Paring Your Plug-Ins
After recently writing a column that noted how many different third-party programs in your Web browser can pose security risks for you -- and then being prompted yet again by Major League Baseball's MLB.com site to install Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in to watch a video -- I thought I'd take a moment to inventory all the stuff running inside my browsers on various machines.
Here's the list:
* Flash: This one's the most essential one of the bunch, running the vast majority of the animations and videos I come across on the Web (along with, sadly, most of the more annoying ads). Too bad keeping up with Adobe's security fixes for Flash is such a chore.
* Java: This runs the interactive features on many advanced sites. But creator Sun Microsystems has inflicted one of the most horribly broken auto-update systems I've ever seen -- notwithstanding repeated promises to fix it. Not having to deal with Sun's nonsense on a Mac, where Apple provides its own Java software, is an underrated benefit for Mac users.
* Adobe Reader/Preview: Speaking of Apple advantages -- being able to use its compact, fast and reliable Preview plug-in to view Portable Document Format files instead of Adobe's Reader is another plus for the Mac. Adobe Reader has become a little quicker in recent releases, but it still takes too long to update itself.
* QuickTime: Apple's multimedia-playback software is needed to play back many movie trailers. It's painless to update on a Mac, but not so in Windows, where Apple insists on dumping useless program shortcuts on your desktop.
* Windows Media: It surprises me how rarely I run this, considering Microsoft's overall influence. (On a Mac, I use the Flip4Mac QuickTime add-on to play Windows Media file. That's right, a plug-in for a plug-in. Complicated enough?)
* RealPlayer: RealNetworks' multimedia software is a granddaddy of browser plug-ins, but I run this even less than Windows Media these days. Its most recent release adds the ability to download many audio and video streams to your computer--in addition to being far less intrusive than its often-loathsome predecessors--but I have yet to find myself making any use of that feature.
* Silverlight: Despite some initial promise, this Microsoft plug-in doesn't seem to have gotten much traction in the market. So I've yet to install it on my primary desktops at home and work. But if its presence pushes Adobe to improve the Flash update mechanism, I'm all for it!
Looking over that list, Silverlight seems skippable, and both Real and Windows Media look expendable too--although since a lot of Web radio stations only stream in one of those formats, I might only be able to vote one of those two off the island. In that case, I suspect Real would lose out.
If only Web-site operators could stop using Windows Media or Real entirely, in favor of Flash (for audio and video) or streaming MP3 (for audio).
What about you? Can you prune any plug-ins from your browser?
By Rob Pegoraro |
April 30, 2008; 3:30 PM ET
| Category:
The Web
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Posted by: Rosie | April 30, 2008 3:52 PM
Why does the Apple iTunes/Quicktime update keep wanting to push Safari onto my computer? Didn't Microsoft get sued for these kind of shenanigans?
Posted by: Ronnie | April 30, 2008 4:10 PM
It appears that Firefox is hiding the list of my plugins somewhere. How do I find for browser X, Y & Z which plugins are installed?
Posted by: ChrisR | April 30, 2008 4:35 PM
In the tools menu there's a choice for add ons. Wonder how I missed that before.
Posted by: ChrisR | April 30, 2008 4:36 PM
@ChrisR,
The Tools | Add ons just shows you extensions and themes. Enter about:plugins in your address bar to see you installed plugins. Disabling them is trickier, though. I wish they allowed you to turn them off there.
Posted by: josef | April 30, 2008 4:48 PM
And for Firefox users, here's the guide on removing plugins: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/uninstall.html
And yes, I can prune a few... starting with Micro$oft's DRM plugin :/
Posted by: ToddLH | April 30, 2008 6:57 PM
Rob, RealPlayer is the only one that handles the archives of one of my favorite radio stations (since it is a European station the archives come handy because of the 6 hour time difference). I have not found another player that could handle the format. Would love to ditch RealPlayer
Posted by: csavargo | April 30, 2008 7:41 PM
There's not much to justify having Real Player anymore. Quicktime I hate because updating it (at least on a windows machine) is not simply downloading a patch but reinstalling it, then going back through and unchecking file types to associate w/ quicktime. Not worth it. And I hate that iTunes requires you to download it. Joy, a program that I never use gives me a choice of wasting time reinstalling it for every update, or having an unpatched program sitting around on my machine. Thanks, Apple.
There's a firefox plugin called media player connectivity, basically it displays mpegs and other stuff and will open them through windows media player or something else. I like it much more than quicktime.
Java. I've given up on downloading the latest update. Its auto-update says I already have the most recent version (I don't), and when I go to the website and try to do it manually, it doesn't work.
As for Flash, am I the only one that had to update it on firefox and IE7 separately?
Posted by: ugh | May 1, 2008 3:37 AM
There's not much to justify having Real Player anymore. Quicktime I hate because updating it (at least on a windows machine) is not simply downloading a patch but reinstalling it, then going back through and unchecking file types to associate w/ quicktime. Not worth it. And I hate that iTunes requires you to download it. Joy, a program that I never use gives me a choice of wasting time reinstalling it for every update, or having an unpatched program sitting around on my machine. Thanks, Apple.
There's a firefox plugin called media player connectivity, basically it displays mpegs and other stuff and will open them through windows media player or something else. I like it much more than quicktime.
Java. I've given up on downloading the latest update. Its auto-update says I already have the most recent version (I don't), and when I go to the website and try to do it manually, it doesn't work.
As for Flash, am I the only one that had to update it on firefox and IE7 separately?
Posted by: ugh | May 1, 2008 3:37 AM
csavargo - you could try real alternative. I've used it in the past and it seems to work well.
Posted by: encom | May 1, 2008 8:38 AM
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Using Windows XP and FireFox...
I ditched Adobe Reader long ago in favor of Foxit. Haven't used Real Audio in years, keep Java turned off and only put it on under duress. I do have Flash and Quicktime but usually only load on my say so because of NoScript. I have no problem with Windows Media so far but not used very often. I only occasionally hear of Silverlight and can't imagine a site that would induce me to download yet another program.