashed. Same problem when I ran it again.

Just checked the plugins as per Richie's link and three it could not detect the plugin version for. Do I actually need these three - I've not installed them myself, they must have auto installed at some point with other software:

1. Microsoft Office 2003, Office plugin for Netscape navigator.

2. Adobe Acrobat.

3. Windows Presentation foundation.

^ I've disabled those three plugins. Interestingly the browser is noticeably faster at loading web pages now too.

Interesting development.

Mozilla have just rolled out something that automatically removes Microsoft Net Framework Assistant which has forced installed itself on everyone's computer who had Visual Studio installed. Thanks Microsoft! Seems the Microsoft plugin has been responsible for causing Firefox stability problems and crashing it! A Mozilla pop up just appeared on my computer saying it has been removed due to these problems.

Microsoft had no business force installing anything in Firefox in the first place - let alone something that destabilises Firefox.

Hopefully Firefox will stop crashing now!

That just happened to me a few minutes ago, after reading the post I am quoting, I opened up my All In One side-bar/tool-bar and checked my add-ons and sure enough the M$ .NET framework thingy was in there.
Then I got a pop-up message that this add-on may be causing stability problems and I should hit the restart FF button to disable it. I'll see if there is any significant improvement in performance.

By the way this was on my net book running an earlier version (3.1.2) of Firefox. My laptop running
FF 3.5.2 has the MS Net disabled..

I don't understand the need for extra plug ins, I only have Ad Blocker on, anything else is a waste of resources on my laptop

I also have Flash Block and NoScript both of which speed up web page load time enormously and make Firefox more secure against drive-by downloads of malware . I only have dial up internet so page load time is much more noticeable for me than others with broadband.

Regarding the plug ins that have caused the problem they were force installed by Microsoft without permission. Most people didn't even know they were there unless Firefox started crashing or misbehaving and happened to notice the plugins. Microsoft are a law unto themselves. I think it was scandalous that they meddled with Firefox without asking the end users for permission first.