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Firefox 52 is out with NPAPI plugins support disabled

A new stable version of the popular Firefox browser was released today. This is the first version of the browser which has support for classic NPAPI plugins disabled. Let's see what else has changed.

FF 52 Banner Logo
In Firefox 52, the only NPAPI plugin which remains working out-of-the-box is Adobe Flash. Plugins like Silverlight, Java, Unity (a framework for games) and Linux's Gnome Shell plugin will stop working.

Mozilla has made an exception only for Adobe Flash. Lots of web sites still rely on Adobe's Flash Player technology, so they decided to keep it. If these web sites stop working in Firefox, this can cause Firefox users to switch to another browser.

In Firefox 52, the user can turn on NPAPI plugin support using about:config.
Here is how it can be done.

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  1. Open a new tab in Firefox and enter the following text in the address bar:
    about:config

    Confirm that you will be careful if a warning message appears for you.Firefox 50 accept about config

  2. Create a new boolean option and name it plugin.load_flash_only.Create A New Option In Firefox ConfigPlugin Load Flash Only
  3. Set the plugin.load_flash_only option to false.Plugin Load Flash Only FalsePlugin Load Flash Only Created
  4. Restart Firefox.

Note: With Firefox 53, the ability to restore NPAPI plugin support will be removed completely.

Besides the NPAPI plugin support being disabled by default, the key changes in Firefox 52 are as follows.

  • The multi-process feature is available in Windows versions of Firefox installed on devices with touch screens.
  • The ability to send opened tabs from one device to another via the built-in Sync feature is added.
  • The Battery Status APIs were removed for privacy reasons. These APIs can be used to track the user.
  • Firefox 52 now comes with support for WebAssembly.
  • When opening a page with a password prompt using the plain HTTP protocol, Firefox shows a special warning that the connection is not secure and that your login data can be compromised.Ff Insecure Login

Also, Firefox 52 is ESR (extended support release). Windows XP and Windows Vista users will be moved to this ESR version from the stable branch automatically, because the next version, Firefox 53, won't support the mentioned operating systems any more.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

9 thoughts on “Firefox 52 is out with NPAPI plugins support disabled”

    1. They also will remove XUL, a lot of add-ons will stop working completely.
      That is much worse.

    2. Then the end of Chrome to as it’s disabled NPAPI plugins long time ago. As Sergey has already said, removal of XUL in near future is going to be much worse as it’s been an exclusive feature of Firefox.

  1. ok guys i was useing google fewyears ago because it ran my game in fb….(contract wars..) it uses the npapl plugin…got shut it down long time ago..so i changed over to fire fox and fell in ove with it….so tell me why do i have to change my browser …can anyone come up witha fix to this…i found anuther browser that runs that plug in..but its just not half as good as fire fox…whats bad is i bought all my wepons in the game…thats why u like the game….its old yes….but its a good game .. plz let me know if there is a way to run NPAPI plug in with out losseing my browser…the other broswers suck compaired to fire fox..its fast…it just an awesome browser…could some one build one just a stand alone browser that uses this addon….so we dont loose the game….ty for listening great brawser kee up the good work guys ty…..( Ps please try ) ty again BILL

    1. The problem with all those forks that they are using the Firefox code base.
      I doubt that they have resources and the ability to reimplement features remove by Mozilla.

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