How To Activate Firefox Plugins Only When Required and Disabled Otherwise
Not everyone knows this but Firefox includes an awesome feature to load plugin only when needed. For example, why keep Flash Player Plugin always ON when it is needed only while watching video. Keep plugins disabled when not required and activate them on demand.
By disabling automatic loading of Firefox plugins, you will not only save RAM but also prevent security and stability issues on certain sites which you do not trust.
Please note that I am talking about Firefox Plugins and not Addons. Addons or Extensions are additives which add extra feature or enhancement while Plugins are required to play web content like Java, Flash, Silverlight or Quicktime.
How To Activate Firefox Plugins Only When Required
- Type about: config in the address bar of your browser and press the Enter key on your keyboard to access the panel with internal settings of Firefox;
- Click on the button I’ll be careful, I promise;
- Look for the key plugins.click_to_play;
- Double-click on the key plugins.click_to_play, so as to change its setting from false to true.
Now, try to open a new browser tab and connect to any site that makes use of Flash Player or other plugins. Instead of content that require the execution of third party plugins, you will see a banner with a gray Lego brick inside.
If you want to allow the execution of the plugin, for example to watch a video on YouTube (in this case we call it Flash Player), you will have to click on the banner and enjoy the view. After playback, the plugin will return blocked, unless you choose to create an exception for the site visited.
Clicking on the icon of the Lego brick that appears in the address bar of Firefox, it is possible to create exceptions and always allow the execution of the plugin for the site you’re visiting.
To bring back the use of plugins automatically and restore the default settings of Firefox, just go to about: config and reset the value of plugins.click_to_play to false.
via GroovyPost
