Firefox 3.6 knows when your plugins are out of date
Oct163
You may have noticed that both Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14 will warn if an outdated version of the Abobe Flash Player plugin is installed.
Outdated Flash warning
This is because old versions of plugins can cause crashes and other stability problems, and can also be a significant security risk. But this was just one of the first important steps in providing a safer and more stable experience when using plugins.
Additionally, the awesome WebDev team have been developing a Plugin Check web page that will look at all your plugins, and warn you which ones are out of date and therefore potentially have security or stability issues. And since finding and installing an updated plugin can also be tedious, that page will also provides a link to the latest version of each outdated plugin. They’re still testing to make sure the majority of plugins are detected correctly, so are asking for your help in testing it. You can help out and try it yourself, by visiting https://www.mozilla.com/plugincheck/
Firefox 3.6 will have this integrated to make sure users know when they have an outdated plugin installed, without having to manually visit the Plugin Check page. Whenever you load a page that uses a plugin that is out of date, you’ll get this warning:
This is in the latest nightly builds of Firefox (trunk and branch), and will be in Beta 1. Since the Plugin Check page is still being tested, and not yet available via the main mozilla.com site, the URL that the nightly builds of Firefox have is to a non-existent page. This will of course be fixed once the Plugin Check page has had more testing.
Updated 30/10/09: Changed the URL for the Plugin Check page to point to the production-version.
Related posts:
1:21 PM on October 6th, 2009
Well. it’s OK, but now https://www-trunk.stage.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/ checks only Flash, Java and Windows media plugins. Other plugins, like VideoLAN, is not checked.
11:17 PM on October 6th, 2009
Could you not fix the SSL cert error? It would be good to send this around the office so that people can check if their plugins are up to date.
11:20 PM on October 6th, 2009
It lists only Shockwave & Java (which are both up to date).
It doesn’t list these ones that I’ve got installed:
- Flash
- Acrobat
- Silverlight
- Windows Media
- A few others (e.g. Microsoft Office, Windows Presentation Foundation)
Running Firefox 3.5.3 (en-gb) on Windows XP.
3:50 AM on October 7th, 2009
Ian: You’ll notice the address is on a staging server, since it’s still being tested. When it’s rolled out to production it will have a valid SSL certificate.
5:53 AM on October 7th, 2009
This is an awesome Fx feature. I think it will really help improve the quality of the browsing experience when popular plugins are kept up to date.
@Ian – Flash should be detected properly, can you give your OS, Flash version, etc https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=addons.mozilla.org&component=Plugins
Part of testing is where capturing “unknown” plugins to bootstrap the database. Thanks for helping.
2:25 PM on October 31st, 2009
Hi. Firefox 3.6 beta 1 has been released. The “Welcome to Firefox 3.6 Beta 1″ page points to this page.
http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6b1/whatsnew/
Many people will see this page, follow the staging server link, and encounter the “Untrusted Connection” warning.
I suggest replacing the staging server link in this blog post with
http://www.mozilla.com/plugincheck/
2:46 PM on October 31st, 2009
Gc: Good idea – I’ve updated the link in this post. Thanks!
8:58 PM on November 2nd, 2009
you are the best thank you mozilla
12:03 AM on November 3rd, 2009
Dear All,
many thanks for your valuable ideas which are fully workable and interesting.
Thanks / Samadi
7:15 AM on November 4th, 2009
just going to try 3.6
4:08 PM on November 4th, 2009
I am having trouble with the adobe flash and it is asking me to close the firefox. And I can’t to figure out how to do that. All because I need to download the adobe flash on my desktop. But yet I was successful to download the latest version of firefox 3.6. any idea help please
1:40 AM on November 5th, 2009
it seems good. I have been working of Safari for last 5 years. It will take some more time to get used to its goodness compared to Safari.
4:25 AM on November 5th, 2009
mozilla is superb &faster i like it
5:32 AM on November 5th, 2009
tanks
8:55 PM on November 5th, 2009
7:17 AM on November 6th, 2009
so, am I able to use “old” plugin in 3.6?
10:02 AM on November 6th, 2009
chavv: Yes, this doesn’t prevent you from using older plugins – it makes sure that you know that they are old.
1:50 AM on November 8th, 2009
8:32 AM on November 10th, 2009
The uploading to FireFox 3.6b1 English (US) has been quite smooth and older version FF3.5.5 add-ons are intact. Yes it is wonderful to get the warning to update older version of say Adobe Flash as that could effect in secured and safe browsing. But would have been more pleased if the update link was provided, though would not search for that link and update the same manually after searching.
First impression is that inspite of FF3.6b1 being Beta it has got lot accomplished already and do look to give feedback as get using it more frequently.
8:11 AM on November 11th, 2009
I think that is a good idea featuring versions include a new feature; a compatibility mode for plug-ins not compatible with last versions.